From Employment Consultant to CEO: Najla Wortham's Unlikely Path at Rock Creek

a leader that wasn't insecure. So, right, a lot of times in leadership, you should be looking at um replacing yourself, right? If you're a good leader, you're looking at building up your leadership team to be your successor. And so, that's what that's what I was afforded. I was afforded an organization that um poured into me as much professionally as they did personally and cared about me both personally. I lead by not wanting to be the smartest person at the table. I tell all my teams that if I'm the smartest person at the table, we're all at the wrong table. And so I really lean on, right, their expertise and whatever that looks like to help stand up the organization and making sure that we have those same compassionate, dedicated, skilled people in place to pull their weight. If you have someone that wants to work for you, then there is no limit to what you both will be able to accomplish together. So, I think being fully transparent at all times. I think not being afraid to acknowledge any failure that you may have, not being afraid to fail forward. So, I always tell my team, if we're trying something and it fails, guess what? We're failing forward cuz look what we've learned from taking that risk. Welcome back to an episode here on the Heart and Hustle podcast. Another great leader with some great pictures. Nasa, how you doing today? I'm good. How are you? Thanks for having me. Absolutely. Cuz we're going to start off here because we're talking about the pictures. We got Michelle Obama, you got Beyonce, but there's one missing Oprah. And what I I just want you I just want to know why those three ladies actually not just representation like clearly but why why did you choose those three ladies that have truly made an impact in their own spaces? I think for just the embodiment of what black girl magic is. um what embodies a strong black woman that has no limits, no barriers, whether it is in education like with Michelle Obama and what she was able to accomplish and how she stood behind Barack to um allow him to take the like biggest office um to Beyonce and her dedication and commitment to her craft. And it is just like if you pour into something with your all the world will um reward you. And I just see that in each one of their past whether it's Michelle Obama, Beyonce or Oprah, um if you stay the course and you do the work, um you will be rewarded and there is no limit to what a black woman can do in this society. And so they just speak to me every single day. Okay. I I I feel like there's somebody that should be on that wall that's a little underrated. I actually just seen this conversation with her uh and Oprah on the view and it was Whoopi Goldberg not realizing what Whoopi has done right in her respectful lane as well, but also starting with Oprah years and years ago, but to see what how they both kind of grew in their own spaces. Yeah. Um, it it is it is cool to just see black women in these spaces and being represented the way they are, right? People love these, no matter what color. But I'll tell you, I think there's also a when people see those type of black women, they think they're not normal. This is the average black woman, right? And I'll tell you, I'm Latino. My wife is black. And I would always remember like, you're not black, you're black, white. And she says,"What do you mean by that?" I said, "The way that you speak?" Right? And she's like, "The way that I speak, I speak proper." Right? Like to be quite frank, I think we're not educated enough in the spaces, right? When we go back into what's happening in our schools, are we educated enough to not make ignorant comments the way that I made. What is your thoughts on that? I can imagine you heard that before. I mean, I would agree, but I just think it goes to what we are fed um in social media and the media in general to assume that any race or gender is less than um what they saturate us with, right? And so I just think it is a ploy for us as black and brown people not to appreciate our magnificence, right? and everything that comes with that and how we can be as multiaceted as any other race can be. And so it is just continuously educating ourselves and then continuously having opportunities to see like you said these dynamic black women in every space. So it's not the oneoff, it's not just the Michelle Obama, right? It's not just the Beyonces, it's people every day in real life that are changing the game every single day. And I can imagine that as you grew up, right, you're growing up, there's things that you're being fed that today become incorrect. Um, there's opportunities you didn't know existed uh for you. But now at the level, talk about your level, the title, and the organization that you're with. You guys are changing what that actually looks like, right? You're giving opportunity to any anyone that actually deserves that opportunity, but also to those that didn't even know they deserve that opportunity. What can you tell us your title and what you guys are doing in Rock Creek and kind of go down that lane? Sure. Sure. So, I am the CEO of the Rock Creek Foundation. We are a nonprofit organization um headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland. And we serve individuals that have either intellectual and developmental disability or a severe and persistent mental health diagnosis. And so opportunities for individuals that have lived experiences um in those populations can be super limited because of what society feeds right us to believe them to be um the stigma potentially behind what that looks like when you have such a diagnosis. So