Welcome to our VISTA

SPEAKER BUREAU

 

VISTAs that serve at a site in the Mission: St. Louis VISTA Umbrella Intermediary Project have access to unique professional development opportunities. We are constantly looking for ways that we can better prepare VISTAs for the work that they are doing while in service, as well as in whatever adventure comes after service. Each Fall and Spring, we invite local experts to provide training in a number of topic areas. These trainings may focus on skills that are specific to the work that VISTAs are doing while in service, like volunteer management or development 101, as well as focus on broader professional development such as networking and resume building. In addition, it is important to us to provide an opportunity and a space where VISTAs can learn about and discuss poverty in St. Louis, to provide a historical context as well as address the systems that exist today that create barriers for individuals and communities to thrive. The goal is that as VISTAs, they are not only building the capacity within their organizations to alleviate poverty in the present, but are being given the knowledge and the tools that will be required to dismantle these systems all together.

 
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Rick Skinner, Vice President of the United Way of Greater St. Louis’ Volunteer Center

  • Joined the United Way in 1999

  • Serves as member of the Volunteer Center National Network Council with the Points of Light Foundation

  • Responsible for daily operations of a number of United Way programs within United Way’s Community Investment Division including Days of Caring, St. Louis Cares, and BoardLinkStL

 

Cristina Garmendia, Principal at URBnRX

  • Managed the Equality Indicators Project for the city of St. Louis, tasked with developing a tool to measure progress towards equity with a focus on performance management and policy reform guided by equity.

  • Senior Research Fellow of Metropolitan Equity at Rutgers Law

  • Earned a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, and co-founded civic technology company Tolemi (formerly OpportunitySpace) which uses data to help city governments more effectively manage real estate assets