Laura Haroldson and Jessie Irwin-Hooper, Master of Nonprofit Leadership (MNPL) degree graduates 2012, are among the first class to be inducted into the Nu Lambda Mu Honor Society. The honor society was established by the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council to recognize students dedicated to the study of nonprofit management, philanthropy, and social entrepreneurship/enterprise.

Laura is Senior Manager of Web & Interactive Communications at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Laura describes the MNPL program as “invaluable in providing the big picture of how nonprofits operate.”  

She has worked at Fred Hutchinson for seven years. Laura says, “In a demanding role, it is difficult to learn more about the sector, and how one's specific nonprofit operates. The program gave me the reason and structure to explore and learn more about the sector, as well as to connect with colleagues at work to better understand their functions.”

Now that Laura is finished with her degree, she is putting her knowledge to work in her position at Fred Hutchinson. She is also a founding board member with the Head and Neck Cancer Alliance (HNCA), Washington Chapter. “Mary Gerardo, from my cohort, is heading up the effort to start the HNCA chapter. I am honored to serve and learn about starting up a nonprofit chapter."

Jessie is the Communications and Marketing Manager at Treehouse. “I have the great privilege of working for Treehouse, and I am excited to have the opportunity to apply all that I have learned to advance the marketing and communications goals of the organization,” Jessie says.

Treehouse recently announced an ambitious goal that within the next five years: students in foster care in King County will graduate at the same rate as their peers. Jessie hopes to use her degree to advance this goal in every way from the marketing and communications perspective. She comments, “right now, helping to breathe life into this vision is my number one goal!”

When it comes to leadership, management, and planning, the courses in the MNPL program expanded Jessie’s creative and critical thinking skills. She reflects stating, “the program helped me develop a powerful toolkit, giving me the confidence I needed to transition from a management role in corporate marketing and communications, to launching a career in the nonprofit sector. The program was an essential part of completing this transition successfully, and to learn to apply the skills I had developed in a new context.”