Business Innovators Radio - The Inspired Impact Podcast with Judy Carlson-Interview with Amy Sherman, Vice President of Public Affairs, Junior Achievement-Rocky Mount

Episode Date: November 26, 2024

Amy Sherman is the Vice President of Public Affairs at Junior Achievement-Rocky Mountain. Junior Achievement-Rocky Mountain, Inc. (JA) is part of the world’s largest nonprofit dedicated to motivating kids for future career success, selfsufficiency, and financial acumen. Amy’s position executes a comprehensive public affairs strategy aligned with the organization’s mission and is working on legislation to pass a financial literacy graduation requirement in Colorado and Wyoming.Amy recently was the CEO of Economic Literacy Colorado. After over half a century of commitment to advancing economic and financial education, Economic Literacy Colorado merged with Junior Achievement-Rocky Mountain on September 1, 2024. This strategic move comes at a time of unprecedented momentum and interest in early economic and financial education, reflecting a growing recognition of its vital role in shaping future generations.Amy has over 30 years of experience in non-profit management, chamber of commerce, trade association and economic development industries. Her strong organizational management skills help her shine in being a catalyst for business growth, a convener of leaders and influencers, and a champion for the community. In 2023, Amy and her team were honored as Denver Business Journal Partners in Philanthropy. Additionally, Amy was one of Denver Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 winners in 2012, Economic Development Rookie of the Year in 2013, and Denver Business Journal’s Top Women in Energy in 2015.www.jarockymountain.orghttps://www.linkedin.com/in/amyshermancolorado/********************************************************Judy is the CEO & Founder of the Judy Carlson Financial Group. She helps her clients design, build, and implement fully integrated and coordinated financial plans from today through life expectancy and legacy.She is an Independent Fiduciary and Comprehensive Financial Planner who specializes in Wealth Decumulation Strategies. Judy is a CPA, Investment Advisor Representative, Life and Health Insurance Licensed, and Long-Term Care Certified.Judy’s mission is to educate and empower her clients with an all-inclusive financial plan that encourages and motivates them to pursue their lifetime financial goals and dreams.Learn More: https://judycarlson.com/Investment Adviser Representative of and advisory services offered through Royal Fund Management, LLC, an SEC Registered Adviser.The Inspired Impact Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-inspired-impact-podcast/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-inspired-impact-podcast-with-judy-carlson-interview-with-amy-sherman-vice-president-of-public-affairs-junior-achievement-rocky-mountain

Welcome to the Inspired Impact Podcast, where dedicated female professionals share how they inspire impact every day. Authentic stories, passionate commitment, lives transformed. I'm your host, Judy Carlson. Welcome to today's episode of the Inspired Impact Podcast. You're going to hear from someone I consider to be quite an amazing leader. here especially in South Denver. Her name is Amy Sherman, and she's had a variety of experiences where I believe she's made significant impact in organizations in many people's lives. So welcome to the podcast, Amy. Thank you, Judy. I'm so excited to be here. I really appreciate your

time today. So why don't we start? I mean, I want to hear more about how you got started and how your early years continued to propel you to pursue the path you're on and how it's allowed you to make an impact in so many different areas. All right. Well, going way back when I grew up in Casarach, Colorado, and my mom was a local bank president, and she was on the Chamber of Commerce Board of directors. And she suggested that I get an after-school job at the Casarach Chamber. And I did, and I sold maps, and I learned about the Chamber of Commerce business. And then I did it again at University of Kansas, worked at the Lawrence Chamber, and I just fell in love with nonprofit management. And it just started my career in nonprofit management. And I was really, I'd go back to my mom being,

the mentor to help me decide that's what I wanted to do. Wow, mentor and so much inspiration. Now, your mom being a banker back in the day, how was that for her? Yeah, you know, I think about this a lot as she was just my inspiration. She was the first female officer at First Bank. And so I watched her, you know, raise a family and be a bank executive. And it was really tough. I think lots of 12-hour days and coming home and still making sure we had dinner on the table and helping us with homework. And she did it all well. She maybe didn't think so at the time. But in my eyes, she was a real inspiration. So she inspired me in so many ways, but mostly to know that I could be a professional and a mom at the same time. Wow. What an amazing legacy to leave for you from her. So tell me, okay, so you went to the University of Kansas and Lawrence, and what did you major in? Well, I actually started out to be a pharmacist, believe it or not, but I decided quickly I was a people person. And I majored in business communications, in psychology. And I just,

fell in love with nonprofits. And at the time, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go into like a more charitable, pull your heartstring nonprofit or association management like trade associations and Chamber of Commerce. So I did a little bit of both. I was a volunteer at the AIDS Project in Lawrence and I worked at the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce. And from there, I decided that I wanted to work with the business community.

