Staff
The Nonprofit Risk Management Center is located in historic Leesburg, Virginia. Our offices are 13 miles from Washington’s Dulles Airport and 32 miles from downtown Washington, DC. Our address is: Nonprofit Risk Management Center, 15 N. King Street, Suite 203, Leesburg, VA 20176. Our telephone is: (202) 785-3891. Our fax number is: (703) 443-1990.
Melanie Lockwood Herman, Executive Director
In a world that is fraught with danger, it is comforting to know that Melanie Lockwood Herman is holding on tight to the handlebars of the Nonprofit Risk Management Center. The Center provides training, technical assistance and informational resources to help nonprofits take a practical approach to managing risk so that they can fulfill their missions and stay out of trouble.
A prolific author of a more than a dozen comprehensive (and comprehensible!) guides on various risk management topics, Melanie has delivered countless workshops, seminars, and keynote presentations for organizations simply unwilling to leave success to chance. Melanie earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Urban Affairs from American University (Washington, DC) and a Juris Doctor from George Mason University (Arlington, VA). She is a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association.
On August 1, 2012 Melanie was named to The NonProfit Times Power & Influence Top 50, the 15th annual list of “the 50 most influential executives in the sector for the previous 12 months.” This annual tribute honors leaders who, according to the publication’s editor in chief, “…have nurtured their core truths, found a few more and are working to improve life across the globe.” This is Melanie’s fourth appearance on the NPT Power & Influence Top 50: she was first recognized in 2007 and then again in 2008 and 2011.
Melanie is the former chair of the Legal Section Council of ASAE/The Center for Association Leadership, and during 2010-2013 she served on the Not-for-Profit Advisory Committee (NAC) of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (www.fasb.org).
A calculated risk taker, Melanie loves raw fish, scalding coffee, and riding her 2009 Buell Blast, 1964 Norton Electra or 1970 BSA Bantam motorcycles (she always wears her helmet). She also embraces risk by serving on three nonprofit boards. To be on the safe side, she is a certified lay speaker for the United Methodist Church.
Upcoming Speaking Engagements
- June 12, 2013—“Top 10 Legal Risks Facing Nonprofits,” 2013 Annual Conference, Nonprofit Missouri, Columbia, MO
- June 13, 2013—“Top 10 Legal Risks Facing Nonprofit Organizations" (keynote), and "Risk Management Online Tools and Resources,” Community Action Kentucky, Louisville, KY
- June 20 - 21, 2013—“Top 10 Risks Facing NFPs," and "Understanding Risks by Subsectors,” 2013 AICPA Not-for-Profit Industry Conference, Washington, DC
- July 17, 2013—“Risk Management Tools and Resources for Community Action,” MACA Conference, Missouri Association for Community Action, Inc., Jefferson City, MO
- August 6, 2013—“Can This Relationship Be Saved? Using Mediation Techniques to Handle Internal Association Disputes and Conflicts,” ASAE Annual Conference and Exhibition, Atlanta, GA
- September 13, 2013—“Crisis Communications (keynote),” "Is Your Nonprofit Ready for the Zombie Apocalypse?" - New Futures, Saint Anselm College, NH
Erin Gloeckner, Project Manager
As a Project Manager at the Center, Erin Gloeckner manages and supports consulting projects and assists with communications, client relations, and publishing tasks. Whether she is writing a book, delivering webinars or creating online resources for clients, Erin sees risk management as a wild adventure!
Erin recently earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA). Let’s go Hokies! While at Virginia Tech, Erin enjoyed working as a public speaking coach for the communication department. She also served as vice president of the Virginia Tech Union (VTU), a student-run programming board that produces educational and entertainment events on campus. While producing shows including B.B. King, Girl Talk, and comedian Michael Ian Black, Erin had the opportunity to direct a leadership class for VTU volunteers. Erin’s college leadership experience made her the engaging go-getter she is today.
