For the last several weeks the Urban Ministry Center blog has featured stories about our staff members and the excellent work they do. We hope you enjoy learning about our team members and what they love about UMC.
Back in high school in the small town of Fairmont, West Virginia, Dominique loved meeting people who were different. “I was that girl in class, if anyone came in new I’d come and sit by you and say ‘Hey, what’s your name?’” When she was in 11th grade, Dominique moved to Charlotte with her family and was the new kid herself. As the newest member or UMC’s Finance Team, Dominique gets to be the new kid yet again.
For those of you who don’t know her well yet, Dominique is quite the adventurer. She loves to travel. Some of her favorite places that she’s 
visited are the Netherlands and France. She also enjoys the outdoors- kayaking, hiking, or going on picnics with her son. She is up to do “anything cool, fun, or different.”
Before joining us at the Urban Ministry Center, Dominique worked for various local nonprofits, including Charlotte Rescue Mission and Charlotte Community Health Clinic. Dominique knew she wanted to work in finance since high school, and after an internship at Communitylink, she knew she wanted to work in accounting for nonprofits.
Dominique likes accounting because “knowing about accounting is kind of knowing the secrets.” She likes to understand how an organization functions behind the scenes, “knowing what’s really up, besides the glittery stuff.” She mentions how “in any business or nonprofit, accounting is important, and financial data is important to make any decisions within an organization.” Even though Dominique doesn’t work directly with the neighbors her work is essential to running our organization and getting neighbors the resources they need. “I still get to come here and see them every single day and smile at them and talk to them, which is a humbling experience every day.”
In addition to being able to interact with the neighbors, Dominique appreciates that “everybody really cares about what they do here. Everybody’s willing to pitch in and do what they need to do to help out and get the job done no matter where they work or what department they’re in.” There are also challenges with the job. Dominique is doing a different type of accounting than she did at past jobs and is learning a lot. The Finance Department is also going through many changes which means it is important to be able to adapt and problem solve. But Dominique is adjusting well. “It’s just like every time I come here I’m like this is where I should be.” Working at UMC is “unique because it just seems like a family.” The UMC family is lucky to have this new member.