across whether it is from what I've been experienced growing up or to what I do every single day is not limiting opportunity, right? And so again, if we go back to our earlier thought about, you know, these black women not being oneoffs, right? It's about what opportunities, right, were they given to excel? Um what opportunities were they given to see that I can do that too? I can be that too. this is not a one-off. I can achieve these things. And so I put that into the work that I do every day with the populations that we serve that there's no limit to what you can achieve if you can be given the opportunity to explore it, be given the space, right, to authentically say take the risk to say what is it about this that attracts me? Um and have someone there to support you through it. And I think that's the number one thing that we do here at Rock Creek. We believe in um allowing the individuals we support to choose to let their lives speak for them and whatever that is meaningful for them and our staff are just here to support them through that process to explore what that means for them so that they can achieve their own personal goals. What what get you into this space? Got to be a why you decided I'm going to take the highest seat possible in this organization. It was opportunity. Honestly, I never when I started this work or went down this career path. So, I am a licensed clinician um and I always wanted to serve in some capacity. I wanted to give back to society, right? And so, graduating college and getting my masters and sitting for my exam and all those things, I really wasn't clear on what that actually was. And so I was given the opportunity to um be employed by Rock Creek, right? I started off as an employment consultant. So literally hitting the ground running, feet to the pavement, carving out jobs for individuals that we supported, real work for real people, real community, right? So that's what also made Rock Creek stand out is that we believe that the individuals we supported regardless of their diagnosis or their cognitive capabilities that they could be active contributing members of society and they could be gainfully employed. And so that's kind of how I started here at Rock Creek. And now 18 years later to be seated as a CEO it was just opportunity given to me. It was just someone seated in positions above mine that saw something in me that I maybe didn't even see in myself. And because I had leaders that really believed in cultivating um our own leaders from within, that's a number one cultural um aspect that we have across our organization is growing our own leaders and a leader that wasn't insecure. So, right, a lot of times in leadership, you should be looking at um replacing yourself, right? if you're a good leader, you're looking at building up your leadership team to be your successor. And so that's what that's what I was afforded. I was afforded an organization that um poured into me as much professionally as they did personally and cared about me both personally and professionally. And when they saw opportunity or they saw a staff member taking that initiative, they rewarded it. And so simply, it was the opportunity. Never in a million years did I ever think um starting here in 2007 that I would be the president and CEO of this organization. Um or even a COO and how my career progressed right from an employment consultant to an assistant director to a director to the chief of operations and corporate compliance. Like I never even imagined it. It was just the opportunity and what someone else saw in me, you know, and I'll kind of even rephrase that. You said someone gave you an opportunity, but you work for that opportunity. No one give you anything. You know what I mean? Like you just mentioned, I came in boots on the ground and I started at ground zero. And for a lot of people, that's what it looks like is that we we start at ground zero and we start to go through doors, right? Some doors we don't know what's on the other side and we realize there is opportunity for us on the other side. We got to work towards it. No one's giving us handouts, right? Um, so I I just want to kind of for those leaders that are aspiring to be in these spaces, no one is going to give you anything. You have to put in the work. And I ask you, let's go back a little bit before even getting into this space. Who were you when you were young? What what did you want to do? What was I can't you said you didn't know this space existed? So, who's Naja? What did she want to do when she was a young little girl? Oh my goodness. Najula, as a young little girl, I think my biggest inspiration or role model was my aunt on my father's side, his youngest sibling. Um, she went, we all went to Catholic school growing up. It was it's crazy. We were Pentecostal um on Sundays, but we all went to Catholic church uh um Catholic school. Um so she she graduated top of her, you know, top of her class and went on to Cornell um University and then later on to Howard Law School. And so um my father allowed us to really follow her in that. We went to Cornell to visit her. We went to Howard Law to visit her. She took us around DC. So seeing that coming from Syracuse, New York, which was 10% black and brown at the time, it was like mind-blowing. And to see her in that space and achieving such uh astronomical goals for me, I was like, "Okay, well, let's go." Right? And so, she was like my biggest role model. And I think at that time, being so young and so impressionable, I'm like, "I'm going to be a lawyer. I'm going to Georgetown. Like, this is just it. I'm going to be a lawyer, all the things, right?" And so, you know, you go