Alumni Spotlight: Amalia Lopez, Girls on the Run of Montgomery County

Amalia Lopez is Deputy Director of Girls on the Run of Montgomery County, which provides evidence-based programs that emphasize physical activity, confidence building, and skills development for young girls. The Center sat down with Amalia to learn more about her career and time in the Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate Program.

CPNL: With so many important causes in the nonprofit space, what drew you to this one?

Amalia Lopez: I have a deep personal connection to the mission of Girls on the Run. It really aligns with my personal experience. When you talk to people who get involved, they say, oh, I wish I had Girls on the Run when I was younger—that’s exactly my experience. A lot of people struggle with competitive sports. I was a swimmer, and when it got to club teams and my teammates would kick me during warm ups because we were in the same heat, I quit. I couldn’t deal with that high level of competition.

And then growing up with the typical things that girls have issues with, including body image and confidence, I was able to really personally relate to the need girls have for programs and resources that are not competitive, but include physical activity and running. I found distance running later on in my life. I’m never going to win an Olympic medal for it, but I really enjoy it, especially the physical and the mental health aspects. So the physical activity, team building, and confidence is something that, again, I wished I had as a girl growing up, and I am really motivated to make sure that it’s available to girls now and to set them up for a bright future.

CPNL: You touched on building confidence and social skills. Expand on how this work sets girls and young women up to succeed, holistically throughout their lives—whether in terms of academics, mental health, or later in their careers.

Amalia Lopez: About 30% of girls will stop engaging in sports by middle school and, by high school only 20% of girls get enough physical activity. Competition and a lack of confidence are major factors in pushing girls away from sports. Right at the age where Girls on the Run intervenes is when girls would opt away from those competitive sports. So non-competitive running serves as a way to provide an outlet. Physical activity is shown to have a number of benefits—improving health outcomes, obesity, and reducing screen times. Physical activity also has a huge impact in promoting mental health, as well as things like setting goals and accomplishing them.

Over the course of the season, the participants set a goal to complete a 5k at the end of the season, whether by running, walking, or even skipping or hopping or pushing. And so by setting that goal and working to accomplish that, it focuses on improvement—your own improvement, as opposed to competition with others. By setting that goal, putting in the work, and accomplishing it, it really builds up confidence that is transferable to other aspects of girls’ lives.

While teaching physical activity, Girls on the Run also explicitly teaches life skills. The lessons will range from healthy relationships, to identifying your own personal value by using positive self talk instead of negative self talk. These programs actively set girls up with life skills to be able to have competence, confidence, character, build connections, and give back to the community.

CPNL: What are the unique challenges and opportunities of working as an affiliate of a national organization, while focusing on serving your community in Montgomery county?

Amalia Lopez: Being part of the Girls on the Run network is incredible. We have a national impact and are able to do things like a longitudinal study that showed the long term impact of the program. By leveraging incredible connections with other Girls on the Run councils and affiliates, as well as the curriculum development and research that is provided by the Girls on the Run headquarters, we’re really able to make that big national impact.

I love being able to walk into a room wherever I am and somebody from a completely different state, or other side of the country, knows Girls on the Run. We’re able to really leverage that. And locally, we’re able to do what works best. We’re able to make the most of relationships with local funders and donors and local school districts and work on a personal level to meet the needs of our constituents. There are definitely challenges. There is no true one size fits all solution to many problems, so resources that are provided have to be tailored to the local capacity. And working as a small business, especially through the pandemic, at a local level was challenging, in addition to managing the costs associated with licensing Girls on the Run and accessing the national curriculum. That’s a cost that we have to build into our budget.

CPNL: What was your capstone project and how did you use it to support Girls on the Run?

Amalia Lopez: I was really excited to work on the capstone project. I think the timing of this capstone project and the Certificate Program was perfect for me. To provide some context: Girls on the Run uses a fee for service model. We do a lot of great things with corporate sponsorships and grant funding, as well as on the earned income side for that fee for service. But as demographics have changed, we’ve really seen the need to do a lot more explicit fundraising to be able to provide financial assistance. Right before the pandemic we were looking to hire a development director and were not successful. So now, as we are recovering from the pandemic, there’s a lot more need in our county for resources. Rounding out our funding structure is a huge need and having a dedicated staff member for development is something that we’ve identified.

My capstone project is to create that process, to develop the job description, some strategy, hiring process, workflows for board and staff throughout the whole hiring process, interview questions matrix, decision matrix, as well as an initial onboarding plan. I was able to take a lot from the classes on talent management, development, leadership, and managing organizational change, and put all of that into this project. I’m really excited to start hiring in just a couple of months for this role. My capstone project was directly applicable to my organization and I’m working on hopefully executing it.

CPNL: What advice would you give to other professionals who are considering participating in the program?

Amalia Lopez: I would say, do it. I would highly recommend it. I have had a lot of really great mentorship. I’ve had a lot of opportunities to connect with other organizations. I try and get outside of my bubble and have had incredible opportunities like this thanks to the Crimsonbridge Foundation Leaderbridge program. I’ve had a breadth of experience, but in one organization–I’ve been with Girls on the Run for the past 10 years. My knowledge has mostly come from inside the organization or from within my own networks more locally. So being able to learn from experts who are practitioners in the field, meeting others in the nonprofit industry that are doing different things, was absolutely incredible. It really increased the breadth of my knowledge to get me to that next step. So if you are somebody who is transitioning to nonprofits from another sector, if you’ve only held one role and are trying to expand, or just transitioned to a new role, the program really helps you take on new leadership. I would say, definitely do it. The Certificate Program was a really great way to round out all of my skill set in a very practical way.