During college breaks, Erin interned at Celerity, a consulting firm in McLean, VA, where she completed accounting and human resources functions (and tons of filing!). Erin’s future plan is to work in public health after attending graduate school. When she isn’t hanging out with her sisters or forcing her boyfriend to take her out to dinner, Erin loves longboarding, painting, baking, photography, and quietly idolizing Stevie Nicks.
SUE WEIR JONES, Office Manager
Sue joined the Center’s staff in September 2008 as our Office Manager. As our “front line” Sue is the person who greets office visitors and the nonprofit leaders who call the Center for risk management advice. With a diverse background as a business founder, owner, and sole proprietor, Sue has terrific experience in all aspects of business management, including planning, customer service, working with clients and their customers, invoicing, payroll and purchasing. We think Sue’s background is an ideal fit for an organization that seeks to inspire and support responsible risk-taking in the nonprofit sector.
As a “life-long” volunteer, Sue currently volunteers as a Board Member of Loudoun Therapeutic Riding. She also spends time volunteering with children who participate in the organization’s therapeutic riding program. Sue is a former Preschool Sunday School Director and Team Coordinator for a local church. Her volunteer service has taken her as far as Guatemala, where she volunteered at a children’s home there.
When she’s taking a break from her duties at the Center and her diverse volunteer roles, you’ll find her in rural Loudoun County hanging out at the farm with her daughter’s horse, Smart Sailena, fondly known as Grizz.
Sue enjoys practicing her horsemanship skills, working with children, cooking
and traveling. An accomplished cook, she isn’t afraid to fire up the oven to 500
degrees and prepare homemade pizza from scratch. She keeps the number of the
nearest pizza delivery outfit close at hand “just in case.”
Associates
The following professionals provide invaluable support that brings the Center’s mission to life. Throughout the year these dedicated team members support our publishing, software development, training and consulting programs. When you engage the services of the Center (or purchase one of our products or tools), your nonprofit benefits from the expertise and dedication of a diverse array of talented professionals.
Don Withrow
If you ask Don what he does for a living he’ll tell you he’s a Geek. Actually, he is the principal of Don Withrow Consulting, a Fairfax, VA-based firm specializing in mission critical application development. These days much of his development work is for web applications and the backend services that support those applications. Don’s expertise is an ideal fit with the mission of the Nonprofit Risk Management Center, where he serves as a key team member in all of the Center’s web application projects. Don says that the real fun in his work comes from the variety of people and challenges he finds working with his clients from the nonprofit, financial, publishing, training and legal communities.
When Don isn’t working, which is seldom, you might him find riding his Harley on the beautiful back roads of Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland. Or, you might find him in Fairfax teaching students how to learn to ride a motorcycle and manage the risks along the way. Don is something of an expert in motorcycle-related risks. He began riding at age 12, and although you wouldn’t know it otherwise, he claims this was “a very long time ago.”
Edward M. Mulherin, CPA, Esq.
Ed has over 30 years of experience providing audit, CFO and consulting services to a diverse group of nonprofit clients nationwide. In 1990 Ed was one of the founding members of Leonard, Mulherin & Greene, P.C., a CPA and consulting firm specializing in nonprofit clients and has been instrumental in the firm’s direction and dramatic growth over the past twenty years. In 2000, Ed conceived and founded eCratchit, a revolutionary concept for bookkeeping and accounting services. eCratchit has developed and supports a proprietary Web-portal software that allows the company the ability to perform daily bookkeeping functions for client organizations, while ensuring clients complete access to accounting records and software online. In addition, the company provides setup and cleanup services as well as CFO and Controller consulting. The company currently has over 150 (including 50 nonprofits) clients located all over the country for which they provide bookkeeping and accounting services and has 20 employees. Ed has lectured and written extensively on nonprofit finance topics and prides himself on his ability to take a practical, realistic approach to finance issues. Ed works with dozens of nonprofit Boards, helping them understand and support their missions with strong financial management. Ed has served as the Nonprofit Risk Management Center’s “Virtual CFO” for the past nine years and has also partnered with the Center on several client engagements.