through high school and maybe your grades aren't where they're supposed to be. And I have a really, really close cousin. We said, "Okay, well, we'll go to Spellelman and Morehouse and we'll do this track or whatever, right?" And so, let's take the interest exams. Well, he didn't get into he didn't get into Morehouse. I got into Spellman, but I'm like, "I'm not going there alone. Too far from home. Let's go to Howard." So, I decided to go to Howard. Um, right before I made that decision of what I should major in, there was a career fair at my high school and there was a psychologist that attended the career fair and she was giving us insight into a very complex clinical case that she was dealing with where she was treating a client that um, uh, thought they were pregnant or were hallucinating um, a pregnancy, but their body was responding physically as if they were really pregnant. So their stomach was growing all the things and I was like what your mind could impact you know your behavior and or your behavior could impact your mind all the things I need to understand that more and so I decided to go into psychology from there um and then as I got into psychology and you know you're in school and you're in grad school and you're like well I need to make money in this and I need to find a way to make this a lucrative career because my mother is like you have four years okay and so don't change your major and don't do all the things. So, um, so I had to really find a way to make it practical. And so, when I was looking at, you know, going to the career centers and what was next, um, it was the master's level, um, degree and then the clinical license and I kind of went down that path again. Never thought that I work in a space of, um, ID or even severe and complex mental illness. I thought, okay, I'll be a therapist and I'll have this cute office, you know, with a couch, which I do have a couch. I don't practice um anymore, but you know, housewives and you know, depressed housewives, anxiety disorders and things like that, but then I got into the space and like you said, boots to the ground and what's available for someone freshly out of grad school with a fresh clinical license and you need externship hours. It's kind of like these opportunities, these organizations like Rock Creek that's doing really really hard clinical work is typically where you you will start. And so I started off at Rock Creek and you know, here we are. Fell in love with the population. I fell in love with the individuals that we were supporting and I kind of never looked back. It's actually very surprising that you got into mental health so early because in um I feel like in our communities of of brown and black people, we don't talk about it, right? like what was it that lady that was of color that kind of was representation like I don't feel like there was a lot of people in that space or we don't talk about mental health enough now probably more than more but what were you thinking in that moment I mean growing up I didn't even care I I mean honestly growing up and what I was exposed to I just knew it was necessary um I come from my mom's a nurse my sisters are nurses so I come from a space where I think just the medical field is highly respected in whatever capacity it it is. And so I knew like blood and all that was not for me, but I knew I would be in some type of healthc care space or giving back to the community. And even with my mom's story and my sisters being in um in in nursing school when I was growing up, like they all had to do like the the psych clinical and things like that. So they would come home and speak about that um you know, severe and persistent um mental health. But for me, I just always I saw it as a need really and what I was growing up and kind of like what I was exposed to, I knew that what I was experiencing or what my dad or my uncles or people were experiencing I or had experienced even in their childhood which made them react to how I experienced them. I never really thought it was super healthy. And so I didn't want to potentially just tag them as you are fully responsible for X versus what did you go through to get you here? And so for me, I just I can't even answer that. It just was it was a given that it was real. Mental health from my childhood was always a real thing that people experienced. And so I really never was stumb was stagnated by that stigma. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's like God just put it in your heart, right? Like simple as this. Sometimes we don't know why we do things like God just put it in my heart and that's that's what I went with. You know, it felt right and we see the other side. Obviously the other side has been very successful for you. Rock Creek though, if someone was to walk into Rock Creek, they they need some assistance. What does that look like from, you know, that journey from going through the doors for the first time or reaching out on a call? What does that actually look like? So that just looks like you said whether it's walking through our front door at our numerous, you know, office locations or making a call or being referred from a hospital setting, a prison system, the school system, etc. Um, it would just be a simple intake call um to make sure that you are potentially a right fit or eligible for our services, if you have the right insurance, if you are going to be private pay, etc. what type of extenduating circumstances you may be. Is it an emergency based situation or something that we could, you know, potentially schedule a referral for um in the next few days? Um and so typically if all of that is aligned, then a referral um