And so I went on after. college to the Longmont Chamber of Commerce and came back to Colorado and then went from there. Wow. So you started at the Longmont Chamber of Commerce because when our lives intersected, you were the CEO of the Northwest Douglas County Chamber of Commerce. So tell me how your journey moved you through to that position. Sure. So loved Longmont Chamber and then my husband and I decided to get married and we wanted to move back to Douglas County. And so we moved south. And at the time, I was going through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce School that's Institute for Organizational Management.

And that's a certification program that you get when you're in the chamber work. And so there wasn't a chamber job open in the South area. So I went to the National Potato Council, which was an association, similar management, and I loved it. It was so great to work with farms and families and potato growers all over the country. And then from there, I went on to the West Chamber serving Jefferson County with their CEO position opened.

And I was a young CEO. I think I was 27. So the Potato Council was a stepping stone that gave me some great experience until I found the next perfect chamber job. So I was at the West Chamber for 10 years. And then we opened up the first economic development in Northwest Douglas County and merged the Highlands Ranch Chamber into that organization.

And it became the Northwest Douglas County Chamber and Economic Development. The longest name in history of a chamber in economic development. But it served all the unincorporated area of Douglas County. Okay. Unincorporated. areas. So tell me a little bit about your leadership. I mean, all of a sudden you're in both economic development and chamber world. So how did that, how did you bridge that gap? Yeah, they go hand in hand. I mean, economic development more is about business attraction,

bringing new jobs to your community, working on land use issues, helping businesses get established. And on the chamber side, it's helping the businesses grow. So they really go hand in hand. as an organization. So we worked well as one organization doing all things, the networking and education that chambers typically do, but also working on getting new jobs into Douglas County. So it was a great organization. And I was there for 10 years also. So I just moved on about a year and a half ago to another nonprofit, which I think we'll

talk about in a bit. Yeah, I'm excited to talk about that. that's probably the best explanation I've had of someone describing the economic development leading into helping the businesses grow. So thank you for sharing that. That's very helpful understanding, at least for me. Maybe everybody else already knows that's how they work together. But that was helpful. Yeah, so you're at the Longmont Chamber and then the Potato Association. and then you spent 10 years at West Chamber and 10 years at the Northwest Douglas County, EDC and Chamber for a better, lack of better words.

So now... Don't add up all those years. Well, you might know how old are. I won't, Amy. So here we are. And you, I mean, when we met the last time you said your dream job opened up, so tell me about that. Yeah. So my kids, I have twins, boy girl twins, and they were going off to college.

And my husband was retiring from CEDA and going to a next job. And I thought, well, with all this change in our family, why don't I do something new also? Because what better time when everybody's doing it, right? Right. But I really thought hard about what my next nonprofit move would be. going back to my mom and jobs in finance and thinking about kind of where I am in the age bracket of, you know, you're launching your kids, but you're also dealing with parents that are aging. And I just think it's so important that women in general have financial education.

And so as I was thinking about my next move, there was a position that opened up to be the CEO of Economic Literacy, Colorado. And I just thought this brings everything together with what I want to do in nonprofit management and helping people learn about finance and specifically girls. And so I went for that job and I got it. And it's amazing nonprofit. And so I enjoyed that for about a year and a half. But meanwhile, I started talking to other nonprofits in this space.

