SYNERG STORIES
Rediscovering Home
Erin Stratford was born and raised in Greensboro, and after graduating from UNCG with a degree in English, she took off for the Big Apple. Twelve years later, she’s back home and discovering unexpected facets of her home town and new reasons to love life in Greensboro.
In New York, Erin earned a Masters degree in Nonprofit Management that she put to work at The Atlantic Philanthropies, Inc., where she managed multi-currency grant approvals and contracts for grants based in the US, Viet Nam, Australia and Bermuda. Her familiarity with international finance and contracts should be a valuable asset in Greensboro, with its increasingly diverse population and international trade, as she searches for a position in the nonprofit sector. Since moving back here, Erin has participated in synerG networking opportunities such as Making Connections Around the Table and the synerG Leadership Initiative, and she says she has met with more than 32 community leaders and decision-makers. Erin finds the city’s leaders accessible and willing to open their networks to a young person with energy and enthusiasm.
To Erin, the biggest surprise has been the number and quality of the city’s nonprofit organizations and foundations. She sees the philanthropic groups in Greensboro as dynamic, flexible and collaborative, unlike what she experienced in New York. “People really care about Greensboro and the community.”
Erin volunteers for the Center City Park and the Mental Health Association, as well as serving in the North Carolina Guardian Ad Litum program as an advocate for Guilford County children who find themselves in the court system.
