Hub Heroes: January 2020

The Power of Us Hub is an online community for Salesforce.org customers, certified partners, and staff. The Hub is a place for you to get answers, build your Salesforce skills, share your expertise and connect with others in the nonprofit, higher education, and K-12 sectors who are using Salesforce!

Every month we feature members of the Power of Us Hub who help other members become more successful — they become “Hub Heroes”!

For the month of January, we are proud to highlight the community contributions of Mariana Mazzeo, Dar Veverka and Pierre Desjardins. Thanks for all you do in the community!

Want to nominate someone who has helped you in the Hub? Nominate a helpful Hubber.

See you in the Hub!

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Dar Veverka

Director of Information Systems & Technology at Urban Teachers
Twitter: @DarVeverka

Why is community important to you? What motivates you to contribute?

Working at a nonprofit is often about community at its core and wanting to improve some part or parts of that, so participating in an online community like the Hub is a natural extension of that work. Many of us have things we know about Salesforce & the Nonprofit Success Pack, no matter how small they may seem, that can help someone else out who is struggling with the same issue. When you’re already overloaded and overworked, getting that little assistance on a problem can make your day. Or maybe you just need to bounce an idea off others who have run across the same issue you have, or pass on a great solution you found. Being able to work with others with similar goals and needs, helping others along and getting that same help, it lightens everyone’s load. And look what we can come up with when we work in community!

Things like the Open Source Commons & Community Sprints and various open source items that have come out of those and out of other areas of the Hub. There are also great professional & career supports available in the community. I found the awesome Amplify folks there and two subsequent study groups for certs with Amplify. Someone from the Hub tipped me off to RAD Women Code as well. The resources a community can bring for folks can have a huge impact.

Is there one moment that stands out about your time in the Hub?

Attending my first Community Sprint this year and watching the community live & in action stands out. It’s always nice to meet folks in person and I was able to just plug right in and get to work. The amount of stuff that gets done at Sprints is amazing! It’s a great way to get insight on issues other nonprofits are working on around the NPSP or EDA and contribute to solving them.

What superpower would you choose that could be used for the benefit of the nonprofit and/or higher ed community?

The ability to bestow endless unrestricted funding for operations and infrastructure needs.

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Mariana Mazzeo

Senior Consultant at Tribo

Why is community important to you? What motivates you to contribute?

The community became a very important part of my Salesforce journey. Here I met the girls who are now my partners at Tribo – this allows me to be in contact with many people when I moved to live in another country. I work with nonprofit organizations and I strongly believe that the community is the best way to learn and share knowledge.

What motivates me is to help other organizations and to grow the Spanish-speaking community. I like the idea of sharing knowledge and learning from all people who are involved in the Hub, and that together we will continue promoting the work of social organizations through technology.

Anything else you would like to share about yourself and your Salesforce journey?

As I always say: “I have a job that I could only dream of.” I became a Salesforce Consultant and I discovered the best job ever, where I can help and take on lots of different projects that challenge me day by day and don’t let me stand still.

And the community (and Trailhead, and my partner) help me every day with that!

What superpower would you choose that could be used for the benefit of the nonprofit and/or higher ed community?

I would love to clone myself so I can help more at the same time!

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Pierre Desjardins

Salesforce Consultant
Twitter: @DesjardinsCRM

Why is community important to you? What motivates you to contribute?

The Community is important to me for a couple of reasons. First, this is where I “cut my teeth ” as a Salesforce consultant. I was back in the job market for the first time in a long time and wanted to find the right “forever” job. I benefited from the generosity of so many others in the Community over the last 5+ years that I’m now in a position to give back and pay it forward, which brings me to my second reason. Fate brought me together with the Atlanta chapter of HomeAid America, an organization that works to reduce homelessness across the country. I now work with six chapters of HomeAid, soon to be seven, helping them get up and running with NPSP, and helping them maximize the benefits they can draw from it. I’m in my 50’s so I can safely say that this is my forever job and as they say, if you love your work, you won’t work a day in your life!

Anything else you would like to share about yourself and your Salesforce journey?

My 5 ½ year Salesforce journey was preceded by 11 years as a traveling SAP consultant and 5 ½ years in a local IT project management job, but this is so much more fun! I work mostly remotely now, so my 9-year-old Shih-Tsu Mia and I keep each other company! It’s been an amazing journey of learning and dealing with so many great people, and has given me the tools to help people and help people help others!

What superpower would you choose that could be used for the benefit of the nonprofit and/or higher ed community?

My super power would have to be the ability to build and renovate homes across the land so everyone has a place to live!

Join us in the Hub