in Colorado, and there's two wonderful organizations, Junior Achievement and Young American Center for Financial Education and really got to know the other CEOs and looked at what we could do together and what we do well and what our missions are. And then we moved into Junior Achievement. We merged into them on September 1st. So now I'm with Junior Achievement, Rocky Mountain, but we're still doing the great work of Economic Literacy, Colorado. Colorado, helping teachers with curriculum and economics and financial education. Wow. So you were really forward thinking then when you were at the economic literacy of Colorado to even inspire people to look at potentially coming together and multiplying what you're able to do

and the impact you can have. Absolutely. I mean, a lot of people think that we're all competitors, but I like to look at it as like, what can we do together to have a greater impact? So Robin Wise, the CEO of Junior Achievement Rocky Mountain, she's very forward-thinking, and we both just sat down and rolled up our sleeves and looked at how we can have a bigger impact on students and teachers across Colorado and Wyoming. Wow. So you're impacting a lot of students, teachers. Do you have an example or two that you can share, Amy, where you really knew that what you were doing was making a big impact? Yeah, one that I was just thinking about the other day, because I ran into her at a

CU Buffalo's game, was a gal named Alondra, and we held an event at Ball Arena at a Nuggets game, and we invited a group of high school girls to learn about jobs in finance and to show them that there are jobs in every company in finance. So whether you like aviation or sports or retail, anything that you like, there's a finance job. And so we met with a bunch of people at Ball Arena and Crunky Sports that were in finance. And Alondra, she told me she came just for the free nuggets ticket. And it changed her world. She became a public speaker about her experience, going through our Investing Girls program. She went on and applied to CU and is majoring in finance.

And it just changed her whole projection because it gave her an idea of what she wanted to do as a career and that she could do it in something that she loved like sports. So I just ran into her recently at a game and I'm just really proud of her for what she's done. And there are many examples like that where we've had some. students come through one of our experiential programs, and they'll say, like, this really gave me clarity on what I can do and all the options in career pathways for me. So there's many more Elondra's out there, but she's just a special girl to me. Wow. Yeah, I think back to those interest tests that we take in high school, and they're fairly one-dimensional, and they give you

one option. And then where do you go for? from there with that information as a high school student, whereas what you're talking about is broad and wide and so inclusive of all the options. Oh, yeah. And the dream accelerator at the Junior Achievement Rocky Mountain Free Enterprise Center and the Tech Center is one of a kind. And we have students come through all the time and they take all these kind of, um, They do these skills building experiences with their devices, and then they go through all these different entrepreneurial ideas and learn so much about career pathways.

And we have this mural on the wall with all the industries in Colorado. And we are helping kids kind of determine what they're good at, what they love to do, what is available in Colorado. there's just amazing experiences kids have now to prepare for careers that I didn't have when I was growing up. Right. How do kids get involved, Amy? Well, the junior achievement Rocky Mountain programs, we're in classroom, we're out of classroom, and we have field trips for finance parks in Thornton and in the Tech Center for kids. And the Dream Accelerator is just one of a kind. and they're free resources for all school districts, for homeschool, online school, charter school, magnet school.

Every student in Colorado and Wyoming has access to our finance park and dream accelerator, and they're free. So does a student then in high school learn about it through the school, the counseling program there, or teachers introduce it, or they need to be in some type of a certain class, or how do they know it's available? That's a great question. In Colorado, students are not required to take financial education class to graduate yet. That's one of my big goals is to pass a graduation requirement for kids in Colorado. But now the teachers have access to our classroom. So all the educators in Colorado, they have access to our programs in their classroom. And then our student field trips, which we call experiential programs. So we can work with school districts as a whole, individual teachers or individual programs outside of the classroom to get the kids what they need for our educational programs. And, you know, I'd like to mention, like in addition to financial education, it's entrepreneurship, career readiness. and financial literacy. So it's really a three-legged stool for self-sufficiency beyond financial

education. So entrepreneurship, financial education, and what was the third? Career readiness. Oh, career readiness. Okay. Wow. That is amazing. Wow. This is great. Which really pulls my chamber of commerce and economic development experience with the financial education into like one beautiful package. Wow. Yeah, you have landed, haven't you, Amy? I have. It's a great place. And you've got big goals. I mean, I definitely champion the financial education classes in the high school years because it's tough when you're out in the working world as adults and you're kind of clueless about how this all works. why are even earning a paycheck? Absolutely.

