SIDEHUSL SUPERHERO

at small private institutions and large public colleges includes a track record of fostering collaboration and community partnerships.

JESSICA ROGERS, VICE PRESIDENT OF PHILANTHROPY, CHILDREN FIRST Jessica Rogers believes access to opportunity for all is the base for building a strong community. This belief has transformed her passion for helping women, children, and families into a professional career focused on the well-being of humankind. As a mother, she raises her daughter the way that her mother taught her, to strive to make a diff erence in the lives of those within her community. With 20 years of experience in nonprofi t management, fundraising, fi nance and education, Jessica Rogers serves as Vice President of Philanthropy at Children First, Sarasota County’s exclusive Head Start Program, which ranks in the top 1% of Head Starts nationwide. She represents the agency in advocating for the support of early childhood education and breaking barriers of poverty. During her tenure, she has transformed fundraising and outreach eff orts allowing the agency to serve the greatest number of children and families in its 60-year history and being named WEDU PBS’s Nonprofi t of the Year. Rogers’ volunteer and philanthropic engagement is wide ranging. She serves on the Sarasota County NAACP’s Freedom Fund Awards Gala commi ee and is a former board director for the Junior League of Sarasota, most recently receiving their 2020 Sustainer Community Service Award. getting through times like what we’re working through now, we’re going to feel bad, we’re going to feel pain, we’re going to feel anxiety and depression, we’re going to be angry. But, I do believe we’ll get through it, and ultimately, we will be in a better place, I have to believe that. So, as a CEO of an organization like mine, that’s one of my goals is to help our communities survive this, and really develop our resilience and come out of it better somehow. I don’t know what that’ll be yet, I just believe that we’ll get there. PROBSTFELD: One of the things I’m most proud of is that many of the students that come here never even thought that college was for them. We try to be that place where people are safe and where they can access resources that they need. We once had a young girl, a high school dropout. She was a single mother and pregnant. She got her GED and came to an open house for our biotech program. The professor in the program told her, “You can do this.” He told her she was very smart. She took the class, excelled and went on to an internship. That professor was the fi rst person who ever told her she was smart enough to do anything. And so I think it’s that ability that we have to make every interaction with a student a positive interaction, and to give them the belief in themselves and the support they need to realize their dreams. Our big challenge is getting them here, but we’re reaching out to the communities and helping potential students to overcome challenges, whether fi nancial, transportation, childcare, domestic violence, mental health—we have strong connections across the community to help make students successful. IS THERE A MOMENT IN YOUR CAREER WHERE YOU WERE STRUCK BY HOW MANY PEOPLE YOU HAVE BEEN PART OF HELPING, HOW MANY PEOPLE’S LIVES YOU HAD CHANGED? LARKIN-SKINNER: I’ve had people over the years who’ve come up to me, and who I hadn’t thought about in years to say, “Thank you, you really made a di erence. Your organization made a di erence.” But I think that probably for me, what makes me realize that I must have done good things in my career, I must have helped people in our communities is that now, people seek me out—other professionals, our local politicians, the law enforcement—for information. So, what that tells me is that I am trusted, which is important to me, because integrity is number one to me. People recognize that the years I’ve been around, that I really am doing it because I care about people, because I want to help others thrive, I want to do what’s best for our community. Yeah, I’m the CEO of an organization, but I’m not all about this organization, and how much money we can make. It’s not about that for me, it’s about doing the right things that help make us all stronger, and happier. ROGERS: My mother and grandmother were big believers in making sure that their children and grandchildren were the same people when no one was looking as to when spotlight may shine on them. And that, attitude is something I really strive to carry through to my personal life and to my professional life. Recently, where it really hit me that my actions are directly contributing to positive change in the lives of others was when I received an email from the National Head Start Association, to say that I had been nominated by a member of our sta for the NHSA Bold Leadership Award, for my contributions to the agency during COVID. The nomination came from an individual who works on the program side of our house. For me, that was kind of the aha moment that said, “You’re making this di erence right now, and we can see that.” PROBSTFELD: There are so many stories. It’s hard to just pick one, but I think of a young lady who I met early on when I became president. She and her mother were victims of domestic abuse. They made the decision to to leave their home in the Northeast and they landed in Bradenton. She came to us on a whim and we helped her get her GED. She spoke at my inauguration and that day, she was notifi ed that she had been selected to go to Columbia University. We were here when she landed to help her realize that dream. And every day, I hear the stories about students whose lives have gone from what it was to what it could be. And that’s what makes it worthwhile. Come and walk on my campus and stop any student. You’ll walk away saying, “The future is in good hands.” SRQ

Women Who Roar Keynote Speaker SideHusl Superhero

KATHY KRISTOF HAS FOUND HER ROAR PROVIDING FINANCIAL OPPORTUNITY AND ADVOCACY FOR GIGSTERS IN THE DIGITAL AGE.

join us for the srq annual women who roar leadership and awards luncheon on may 13, 2022 at the hyatt regency and meet kathy kristof in person.

If Kathy Kristof were a storybook character, she would be the crimson-caped, super sleuth reporter wearing turbo-powered spectacles and fearlessly wielding a lightning bolt-infused pen poised to strike against the misdeeds of corporate bad actors. Think Sherlock Holmes meets Superwoman with a bit of Hermione Granger thrown in for good measure and you’ve got the picture.

GOOD FOR US SHE’S THE REAL DEAL. A regular superhero in the digital information age where a bad Google review is mightier than the sword. The veteran award-winning financial journalist and author has used her uncanny talent and passion for sniffing out the truth and protecting consumers from deception for decades. Now as Creator, CEO and Editor of SideHusl.com, a website that provides information on hundreds of ways to make money in the gig economy, Kristof is putting the power of online information in consumers’ hands helping them to achieve financial freedom safely.

Kristof spent 19 years at the Los Angeles Times providing sage advice to her loyal fans through her syndicated financial column with a reach of roughly 40 million readers nationwide. After leaving The Times in 2008, she wrote for MSN, CBS News, Kiplinger, Forbes, Reuters and dozens of other publications. She’s the author of three books, including Kathy Kristof’s Complete Book of Dollars and Sense; Taming the Tuition Tiger; and Investing 101. She is the recipient of numerous awards including Consumer Federation of America’s Betty Furness Media Service Award and the CACE Award for Excellence in Consumer Education. As the honored Keynote Presenter at SRQ Magazine’s Together We Roar Leadership Luncheon this coming May 2022, she is sharing her insights on opportunity, advocacy and the power of gratitude.

Kristof says she has always been passionate about writing and originally wanted to be a novelist. A journalism class in college and subsequent internship in the business section at the Los Angeles Times forged her path as a super sleuth who helps people to understand the information she uncovers in an easy to digest way. “Everything clicked. I knew business writing was what I wanted to do because I could use both my verbal skills and the analytical side of my brain to explain things that other people found complicated,” she says. “When you’re doing financial reporting, normally you’re either a verbal person or you’re a math person. And if you’re a little bit of both, it’s a great opportunity to help the verbal people understand the math side and vice versa. If you understand the rules well enough to know how supply, demand and economic forces can push things in a particular direction you can dive into the details of how something works and predict what will happen. I graduated from college in the middle of a recession and so understanding what was going on economically was fascinating.”

More than just understanding the rules of the money game, Kristof has a larger mission when it comes to her chosen subject—financial freedom. “I write about money because freedom is incredibly important to me,” she says. And until you get a handle on your money, you are a slave to others, be they bosses, creditors or the people who pay your