UC Makerspace
Summary
As Executive Director of UC Makerspace, I’ve led the development of a regional nonprofit focused on expanding access to creativity, entrepreneurship, education, and shared resources throughout Tennessee’s Upper Cumberland.
My work has included organizational strategy, branding, fundraising, communications, advocacy, partnership development, nonprofit infrastructure, and program planning. I’ve translated the organization’s vision for donors, businesses, government leaders, educators, entrepreneurs, and community members, helping UC Makerspace secure more than $50,000 in private support and build relationships across the public, private, nonprofit, education, media, and economic-development sectors.
I’ve also directed the organization’s public presence through branding, digital communications, presentations, print materials, outreach, and an ongoing billboard campaign across four Cookeville locations, generating more than 2,000 displays per day.
As the vision has evolved, I’ve developed and presented concepts connecting makerspace resources with entrepreneurship, workforce development, youth education, community programming, and a shared-use commercial kitchen. Together, this work has helped move UC Makerspace from an ambitious idea toward a credible, visible, and increasingly supported regional organization.
Conclusion
UC Makerspace is probably the best example in my portfolio of what happens when there isn’t an existing playbook.
Building the organization has required strategy, creative direction, fundraising, public speaking, relationship building, marketing, operations, nonprofit governance, program development, and more than a little persistence. The challenge hasn’t simply been creating something compelling. It has been creating something other people can understand well enough to believe in, participate in, and help move forward.
The result is an organization that has grown from an idea into a recognized regional nonprofit with $50,000+ in private support, a growing network of cross-sector partners, an established public presence, and a continually evolving strategy for expanding access to tools, education, entrepreneurship, and shared community resources throughout the Upper Cumberland.