And what's it going to pay for? Oh, wow. Right. And kids really handle money different now than you and I did with all the apps that are available and the movement of money with Venmo and Zell. So it's more important than ever that they learn about finances and early education. You know, starting in kindergarten, really there's different curriculums for every. grade level to help them. As we like to say, put the veggies in the mac and cheese. Sometimes

they don't even know we're teaching it to them, but it's giving them some life lessons. Ah, gotcha. Yeah, the days of handling money and having that coin or dollar bill in our pocket or water are kind of gone, aren't they? Right. So tell me about the makeup of the junior achievement Rocky Mountain as far as how people could get involved. Do you have volunteers? Do you, is it job openings or how would people get involved, whether they're wanting to volunteer or be a part of it or students? How does that all work?

Yeah. So there's multiple ways for individuals and companies to be involved and help with the education of our students. So, you know, J.A. brings the real world to the school. schools in every community, and it just opens students' minds to potential and preparing them for the workforce. So businesses can volunteer in the classroom. Individuals can volunteer in the classroom. They could also come and volunteer at our Free Enterprise Center or our Finance Park and Thornton, and we give them training to do that. So they spend about an hour learning what they're

going to do that day. It's usually from like, you know, 930 to 2, what a typical school day would look like for students and they can volunteer in the dream accelerator or the finance park. And then we have other events for business community to get involved, whether it's like a bullathon within your company or one of our large fundraising events. Like this week, we have the stock market challenge where we have about 1,200 kids coming to DU Cable Center for two days and having this like real world simulation about the stock market and they're trading on the floor and kind of every minute equals a day and it's real high energy. But at night we have a corporate event where the corporate folks can come and have the same kind of experience. And it's just a fun fundraiser for JA in the

evening. And then it supports the students during it during the day. And then we also have, you know, a great dinner at Del Frisco's in a golf tournament at the sanctuary. And then we do a business Hall of Fame in February and honor different laureates each year that have made a big impact in Colorado in the business community. So I would say there's something for every type of business, whether you're a single solo business and you want to give back in the classroom or at a finance park with students or you're a large company with a thousand employees in Colorado and you want to have different teams be involved. So there's just multiple ways and our website is very easy to navigate and figure out how you want to best volunteer. And the website link is what,

Amy? Is j.a. rocky mountain.org. J.A. Rocky Mountain.org. Okay. That's great. Kind of as we begin to wrap up here, you had mentioned your mom was a banker back in the day and was the only female officer at the time. And now here you are coming out of college and being involved in all of these nonprofits as a woman and, you know, growing, leading, changing, impacting lives. It doesn't seem like that it's been a challenge as a female in your field. Can you compare and contrast that a little bit with what your mom experienced?

I think that the finance world, women are underrepresented, and they still are. So my mom definitely was breaking glass ceilings in their first bank, I believe, has 60% female officers now. They've done an incredible job with women in management positions. And I think a lot of other banks have done as well. In nonprofit world, there's a lot of female leaders, wonderful leaders that have been around for a long time that are great mentors to me, whether it's a chamber business or other nonprofits in Colorado. So I think the world of finance is a little different and it's coming along, but nonprofits have had wonderful female leaders for a long time. Well, Amy, you're one of those. So congratulations. Well, you're one of those too, Judy.

Oh, well, this has just been so delightful. You've given me your website address, which will be in the information that we share with you and with everybody else. And I hope that through this, it sparks an interest in all kinds of people to look into the impact that they can have on high school students and beyond. Because I'm even thinking like when you talked about companies getting involved, it seems to me it would behoove them to raise up these young people to be professionals maybe within their organizations. Absolutely. And I know that, you know, when I started my first job out of college, my boss, was very helpful to help me realize how big of a deal it was to put money into my 401K. And it's just so important that we all teach each other at every age how to navigate our lives,

our financial lives, especially. So I think it's great for companies to have their employees at all levels be involved. Right. Wow, that's great. well, thank you so much. This has been a delightful conversation and I look forward to what the listeners are going to be able to learn from you, Amy. So thank you so much for joining us. Judy, thank you for having me. And as always, I look forward to seeing you again and helping all the people that you help navigate their financial challenges and their goals. So thank you for doing what you do.

All right. You're welcome. Thanks. Amy, take care. All right. Take care. Bye-bye. Thanks so much for joining us for the Inspired Impact Podcast. To listen to past episodes, please visit theinspiredimpactpodcast.com.