Hometown: Cheney, Wash.

Family: Husband, LJ, and daughter, Grace.

Education: Bachelor of Arts in communications and marketing from Eastern Washington University

My "I'd rather be ¦" bumper sticker would read: "I'd rather be at the lake." I love being on the water and miss living on the water.

Hobbies/interests: Spending time with my family, cooking and traveling.

Why I do what I do: I love being at the Greater Decatur Chamber of Commerce because it put me on the crash course to learn about Decatur and the community. I enjoy passing along everything I learn about our community to our members.

Personal approaches to challenges: I do my best to approach challenges with an open mind. There is always more than one way to overcome challenges. You just need to be open-minded enough to see all of them.

Community involvement: Being so new to the community, I am still finding my way, although I have worked with Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Education Coalition and the steering committee for Kirkland Fine Arts. I also have been a celebrity bartender to raise money for the Boys and Girls Club.

What is the 501 Club? The 501 Club is a committee of the Greater Decatur Chamber of Commerce. We are the premier young professional organization. Our mission statement is to be the premier link for young professionals to the quality of life they wish to attain in the greater Decatur area.

What is a young professional? Although many of our events are targeted to individuals under the age of 40, we welcome anyone who is working in the Decatur area that is looking to get involved in the community.

Is the 501 Club a social group? There is definitely a social aspect to our organization, but we really focus on networking with other individuals for the growth of our community.

Why offer programs like this? The 501 Club is a great tool for the community to engage young professionals. It is vital to any community to be able to tap into the resources that our young professionals offer but also to show young professionals what is unique and dynamic about our community.

But there is a social program, right? Yes, one of our five committees is a social committee. The committee plan events like a wine tasting dinner, Thursday or Friday nights at local venues and meet-and-greets like we just had at the Blue Connection.

Any new programs/activities on the horizon? Currently, we are in the midst of strategic planning. As an organization, we feel strongly that there are many great community events. We would really like to promote those events to our members versus recreating the wheel for our own. That being said, over the past six months, we have started two new events. The first being Fireside Chats, where we invite a community leader to come in and speak to our group about their business, how they got into their business and any advice they would like to share with young professionals. The second is Membership Meetings, which we have bi-monthly. This is an opportunity for new or prospective members to check us out and see what we are about. It also gives various community members or organizations to come in and speak to our group.

How do you encourage members to get involved? I think the best way to encourage our members to get involved in our community is to educate them about the community and all it has to offer.

What has been the response from local businesses regarding the services the group provides? The 501 Club continues to be well received by the business community. Many of the local businesses have young professionals working for them. The 501 Club provides a service by engaging and keeping young professionals in our area.

Is there anything your members say the community is lacking? What is being done to address the shortcomings? The most common thing I hear is that there is nothing to do in Decatur. I don't think this is the case as our social calendar always seems to be overfilled. This is one of the reasons the 501 Club wants to be the vessel to pass information along to our members. We can help promote events that are already happening in Decatur versus coming up with our own. Everyone wins.

Has being a transplant to the area been a benefit? How? The largest benefit of being a transplant is that I have gotten to experience our community without the preconceived notions people who have grown up here or lived here for a long time have. Decatur is one of the most giving communities I have lived in. There is always something to do here. I think I look for these events and see them because I look for them more than a native Decatur person may.

What has been the biggest challenge associated with the job? I think my biggest challenge as the director of the young professional group is the wide range of our group's demographic. Although we have recently gotten rid of our "age" range, there are two distinct categories our members tend to fall in: one being strictly social networking and the other strictly professional networking. Although there is some crossover, the activities each group are looking for differs immensely.