Judith Millesen teaches students how to enter the rewarding field of non-profit work.
Judith Millesen, a faculty member at Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, began volunteering at a young age with a little league baseball team, and soon she was looking to help out the community wherever she lived.
Right now, her main focus is building the capacity of other nonprofit organizations, which means helping them to reach their goals and continue operation over time.
Millesen is a founder of the Regional Nonprofit Alliance in Athens, where she has helped raise money to bring training into the Appalachia area and help other local organizations and nonprofits.
Three years ago, the organization produced an instructional DVD to help prepare board members by giving them crucial information about different aspects of developing a nonprofit, such as fundraising and financial management.
“Her overall vision for the project was inspiring,” said Renee Steffen, an OU alumna who helped produce the DVD.
Millesen wanted to bring a local feel to the DVD and had a clear vision she wanted to accomplish in order to strengthen nonprofits, Steffen said.
She also connects with people throughout the country through online academic forums.
The online associations give her a better understanding of what’s happening nationwide, and also allows her to connect with people interested in nonprofits and provide resources to those connections.
As a professor at the Voinovich School, Millesen teaches students in nonprofit management and fundraising.
“It’s great to see students come out of our program and to see a number of them working for nonprofits in leadership position,” she said.
Millesen also serves on the Athens Foundation board and focuses on increasing leadership roles and raising money for the foundation.
The foundation focuses on everything from awarding grants to helping the environment.
“Judy is a very engaged and involved board member. She has a lot of energy and excitement around anything we’re working on,” said Susan Urano, executive director of the Athens Foundation.
Urano added that Millesen keeps the conversation going throughout the community on serious topics that impact the masses, such as services for children in Athens and food security.
In 2012, Millesen and two others received the 2012 Distinguished Edited Book Award for their book Participatory Partnerships for Social Action and Research. The book focuses on the steps people are doing throughout the country to work together in order to face social issues.
“I love being part of the community,” Millesen said. “I love sharing what I have to offer.”
eb823313@ohio.edu
