WOMEN for BW
Member Spotlights

Kristen Glazer '10


Kristen Glazer’s ‘10 first experience with philanthropy was in middle school. Her school had a Harvest for Hunger competition, where she learned about the issues of hunger in her community. She asked her parents to use her allowance money to buy canned goods for the competition.

“Not only did they say yes, they said that they’d match my contribution,” she fondly remembers. “You could say that was my first experience with a ‘match campaign,’ and it was motivating.”

At BW, Kristen was able to further tune her event planning experience.

“My most impactful moment was working with Professor Julie Miller and planning a speed-networking event, ‘PR for Non-profits’,” she says. “Not only did it affirm my interest in working in the nonprofit sector, I personally made several valuable connections that I now call friends today. The event continued to take place for several years after I had graduated and other students had secured internships, made connections that led to future job offers, and were able to make valuable connections for themselves as well.”

Kristen now uses her passion for philanthropy and service in her role at the Greater Cleveland Food Bank as the Senior Manager of Donor Relations. Due to the pandemic, the need for its services has increased exponentially.

“To put things in perspective regarding the growing need in our community, compared to last year at this time, the Food Bank has purchased more than 3x more food due to increased need and a 40% decline in food donations. Additionally, one fifth of families nationwide have reported that they do not have enough food for their children. The Food Bank has now doubled the number of weekend meals we provide to children through our Backpacks for Kids program.”

Additionally, between March 15th and May 18th, the Food Bank and their network of partners have distributed more than 40,000 disaster boxes. The Food Bank has also personally delivered over 2,700 boxes to homebound individuals (primarily seniors).

“Of the thousands of clients that we are serving, more than 50% are children and seniors,” she says. “Over one-third of the people we’re serving are new to our network and have never relied on emergency food assistance in the past. Every day, we are learning and adjusting to best serve our community.”

Kristen’s community work also includes Women for BW, which she joined in 2019 after she began teaching at BW in 2014 in the Communications Department.

“Women for BW has allowed me to have a much more focused area of philanthropy while also providing opportunities to participate in special programming and engagement activities,” she says. “I’ve particularly enjoyed working alongside other like-minded women through serving on the Steering Committee as well.”

“BW helped open so many doors for me, and I’ll always be grateful for my time here,” she says. “From my teaching perspective, the talent that our students possess is nothing short of incredible, and I am able to witness it firsthand. I want to be able to help open as many doors as I can for them, just like so many others did for me.”

Thank you, Kristen! 

Written by Kate Ganczarz '21

 

 


 

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