or an intake assessment will happen. Well, you will meet with the assessment team. We will go through your past history, your you know, your current needs etc. to determine which of our services is any is a right fit. And then we would go through whether it is in your insurance um to get you enrolled in our services or a lot of the individuals we support are funded through the developmental disabilities administration or the behavioral health administration. So determining what pathway it is for your funding um and then what services one is best aligned to support whatever treatment plan goals you have or aspirational goals you have. And then we typically will go from there with um where where your placement would be. You you mentioned just services. How many programming services do you guys uh actually offer? Um so we have like I would say three core pillars of services that include numerous service lines underneath. Um but we do community based um residential rehabilitation services. So that is group home settings um where we have homes throughout McGomery County and St. Mary's County and Prince George's County and those houses are staffed based on the needs of the individuals that reside in them. But we help you manage your entire life. So if that is, you know, managing doctor's appointments, whether that's somatic or psychiatric, if that is um, you know, shopping for food, cooking, um, taking your medications on time, we have nurse staff that support, medication administration and staff that support that. So that is helping through all of your activi activities of daily living basically. Um and then we have a meaningful day program where we provide services throughout the day and that's an array of day program services from therapeutic groups to um helping someone increase their skill base. So whether that could be dressing for success or learning how to navigate personal relationships, scope coping skill development etc. There's a laundry list of services that we provide during meaning in our meaningful day services. And then supported employment I would say is our third pillar of services again where we help people um from the very beginning. So whether you've never had a job, we help you build a resume. We help you volunteer if you need to um volunteer to build your res to exploring what you're even interested in doing. Maybe you've never had a job. So, what does career exploration look like? Um to helping someone learn how to um interview, so interviewing skills, roleplaying to literally boots to the ground, helping you, supporting you find a job. So, from acquiring a job to maintaining the job, we do it 100%. And then we have affordable housing programs where we assist people with getting attached to voucher programs so that they could transition from our group homes, let's just say, to independent living um in environments of their choice. And then we support them in their own um their own apartments, their caregiver apartments, family homes, etc. There's so many services that we provide that are intertwined in those three main pillars of the services that we have here at Rock Creek. You guys do a lot. How many years have you been the president now? I've been the president, I think this is my eighth year, 2017. Um I believe I've been the president since 2017. I started in 2007 as an employment consultant. So, it was my job to go out to corporations and local businesses to carve out jobs for the individuals we support and really sell them and pitch them on why individuals that we support are great employees, right? Um, and so I did that for a number of years and then I became the director of day and therapeutic services. So, I focus all on building up our meaningful day programs and all of the subsets of services underneath that. Um, and then I became the chief of operations and corporate compliance. So I was responsible for all of our operations as well as making sure we were compliant with state federal regulations as well as our accreditation bodies. And then once I did that, I was um approached by the board to interview for the position as the president and CEO. Um, which was a huge risk for me. I'm like, I'm good, you know, right here. Comfortable. You were comfortable. Yeah, I was comfortable. I was coasting. I was like, it's fine. And I, you know, it's it's a very lonely place to be in when you really can't blame anyone else for your success or failure, right? And so, um, I was like, I'm I'm fine right here. But I spearheaded the organization's first KARF accreditation. And, um, during Karf, you are assigned, um, surveyors. And as the chief of operations, I was assigned the admin surveyor. that person comes in and basically surveys um your HR, you know, your um finance department, your your board, etc. And she was from Canada and she was a CEO of an organization, behavioral health organization in Canada. And so I was just talking to her about, you know, this opportunity or whatever and she's like, "Well, do you want to train your boss?" And I said, "No." And she was like, "Well, then I think this is your job because unless you want to train your boss um and allow them, right, to get all the accolades or the success of what you've already you already know, then I suggest that you apply for the job." And she's like, "The only advice I could give you is the one indication of a good leader or a good CEO is that they have good executive a good executive leadership team." Right? So if you have a good CFO, if you have a good HR director, if you have a good good, then you're you're fine. You don't need to worry about doing all the jobs, your number one job is make to make sure you have the right