Former attorney, mother of five, project manager and analytic problem-solver . . . these are just a few phrases to describe Lisa Budlow, Special Projects Manager in the Community Services Division.
After graduating from law school at the University of Maryland, Lisa worked at Miles and Stockbridge in the Mergers and Acquisitions Division for four years before deciding she was a fish out of water. Feeling called to non-profit work, she found her way to Sarah’s House where, in 1997, she was hired as an administrative intern. She supervised the night shift, managed a small caseload of clients, organized a 5k fundraiser and started an employment program.
“When I made the switch, I couldn’t believe how happy I was,” Lisa said
Nine months later Angelo Boer, former director of the Community Services Division, asked her to help start the Cherry Hill Town Center. Lisa was involved in every aspect of the project from choosing the contractors to leasing, marketing, and community outreach. Lisa became the director of Cherry Hill Town Center once it opened in 1998.
In 2001, Lisa became a part-time special projects manager and her first job was working in Human Resources planning an agency-wide job fair. That same year, she began a project for the Legislative Education Group, compiling poverty data and a poverty booklet to be distributed to legislators.
Lynda Meade, former director of the Legislative Education Group and current Special Projects Manager says, “In Lisa, Catholic Charities gets an overflowing bushel of spectacular attributes: a passion for ‘good to great’, intelligence, strategic and critical thinking, attention to detail and a very genial colleague.”
In the fall of 2004, Lisa was assigned to planning for the development of the Our Daily Bread Employment Center. She began with programmatic work, including how the day-to-day operations would work and how all the programs would fuse together. She then worked on planning the opening celebration. For the first year after the Center opened, Lisa served as the trouble-shooting consultant ironing out any glitches. She helped with curriculum and reorganized the job placement database.
“I really love Our Daily Bread Employment Center. Planning something for 2 ½ years and then seeing it come to fruition was such a rewarding experience. I got to see the fruits of my labor. On opening day I was so proud to so see that all the work paid off,” Lisa said.
In July of 2008, she began helping with the planning for the opening of My Sister’s Place Women’s Center. Most recently she has taken on a quality assessment project for each program in the Community Services Division. The goal is to identify what systems are working and identify ways to improve the ones that are not.
Mary Anne O’Donnell, director of the Community Services Division says, “I can give Lisa anything to do and she will get it done well, on-time and with the utmost professionalism. She is also very analytical and always asks good questions so I love to bounce ideas off of her. She was my right hand during the opening of the Our Daily Bread Employment Center. I don’t know what I would have done without her.”
In addition to her part-time career, Lisa is also a full-time mom to Sarah, Jack, Julia and three-month-old twins Anna and Will.