Rachel Eldridge has been a member of NCAVA for over a decade! She originally joined NCAVA after receiving lots of encouragement from members of our affiliate MAVA and decided to attend a state conference early on.

Rachel is the Director of Volunteer Services for the Charlotte region of Habitat for Humanity. In her day-to-day work, she “supervise(s) a team of 3 volunteer coordinators (and) tr(ies) to focus on planning, policy, and other big picture issues.” She has also served as NCAVA’s Western Regional Director for a couple of years and really enjoyed getting to know other affiliates and promoting NCAVA. On top of it all, Rachel was named Volunteer Coordinator of the Year in 2019, which was so meaningful to her.

Rachel recently provided us with more information about her NCAVA story, which we are excited to share with you all:

Q: What inspired you to begin working with volunteers?

A: I needed to make a career change and I had worked with volunteers in my museum career.

Q: What is an exciting project that you are currently working on?

A: Thanking our books department volunteers who generated enough revenue to fund a house!

Q: What would you say is your biggest accomplishment in your career thus far?

A: Managing our first raw land development and keeping everyone safe during COVID.

Q: What advice would you give to other volunteer managers, especially those beginning their career?

A: Reach out to others and join a DOVIA.

To connect with Rachel about any topics mentioned in this interview, please email her at racheldridge@hotmail.com.