people in place. And so from that conversation, I said, "Well, maybe I can do this job if it's that simple as finding the right people." Was it that simple, though? That I think it was, honestly, because I lead by not wanting to be the smartest person at the table. I tell all my teams that if I'm the smartest person at the table, we're all at the wrong table. And so I really lean on, right, their expertise and whatever that looks like to help stand up the organization and making sure that we have those same compassionate, dedicated, skilled people in place to pull their weight. If the Heart and Hustle podcast has ever sparked any idea or made you think differently, do us a favor. Make sure you guys share this, post it on LinkedIn or even text that nonprofit friend that you just have. Whatever works. This is what keeps the conversation going and allows us to just grow this community together. Seriously, we appreciate you. What are some of the values you live by now as president CEO? I can imagine there's values you you live by. One of the things I I love about yourself and some other leaders I talk to is just how authentic we could be, right? I I think it it matters so much when we talk about having an executive leadership team. If you're not authentically you, they feel it and they also mimic that. How what are some of the values that you live by though? So I think that is one being very authentic. I think it's being super honest, being very transparent to say I messed up. This was a poor decision. Let's pivot. Not being afraid, right? I think to be vulnerable in front of your executive leadership team. I think that matters because at the end of the day, right, people really want to work for their leader. If you have someone that wants to work for you, then there is no limit to what you both will be able to accomplish together. So, I think being fully transparent at all times. I think not being afraid to acknowledge any failure that you may have, not being afraid to fail forward. So, I always tell my team, if we're trying something and it fails, guess what? we're failing forward because look what we've learned from taking that risk. So I think just being authentically myself, being super transparent, and being vulnerable to admit when, you know, it may have been the wrong call are some values that I I live by. And I love that you say that fail forward. Sometimes failing hurts. It doesn't feel good, but in reality is what do we learn from those moments? Every L is not a loss. It's a lesson. um and we dwell on the negativity or dwell on that loss, we don't really get to see what success came out of that. So, I love that you kind of put that mindset into um your team. You said mentioned a little earlier that your representation was your aunt, right? K your kids now, you're the representation. What do they I know what you want what you took out of your your your aunt, but what do you want the kids to take from you from everything that you're doing? I think it's amazing. You're a woman in leadership of color. doesn't happen often and I've done over 200 conversations last year and believe me very small percentage were a woman of color. What does that mean to you now for your kids? What do you want them to see? Again, I think that anything's possible, right? If to your earlier point, if you do the work, you have to stay ready so you don't have to get ready when that opportunity comes your way. And so I just want them to know that if you consistently put in the hard work, if you follow your passion, whatever that passion is, I believe you will be successful. And whatever success looks like for you, right? There's a lot of these videos and memes going around that's like, I'm rich because I get to see my 96 year old grandmother comb her hair or I get to see X, right? And I think it is those values that I want my daughters to see. This is my path, right? And I want you to be able to know that my expectation is you go even further than me because of the path I've already laid for them. Um but just having them follow a passion, be driven, be hardworking, um you know, be good human beings, I think for me is the biggest thing that I want my daughters to take away from um what I've accomplished and not listening to what society um says about them or tries to define them as or put them in a box. It's like you stay your course and you be um authentic to yourself. Yeah. You know, I actually heard a story recently that you say that be authentic to yourself and don't let people tell you the lane you should be in. Um this leader was doing well, had a really good job. He was at top of the mountain, success and all. His wife asked him one question. Is this who you want to be for the rest of your life? He said, "I was a Jewish man and through life I was told this was my lane." When she asked me that question, I realized I wasn't living authentically me. I end up divorced. I end up almost taking my life. Like how crazy somebody asked him a question. It goes back to people in our lives are there to either help us or hurt us. And that moment, that question was really there to help him. And he didn't see it at that moment. He was he was hitting rock bottom. He was failing. someone gave him the opportunity to chase passion and purpose. And when he found that, cuz you continue to mention it, it's passion and purpose. When he found that, now you talk to him and he's so happy. And he's working with vets. He's not a vet himself, but he's like, to know that I'm in a space where I get to help not just people that were in the military, but their families see and reach potentials they haven't reached, that fills my cup, Frankie. And it's to