The Community Foundation for Southern Arizona is excited to give you a chance to get to know our Board of Trustees and our Team through Board & Staff Spotlights!
Get to Know Emily!
Emily Walsh is the Chief Operating Officer at CFSA. She oversees the Marketing & Communications, Data & Systems, and HR & Office Management departments, as well as the Center for Healthy Nonprofits. On certain special days, Emily will bring our pal Buddy to work so that he can get in all the sniffs and say hello to all the team members in the office!
Fun Facts about Emily:
If you could live anywhere, where would it be?
Honestly, I love my life in Tucson, and I don’t want to be anywhere else (although if you were to twist my arm, I also LOVE my past hometowns of Vancouver, British Columbia, and Chicago, Illinois).
What is your favorite book?
I have so many favorite books! I’m a “mood” reader, so I have to be in the right headspace for a book to really resonate with me. I don’t know if I can claim a single book as a “favorite,” but in the last year or so, I’ve really enjoyed “Hollow Kingdom” by Kira Jane Buxton, “The Sentence” by Louise Erdrich, “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” by Gabrielle Zevin, “Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings” by Joy Harjo, “Out There” by Kate Folk, “If I Survive You” by Jonathan Escoffery, and “My Government Means to Kill Me” by Rasheed Newson (just to name a few).
What is your favorite food?
Pasta. Give me ALL the pasta. I might have rejoiced a little (…a lot…) when Tucson got not one, but TWO new restaurants featuring homemade pasta (Ceres and Noodies!).
If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
Oh gosh. I think I might like to have the power of time travel. I would love to be able to go back in time to see major historical events unfold and talk to people as those events happen. Oddly, I’m less interested in the future as I think we have the power to build the future we want to see.
What do you like most about working for CFSA?
The people and the mission. Investing in (and supporting) so many amazing community-building initiatives and nonprofit organization – – – and doing it in partnership with kind, supportive, and fun colleagues makes life fun. Nothing is ever easy all the time, but when you’re doing good work with fabulous people, nothing seems impossible!