Regular: Beyond profitThe humanconnectionCorporate social responsibility isn’t an add-on forDr. Rebecca Thomley, CEO of management services enterpriseOrion Associates. Volunteering is at the heart of her for-profitcompanies – and out of this focus came Headwaters ReliefOrganization, which responds to some of the world’s mostdevastating disasters. She tells us her story.interview Molly BennettIwas practicing psychology full-timewhen my parents were diagnosedwith cancer a month apart in 1995.I became more involved in MeridianServices, which my mother founded in1980 to help people with intellectualdisabilities live fuller lives. After my fatherpassed and my mother no longer wantedto be as involved as she was, I took overthe business.On one level, I resented having to runmy parents’ business. I had built areally great practice, I’d spent manyDr. Thomley in the Philippinesin 2013 after TyphoonYolanda and (right) in Haitilater the same year.years in school and I loved what I wasdoing. But I was also committed tomy family and to their legacy. I’m aScandinavian — we were brought up withthe values of putting family first andworking hard. So while my heart wasn’tthere in the beginning, who wouldn’t beexcited about this tremendous possibility?We’re 24 times the size we were whenI took over. It’s been a tough pace ofgrowth, because we’ve expanded intoa few more states in the past couple ofyears. But the growth means we cancontinue to offer additional benefits andpay our staff better.Orion Associates donates 28%annually to charitable causes. I grew upvolunteering, and it has become so much apart of the community at Orion that it’s nowdiscussed in job interviews. Job candidateslearn that their workmates will ask them toengage with this kind of activity, and theyneed to be aware of that coming into thebusiness. It’s part of who we are here, fromtop to bottom.I’ve been a mental health responder withthe American Red Cross since 1992.I went to New Orleans after HurricaneKatrina, and it was very different fromany other disaster situation. Usually, youcan see the services coming into playand the system picking things up. But Iwas assigned to the Ninth Ward, which isprimarily a poor black community, and noservices were coming. Thirty-five coworkersended up going back to help with cleanupand rebuilding.Headwaters Relief Organization, whichdeveloped out of that experience, isvery much a grassroots organization.Photography Courtesy of Orion Associates22
Dr. Thomley’s work with Headwatershas taken her everywhere fromOklahoma after the 2013 tornado(above) to Nepal after theearthquake in April this year(right).About OrionAssociatesOrion Associatesis a managementorganizationfor both relatedand unrelatedfor-profit andnonprofitorganizationsthat provides management services,primarily in the social services arena.Founded in Minnesota, the for-profitgroup has since expanded into sixother states and launched HeadwatersRelief Organization. This year, Dr.Rebecca Thomley was ranked No. 2 onthe Women Presidents’ Organization’s50 Fastest-Growing Women-Owned/Led Companies. Thomley is also amember of the Class of 2011 of EYEntrepreneurial Winning Women.It taught us that you can spend a lot ofmoney on leadership training, and you cando all kinds of things to build relationshipsin your organization, but nothing does itlike putting someone in a disaster situationwhere they have to help others withminimal resources.Orion invests extensively in volunteering.People get a couple days of paid timeoff each year for volunteering at theirchurch or school or anywhere of theirchoice. We also have a committee thatpicks four big charity events each year,and employees get paid time off for that.And anyone who chooses to volunteerwith Headwaters gets paid time off too.I think the most time an individual hastaken for volunteering was six weeks ina year. Of course, they have to get theirjob done, too.We don’t factor employee volunteeringtime into our books, because whatwe get back in terms of our people’sdevelopment is so much more powerful.Plus, we actually get business becausewe’re known to give back to the community.They say, “We’re here because of whatyou’ve done in Haiti, or the Philippines, andwe want to be part of this community.”There’s no rationale for which disastersHeadwaters responds to — it’s aboutbeing called. Often, one of our partnerorganizations will ask us to come andsupport it. In Nepal, we’ll be providinga mental health component to supporta few larger organizations’ services forsix months. We’re not just providingsupport to the local community; that’spart of it, but often we’re supporting thefirst responders, who are affected byseeing things they never expected tosee in their lives.We don’t respond and leave; we stay.We went to the Philippines afterTyphoon Yolanda (Haiyan), and we’renow teaching skills to help peopleprocess the experience and developcoping and resilience techniques. Wehave ongoing operations with local staffboth in New Orleans and in Haiti.Our latest project is a series of children’sbooks. The first was for children in Haiti,many of whom died because they ranback into the buildings. Our book teachesthem what to do in an earthquake, andthe Ministry of Education is putting it inall the libraries. We’ve also done a bookfor Filipino children about coping withtrauma in the aftermath of a typhoon,and we’ve just printed one about Ebola forchildren in west Africa. We deal with thepublic health issue and also the orphanaspect, which is now a huge concernthere. All our books are designed to assistwith developing coping techniques andpromoting resiliency.When you’re in a time of disaster,everything’s gone; everything’s strippedaway. It doesn’t matter what the person’sbackground is, their education, race orreligion. That human connection feelsalmost like you might have looked into theface of God. It’s so powerful, and when yougive people the opportunity to connect witha fellow human being and have an impact,you, as well as their lives, are changed.<strong>Exceptional</strong> July–December 2015 23
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