Volunteer Spotlight: Joanna Heitz
Interviewed by Jennifer Raikes, TLC President
- Reprinted from InTouch Issue 49
- © Trichotillomania Learning Center, Inc. 2008. All Rights Reserved
We spotlight TLC Volunteers to introduce valued members of our community, give some insight into how TLC operates, and to inspire new volunteers. One group of very hardworking volunteers is TLC's Board of Directors. I'm delighted to introduce the TLC Director who provides invaluable service as our Treasurer, Joanna Heitz.
If you've been to a TLC event, you may know Joanna-she's been a fixture at TLC's conferences and retreats for the last seven years, often staffing the Information Desk. I was lucky to become friends with Joanna through our years together in the New York City Support Group and claim the honor of having roped her into serving on TLC's Board!
- Jennifer
How did you get involved with TLC?
I found out about TLC when I moved to NYC to attend grad school. I'd been pulling since the 5th grade. The pulling had never been terribly severe, but always a constant in my life. When I got to grad school, it definitely got worse. Life was full of activities conducive to pulling: reading, writing, exams. I had heard of TTM but, like many people, I thought it was a freakish disorder and that I was basically alone. But one day I happened to Google it and was flabbergasted and delighted to find out about TLC. My membership package came and I found out that your support group was on the list and you lived only two blocks from me!
How has TTM affected you?
I pull from my head with some bouts of skin picking. At one point I thought I could switch from one to the other, but found that I just did both. For so many years, I dealt with so much shame around it and not understanding why I was doing it, why I couldn't stop. I just had a couple little bald spots that were always there. I always tried to have really long hair so I could pull it back. I was worried about getting it cut. It was just such a relief to meet other people who had it and learn from them, and learn "tricks" (no pun intended) to address it.
Trich didn't hold me back in my life - it has been easy for me to mask it physically - but it has been a presence in my emotional life, constantly.
How did you come to serve on TLC's Board of Directors?
I didn't realize at the time just how lucky I was to have a support group only a few blocks away from me. After being in the support group for about a year, we got to know each other better. I was in grad school for non-profit management. You zeroed in on that and asked if I wanted to help TLC. And I think I was enthusiastic, right?
You were very enthusiastic. Tell me about your background with non-profits.
I started volunteering in college through various avenues. I went to Colorado College in Colorado Springs, a small liberal arts school. After graduation, I was a VISTA (the domestic peace corps) volunteer working with homeless families in Los Angeles (where I'm from). I did that for two years-getting people into permanent housing and helping to stabilize their lives. But it had always been my dream (much more shallow!) to be a better skier -so I moved to Vail, Colorado. There, I spent some of the strongest years of the U.S. economy as a children's ski instructor.
So you really know how to make the big bucks.
Right. While I was there, I worked at a snowboarding non-profit. The Snow Board Outreach Society introduces the sport of snowboarding to underserved children and teens living in the mountain communities in Colorado. I was Development Coordinator and organized amateur snowboarding events. And yet, I never learned to snowboard -- I stuck to my skis.
Did you fulfill your dream of becoming a better skier?
Yes! And while I was at this little non-profit, I realized that I wanted to learn more formally about non-profit management. I found a program that looked really appealing - the New School University, Management and Urban Policy Program in NYC, and off I went. I learned all about the intricacies of non-profit management, but also with an urban policy lens.
How has your work in your private career aided your work with TLC?
I interned at a community foundation for a year and became interested in philanthropy and grant making. So I have been on the grant-giving side and also on the asking side. That perspective has been helpful to my work with TLC-since we do a bit of both.
Since graduating, I have been involved in fundraising for a couple of NYC institutions. I have experience fundraising from foundation, corporate and government sources. I am currently the director of foundation and corporate giving for Planned Parenthood of New York City. The work I've done has helped me to work with TLC's fundraising efforts. And it also showed me that I really enjoy budgeting and numbers and has allowed me to help TLC in that capacity by serving as Treasurer.
Tell me more about what you do for TLC.
I work with Christina, Alice Kelly, and the rest of the Board on developing our annual budget and making sure throughout the year that our finances are on track. I plan to start a Finance Committee and to position TLC so that we'll be prepared for the growth that we're anticipating in the years to come.
What change would you like to see in the coming years?
What I think is somewhat unique about TTM and the BFRBs is that any number of medical professionals, from your GP to your OBGYN to your dentist, could diagnose them and provide referrals, if they knew what they were looking at. It would be nice to really have these problems recognized as an important health issue-and as a women's health issue, though by no means exclusively.
What do you enjoy about working with TLC-why do you keep doing it?
I feel that the organization has personally helped me so much in understanding trichotillomania, giving me the tools to accept it, while also addressing it. Being an ambassador for TLC really gives me the opportunity to talk to people about trich. I hadn't been particularly "out" about my trich prior to being on the Board-perhaps because I have always been able to cover it up. But going public about it gives me the opportunity to educate people.
What I do professionally is important and I'm glad I do it, but this is the most meaningful thing I have done with my education.
If anyone is interested in serving on a finance committee with Joanna, please contact her at Joanna@trich.org.