New Year and New Future Leader Initiative

• 21 Feb 2020
• Doniella

• Blog
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Welcome to 2020! This is the first time The Business Continuity Institute USA Chapter, has implemented a Future Leaders Initiative. As the inaugural future leader, I have the pleasure to write blogs during my tenure. My name is Doniella (Dawn-ee-yall-ah) Mckoy and I am a business continuity professional who loves emergency preparedness and cares about the homeless. I am excited to be the BCI USA Chapter’s first Future Leader to learn, grow and have an additional platform to share relevant business continuity, resiliency and professional development.  To kick off my first post, I want to answer three questions and share some facts about myself.

How did I get here?

I saw the movie I am Legend with Will Smith and decided I was going to be the person to help people during a disaster. A few years later, I earned my Master’s degree in Healthcare Emergency Management and got into planning and preparedness. I got a job as a Continuity of Operations Planner with the City of New York. I transitioned to a nonprofit in Philadelphia and started attending industry conferences, where I learned about the BCI. In 2019, I saw the announcement and was encouraged to apply. I submitted a short essay on why I would be a good fit to work with the board and how I could support BCI programming. I updated my resume and LinkedIn to showcase my engagement and experience in the industry. I told my boss I wanted to apply. Not only did he support my effort, he wrote me a letter of recommendation that week. After submitting my application, the current BCI USA chapter board scored each applicant and came to an agreement on which applicant would move forward. 

Why does this initiative matter? 

Diversity has been a buzz word for the past few years and inclusion is becoming more welcomed. We have seen some industries change, while others have remained the same. While some may say no solution is needed because “it is what it is”, we are professionals in an industry that recommends and supports succession planning. We should be fostering talent of young professionals and setting them up for success when senior leaders retire or win the lottery. I will be using the Future Leaders program to learn from fellow board members, as well as, share my perspective as a millennial and someone who has been in this industry for under a decade.

How will I make a difference for BCI?

I will be managing the webinar initiative for 2020 and look forward to sharing power players and newcomers’ experiences from colleagues I have had the pleasure of working with over the past few years in this industry, with the BCI global audience. I will try to entice and keep young professionals to become involved in BCI and try my hand at blogging for the first time. 

My dream job?

According to LinkedIn I should have a few more jobs in my lifetime. I would like to be an Emergency Management or Business Continuity professor at a university.

Fun Fact

I collect travel size personal hygiene items for the homeless. For International Women’s day I collect items for women who have survived domestic violence, I do a special collection for Memorial Day and in the winter I collect long socks for all. I have given out over 1000 bags that include soap, lotion, toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner since 2015.
 
Thank you for reading. I look forward to this experience and the opportunity to share more with this community.