When Ed is not advising clients on financial management issues, he spends as much time in Vermont as possible, trying to accomplish his personal 20/20/20 goals: challenging yourself to do something you love 60 times a year. Ed’s 20/20/20 interests are Snowboarding, Golf and Fly Fishing. Ed is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston College and is a cum laude graduate from Suffolk University Law School. He served on Intuit’s Advisory Council for QuickBooks users in 2004 & 2005
Diana Del Bel Belluz, M.A.Sc., P.Eng.
Diana Del Bel Belluz is a risk management evangelist. As a child, she wanted to become either a mathematician or a pastry chef. A true generalist, at university, she completed undergraduate and master’s degrees in systems design—the ‘artsy’ engineering program. In 1990 she landed in the risk management field and found it was the perfect opportunity to blend her analytical skills with her creative side. Ever since she’s been doing innovative risk work with clients in the corporate, government, and nonprofit sectors—helping them to make well thought-out, proactive, systematic, and bold decisions that balance risk and reward. Diana is enthusiastic about spreading the gospel of risk management because she regards it as an essential discipline for any organization with ambitions to deliver the most good it can with the resources entrusted to it.
In her spare time, Diana advances the field of risk management by organizing conferences, teaching courses and management training seminars, speaking to groups, and authoring publications on a wide range of risk management topics. Through her company Risk Wise, based in Toronto, Canada, she publishes the Risk Management Made Simple Advisory, a free online newsletter with tips on how to actually implement systematic risk management. And she’s developed into a fine cook and still bakes the occasional pastry!
Alan Strand
Alan is a nonprofit management professional who is oddly passionate about nonprofit accounting and financial management. He has provided financial training and consulting to nonprofit organizations in California and Washington State and has presented workshops and seminars across the U.S. Alan is pretty sure no one went into nonprofits because they like finance and risk management, but notes that those are the areas that can get charitable organizations into a lot of trouble. Alan has worked as a consultant and also as the Director of Finance and Quality Reporting with the California Association of Nonprofits. Alan enjoys working with organizations to get their systems in shape so they are able to focus on their missions. When not consulting with or blogging about nonprofit accounting he can be found in his wood shop, trying to keep all his fingers while making wooden toys. A more detailed bio can be found at "www.linkedin.com/in/alanstrand.
Michael Gurtler
Mike Gurtler is a risk management professional who enjoyed 25 years as a YMCA professional before forming Safe-Wise Consulting in 2007. Safe-Wise works with nonprofits all over the US helping to nurture sound safety and risk management practices. Mike subscribes to the Center’s broad but practical approach to risk management and tries to avoid being type-cast as an expert who tells people what they cannot do. Mike is a key team member in the Center’s youth-protection, aquatic safety and recreation consulting practice. According to Mike, “I think the challenge for insightful risk consulting is being able to say “Yes” in a responsible way that is acceptable to the organization and its mission.” Mike has produced a substantial body of topical resources on various risk management topics and is a capable and popular trainer and presenter.
Mike lives in Maine with his family: Michele (spouse of 17 years), Mason (son of 9 years going on 30), Bella (the dog) and Lucy (a very independent cat). The Gurtler family braves the New England winters in order to enjoy the mountains, lakes, ocean and small town community living. An avid basketball player, Mike can often be found at the local Y chasing after his errant shot attempts and setting up orange safety cones.
Joe Risser, CPCU, ARM-P
Joe Risser is a risk management consultant who presents, trains and writes on risk management topics in the areas of special events, student interns, camps, contract insurance requirements, waivers and vehicle operations.
Before retiring from a career in higher education risk management Joe served as Director of Risk management for California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. Joe brings invaluable experience to Center projects involving nonprofit and public entities with special events, facilities, workplace safety and camping exposures.
Joe’s professional metamorphosis from camp director to public entity risk manager is fitting for a former Boy Scout who loves to keep people safe. Years of community service in Search & Rescue operations taught him the value of preparation and the hard lesson that even with good planning, bad things can happen.
Thankfully Joe took to risk management like a duck to water. He quickly learned that applying the basic tools and lessons of risk management can keep the bad thing from happening, or at least lessen the negative impact.