We’re so excited to welcome Connor Sullivan as our new Development Associate! As our staff’s youngest member, Connor brings a fresh new perspective to our campaign, as well as development experience in affordable housing and public interest law. Read on to find out what brought him to the campaign and what he’s been most excited to dig into in his first few weeks (it might surprise you!)
What drew you to Caring Across, and what does our work mean to you?
When I was doing my initial research into Caring Across, I was so struck by the sense of commitment to the mission of the organization that came across in everyone’s staff biography. I was also really impressed by the tremendous amount of work that we’ve done to make care a visible issue in less than a decade, which is really such a short amount of time.
For me, the work of Caring Across means knowing that my parents will eventually be okay in the future, and that I will have more security down the line as a potential father. Caring Across is really at its strongest point to date, and I’m so excited to help drive that mission forward.
What is your new role, and what are you most excited to dig in to?
I’m the new Development Associate, which is a new position within Caring Across. I’m most excited about interacting with funders and drawing them to our amazing mission.
So far, I’ve really liked sitting in on different meetings — even though I’m sure that sounds tedious to a lot of people who are Zoom veterans! But I really like seeing how different relationships play out in this organization and at partner organizations. On the calls I’ve been on so far, everyone is really smart and people often have competing perspectives, but that makes for a sum that’s greater than any of its parts. I love to see that play out, and I’ve already seen that so much in these past three weeks that I’ve been with the campaign.
What kind of work have you done in the past?
I’ve done a couple of internships that are in line with the kind of development work I’ll be doing in this position. My first job in the field was an internship at an affordable housing developer in Boston. Later, I worked at a public interest law firm in Philadelphia. In both of these roles, I did a lot of grant writing, work on researching potential donors, and other work that acquainted me with the field.
What is your experience with care, and how did it bring you to do this work?
I’m currently living at home with my parents, who have a fair amount of health issues. They’re on the cusp of their mid-60’s, which is when a lot of these issues start to become more prominent and pronounced. I really wanted to help drive the work of Caring Across so that my parents, and people like them, aren’t in a precarious position when it comes to care, even a few years down the line from now.
At home, my mom, even though she’s dealing with her own health issues, does the bulk of the care work in our family, particularly in managing her and my dad’s medications. I mostly help her around the house as much as I can, like helping her out with cleaning and other tasks where mobility is an issue. I might not think of what I do as caregiving compared to more intense work that I’ve seen others do, but I’m learning here already that care comes in many different forms.
What do you like to do outside of work?
I really like listening to music of all genres (that includes country!). I also like running and I love reading fiction and history.
I just read a book called Looking for History: Dispatches from Latin America, by the New Yorker’s former Latin America Correspondent, Alma Guillermoprieto. It’s made up of essays she published in the early 2000’s about what was going on at the time in many Latin American countries, including Cuba, Mexico, Colombia, and Peru. As far as fiction goes, I’ve been reading this author William Gass, who writes about his boyhood experiences growing up in Ohio – they’re pretty interesting!