what you're saying, you know, it's like, hey, I was never really chasing that paycheck. At one point, maybe that was a thought, but it's all been about the passion and and purpose I've had through my whole life that led you to here. Being patient, right? That's another thing. Being consistent, getting uncomfortable. There's so many things you throw out there. So, those that are watching, it's like this has just happened overnight. This happens with work. This happens uh battling imposter syndrome. How many times, by the way, did you tell yourself, "Am I even really cut out to be CEO president?" You still think that this day? every single day. Every single day. To your point, I think it's something that I struggle with being a black woman in an industry that doesn't look like me. Even when I'm in normal meetings that I have on a routine basis with other with stakeholders or other provider organizations like Rock Creek across Montgomery County, it's like I may be the only black woman at the table. So, it's something that I consistently have to um reframe in my thinking to say, "Yes, I deserve to be at this table. I deserve to be seated at this table." And so, I think it's something that we will continuously deal with because of what society again portrays that we are not um capable of achieving or nondeserving, you know, to be at certain tables. And so it's something that I deal with every single day to your point. Um, and it's just it's it's our experience, right? And so when I am in spaces with other black and brown people, um, I make sure that I let them know I see you, right? And I am here and if I could be a mentor of any of any in any capacity, like that's something that I I I actually want to live by. So it's like like you were saying about that gentleman, it's like what what is your impact? What impact do you want to have? What is your legacy? And it sounds like because he had to have that existential moment, he realized that he wasn't on the path that was self-fulfilling for him and he wasn't actually leaving the impact that he wanted. So yeah, it's those moments. Yeah, those moments though when someone tells you something like that and I can imagine you had a lot of those. It allows us to feel seen, heard, allows us to see, wait a minute, there's so much more to life. One of the best things that I've heard and I still carry with me was a I was 19 or maybe 20 years old, very young, early 20s and a gentleman, chief developers officer of Subway um that had his own life, you know, and had to he was an alcoholic and people gave him a chance and now he became, you know, huge up in this company. He says, "Ephan, you're a rock star and if my son grows up to be anything like you, I'll be a happy father. I'm a 20 young 20-year-old that was facing sexual abuse, adoption, feeling unloved. I left my mom's house and said, "You know what? You never got to worry about me, right? Cuz that's just where I was at mentally in my life." And because when I heard that, I'm like, "Wait a minute, I'm a rock star. Wait a minute. Somebody at that level seen me. Oh man, that means like the sky's is the limit." And then I've heard recently, stop saying the sky's is the limit. You better look at that furthest planet and say that's the limit, right? Because the sky there it's so much more than pass the sky. So those things that people tell us. I've heard someone tell me a friend tell me uh he's a mentor actually. He says Ephrain if you keep calling me with the same crap every year. If you still doing the same thing at the end of the year we can't be friends. I took it as Ephrain you making a lot of excuses for yourself. You got to do something better. Right? If not and that's how I took it. But not everybody takes it that way. Right? But it is people in our lives, whether it's our families, whether it's teachers or friends that that we need to be real with us. That's why a yes man doesn't always work. What What kind of people do you look for when you talk about leaders, executive team? Can't be that yes man or that yes woman. No, it's always someone to your point that challenges your perspective, right? And I see that even in my executive leadership team again, I don't want to be the smartest person at the table and I want you to challenge what I think may be the right path. like let's have a courageous conversation right is what I like to call them right because you never know to your point what is out there right if you don't have someone to challenge your way of thinking so what I look for to be around people in my circles is people that is doing much better things or accomplishing much greater accomplishments that I could consider myself uh having achieved or even achieving again I think it goes back to exposure, right? If you don't see something, you can't dream for that. You can't dream for it. You can't even envision yourself being somewhere. It's just some something simple as I don't know a first class seat on airplane, right? If you don't see it, if you don't see people like you seated there, then it's something that you won't even consider achieving. So if again I think you need to surround yourself with people that are going to challenge you, challenge your your way of thinking, force you to think in different ways from different perspectives, but also achieving things or exposing you to to to things to different tables to uh different groups of people that you may not have ever had access to. And so again, if you're the smartest person in your friend group, if you're the most accomplished in your friend group, then I just think you're in the wrong group. Yeah. Get to a new group. You You outgrew that group. It's time