Fellowship Profile: Christine Wang

Name: Christine Wang

Hometown: Plano, TX

Fellowship Year: 2012

Fellowship Role: Program Associate, Flexible Leadership Awards Program, Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund in San Francisco, CA

Pre-Fellowship: Underwriter at JP Morgan Chase in New York City

Education: BS, Finance; Minor: Public Policy & Management, New York University, 2009

Areas of Expertise:

• Accounting
• Finance

“The ProInspire Fellowship helped me get a foot in the door to the social sector. It matched my skill set in a way that allowed me to excel and produce real results during my fellowship year.”

My Background

My family lived in classic suburbia, just outside of Dallas. Within this mainstream context, several experiences shaped my core beliefs and values: growing up as a first-generation Chinese-American; loving my brother who came out in his 20s; and attending a nondenominational church, where I first began to understand our interconnectivity as human beings and celebrate the fact that we are all equal in our value and potential.

I worked for three years at JPMorgan Chase as a Credit Analyst and an Underwriter in their Not-for-Profit and Healthcare Group before accepting a ProInspire Fellowship. I managed a portfolio of over 50 banking relationships with social service organizations, private schools and universities, cultural institutions, and healthcare entities. I wanted to return to social sector work, and the ProInspire Fellowship provided the ideal opportunity to align my skill set with my core values.

My Fellowship

I was a Program Associate for the Flexible Leadership Awards (FLA) Program at the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund in San Francisco. FLA provides innovative support to leaders working in the Haas, Jr. Fund’s three program areas (LGBT Rights, Immigrant Rights, and Education Equity) so they can more effectively advance the goals of their organizations. As the Program Associate, I worked closely with the Program Director on program management and process refinement. My responsibilities ranged from budget management to developing processes and protocols for program implementation to supporting consultants in grantee assessment to authoring funding proposals. I was also given a number of special projects including communications, technology, and external research.

My Impact

The accomplishments of my Fellowship year include:

• Supported the full launch of the second cohort of FLA grantees (23 total), including organizing and managing a two-day convening for 46 participants
• Developed an electronic resource center to centralize the tools, processes and protocols for the FLA Program
• Created a full suite of planning tools for grant proposal development
• Partnered in the development and editing process of a video series based on FLA
• Supported the tailored replication of the FLA Program model for an initiative in Orange County, CA

My Next

I accepted a full-time role as the Assistant Director of the FLA program after my Fellowship year. In my expanded role, I have primary responsibility for all of our financial management and am increasingly involved in sector-wide conversations about investing in leaders and movements. I think anyone in my fellowship cohort would tell you that I had my share of struggles at the onset, but with their support and advice I was able to navigate through the difficulties. Connecting with a group of talented and passionate people who continually inspire me is one of the most valuable aspects of the ProInspire Fellowship.

“ProInspire gave me tools to see myself as part of an ecosystem, which helps me as I think about where to focus my passions and energies.”