What are your goals as the new executive director of Spy Hop?
I hope to continue building on the strength and foundation that has been laid over the last 10 years. We don’t anticipate major changes with Spy Hop; we’re just really focused on continuing to strengthen the organization.

What is your biggest takeaway from founder and executive director Rick Wray?
He’s extremely visionary. I think he’s willing to take risks; he’s innovative, and I think that that is something that Spy Hop is actually reflective of. We really embrace thinking outside the box and we support our students’ risk-taking. For me, the biggest takeaway is that the organization reflects Rick’s innovation.

What are your plans when you take the reins?
We will certainly be focusing on some strategic outreach in the community, including marketing. We will be really making an effort to continue filling and developing our programs that are relevant to the lives of our students. We’ll be putting more energy into that; I’ll be working with our committee and our board so we have support internally as well as externally. The biggest thing we’ll be working on is outreach into our community and nationwide, as well. We really want to share what we do and what our students do; we’d love to distribute the work that our students do and share that nationwide. We’ll be doing some additional networking and, if anything, we’ll just be making a deeper effort to being more in the public eye.

What are you looking forward to most in your new position?
I’m really looking forward to getting to know our community better. I am originally from Seattle, so I don’t know the community here as well. When I was hired as managing director, I was really brought on to look at how things are being run internally. I’m looking forward to really stepping out of that role and stepping into a role of working in the community. I’d like to get to know everybody and the support systems we have out there a little more.