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| December 2006
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ALUMNI PROFILE |
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| Nonprofit Exec, Volunteer Expounds on Life After AU and Remaining Involved Long After Graduation
“This job has given me a lot of really unique opportunities,” says Fuller, who does an average of three to five media interviews per week. To be hired at a relatively young age, and give high-profile media interviews and testimony on the Hill makes for some pretty heady experience and really resonates, she says. A typical day for the busy exec includes board meetings in any of the 80 or more cities where NAWBO has chapters, fund raising, and public speaking. “At least two days a week I’m not at my desk,” says Fuller. Often, that means lobbying with House and Senate committees on small business to include women business owners in the procurement process. Many federal contracts require at least 5 percent participation by women, yet haven’t yet hit 3 percent, she explains. “In the 1970s women owned fewer than 10 percent of businesses in the country; today they own 47 percent,” says Fuller. “It wasn’t until 1988 that a law was in place where a woman could get a business loan without needing her husband or father to cosign for her, she adds. “That’s really relevant, and recent. There are still so many significant barriers.” Fuller credits her start with nonprofits to her time at AU. The summer between her sophomore and junior years, she elected to stay in D.C. and work on campus rather than return home to Massachusetts where she was raised. That summer, she helped coordinate the many camp groups and national nonprofit organizations who rented space on campus. One group she remembers in particular: the National Handweavers Guild, made up of 750 women – and their looms. “As groups would come in I’d show them around, show them pictures of campus… I got a lot of exposure to national nonprofits as a result.” Aside from a short stint with a major consulting firm, Fuller’s entire career has been with nonprofits, and she couldn’t be happier. “There’s no shortage of nonprofits, but to work for one you really believe in is really cool.”
Still, the highs of the job are undeniable. “I get to do a lot of really neat things. I get to meet really amazing people who have created these businesses from scratch that employ people, and are a legacy for their kids; that’s really powerful.” In addition to her already busy work- and home life, Fuller also teaches courses at Northern Virginia Community College, and serves as vice president of the AU Alumni Board. An active alumna since the day she graduated, and president of the SPA alumni chapter from 1998-2000, she says she recognized early on the value of networking. “It’s a nice way of keeping in touch with the university, but it lifts the bar, too, because it’s with people who have real jobs in the real world,” says Fuller. She makes it a point to try and hire alumni and interns whenever she can. In her role as the new VP of the Alumni Board, Fuller wants to engage her alumni peers in as many ways possible: whether it’s going to basketball games, working as a career center contact, or interviewing prospective student applicants. “The true value of our degree extends far beyond when we walked across the stage with our mortar board,” she notes. Fuller is quick to note that AU’s reputation only continues to improve in rankings and public perception. “It’s important alums are cognizant of that. When you invest so much money, time, friendships, relationships, it’s important you see a return. You can only do that by putting into it what you get out of it… Our job on the alumni board is to facilitate those connections.” It may come as no surprise that Fuller says she hasn’t ruled out running for office some day. But for now, she and her husband are enjoying their son, “open to growing our family a bit,” and just enjoying the life they’ve carved out for themselves a dozen years since they graduated. “In general, I want to always have the same amount of passion about my work as I do now.” -Melissa Reichley |
As
executive director of the nonprofit 
Mother
to 19-month-old son Aidan, along with her husband, Mike Leurdijk,
SIS/BA ’94 (pictured right), Fuller says the hardest part
of her busy career is being away from her son. “It’s a huge
challenge to be a good mother and a good spouse when you’re on the
road so much. I have a rule that I never spend more than two nights away,
but he’s already been to 22 states. He’s a well traveled kid,”
she says.