Greetings IRWA Members!
I’m thrilled to be joining the IRWA staff team as the Director of Development and Engagement and joining the IRWA community with all of you.
In joining IRWA, I am refocusing my professional energy on my personal value of building local environmental sustainability and resilience and helping humanity return to a more harmonious relationship with the natural world. This is a journey I began through my volunteer participation in the Town of Reading’s Climate Action Committee, the Reading Municipal Light Department’s Citizen Advisory Board, and on the founding team of my church’s Green Sanctuary Committee during the years when I stayed home full-time to raise my son. I built on this foundation by joining the development staff team at Groundwork Lawrence and supporting their efforts over the next 6 years to promote environmental justice initiatives in the Lawrence, MA area.
I actually started my career in a very different place. I hold a B.S. from Northeastern University and an M.S. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both in Mechanical Engineering. I first worked for MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, then at General Electric in Lynn, and finally at Cadence Design Systems in Chelmsford. Through this experience, I was trained in world class engineering approaches and technical leadership methods.
I took a hard left turn and migrated my career to the nonprofit sector once I decided to stay home full-time to raise my son through the volunteer and professional work I mentioned above. I earned a nonprofit leadership and management certificate from Tufts University in 2018 through the Institute for Nonprofit Practice. Most recently, after serving a few years as the first-time Development Director at Entrepreneurship for All (EforAll) in Lowell, I founded and ran my own nonprofit consulting company, focused on the symbiosis between fundraising and strategic planning. Over the past 5 years, I have served 45 nonprofit clients, raised nearly $5M on their behalf, and assisted them with strategic planning, board engagement, and technology solutions.
My husband and I moved to Reading in 1996 and we still live there. In the spring and fall, you’ll often find us along the banks of the Ipswich River, hiking through Harold Parker State Forest or the Reading Town Forest, or attending events at the Ipswich River Park. In the winter, you’ll find us cross-country skiing in Reading’s Bare Meadow. I spend the rest of my free time tending to the beloved trees, perennials, and vegetable garden in my yard, singing in my church choir, knitting blankets for family and friends, or taking part in my latest interest – Pickleball!
I am a Massachusetts native. I grew up in Bedford Massachusetts and lately, driving into the IRWA office, past the fields and open spaces, I find myself taken back to the landscape of my youth, the rolling hills, deep forests, and meandering stone walls. As kids, my sisters and I would spend whole days outside, traipsing through the woods, throwing stones in the marshes and bogs, climbing trees, clambering over the hay bales stacked in the field across the street from our house, or wheeling through the streets on our bikes from Sears Roebuck with the big banana seats and crying home to mom with each skinned knee.
I very much look forward to getting to know you all and working together to help IRWA continue on its journey to save the Ipswich River.
-Tracy Sopchak