to move on. Correct. Um with almost 20 years in this organization, eight of those years being president, CEO, 2025 just ended. Can imagine a lot of success has happened. We can talk about that a little bit, but what's also what's 2026 look like for you? Right? Because we're always talking about getting better, evolving. What does that look like now? It looks like um really really one I think honestly it looks like sustainability right for our industry right now behavioral health mental health our services our health care system Medicaid right is just under attack at the federal level um and being super scrutinized and being painted with this broad stroke of a brush that is not honest right um to the people that are in receipt of these services or on Medicaid or any other health benefit or financial benefit that our um country offers. And so for one, it would be sustainability and making sure that the current services that are that we have are sustainable. They they are they are consistent with the quality standards um you know that I want across the organization and sustainable for our workforce. So I think that's number one. And then I think it's about pivoting. It's about becoming less reliant upon these federal fundings or state funding. So how do I ensure that my services are self- sustainable? How do I make partnerships with donors, corporate foundations, um partnership organizations to make sure that we can stand um you know alone, right? because you we we we're no longer going to be able to be reliant upon this these type of routine funding systems, right? And then consistently making individuals that we support as independent and self-sufficient as possible. Um and less reliant upon um whether that is a SNAP benefit or um the Medicaid system, right? Um and so I think that's number one. I think sustainability, sustainability, sustainability is number one, especially because of the attack that you know Medicaid and all of our systems are experiencing right now. But also looking at meeting the needs, the needs of the people that we support are always changing. So the needs that I saw 18 years ago entering to our organization are not the same. Like the population of the people with lived experience is changing, right? they have they're just as into social media and AI and higher education and all the things right and so we have to make sure that we are consistently innovating um to meet the needs of the changing population and so it is just always strategic planning it's always doing environmental an environmental scan of where the next niche will be um I am a very strategic leader so I tend not to do anything knee-jerk I want to make sure that my core services are are sustainable before I look at what's next. But at the end of the day, really the people we support drive what I do. It's always that's been the culture of Rock Creek. Like we've always been innovative and we've always taken the direction of the people we support. So that's where I am. I love that. You having too much fun. It sound like like it sounds like you guys having too much fun. I'll leave you with this blind question as we uh start to wrap things up. What was that one moment in your life that didn't feel like success at the time, but looking back at it, you actually realize it changed everything? H I would say my childhood honestly I could look back at my life and I would I would tell anyone like my childhood I would not consider successful. the things that I've experienced um even in my core family network um right I would not consider successful. One thing that really really sticks out is um me losing my brother. My brother was murdered in 2008. Um and I really thought that was the end. I was like in the middle of my master's program. I was living here in Maryland alone. You know all my family's in New York and I was just like yeah like this is this is it, right? Um but it really propelled me like I was really able to like just reflect on I think what he would have wanted from me as his um younger sister and as my older brother and I was really able to hold on to that and say I'm going to use this experience to propel me to ensure that I do something different. So no matter what I experienced in my childhood, no matter what I still experience potentially when I go home around certain family members, I have the right to be different. I've been given different opportunities. And so there are different expectations that people may have of me, seeing that what I may have um what opportunities I may have been given, but also what I have on myself. So, if I had to look at anything that I've been through, it would be that that was like the lowest most pits of hell point I think I I ever was at. And I really had to to change to change it to work for my good, honestly. What a way to end the story to tell. Um, and I'm pretty sure your brother is hella proud of just how you picked yourself up at that time and then where you're at today. Like, hella proud. Um, and I can imagine there's a lot of people that don't give you your flowers, you know, because people out of pride or ego, but gotta respect someone that built themselves the table, right? Um, built opportunity for themselves because we, as mentioned, no one gave you this. Statistically, you probably shouldn't even be in the seat that you're in today. I I I'm the first black woman, well, first African-American person and woman to ever be seated as a CEO or president of Rock Creek. And Rock Creek has been around for 52 years. So, hey, breaking barriers. I love it. Yes. Well, listen, where can people follow more about Rock Creek's uh journey? What's the website socials? Sure. Um www.rockcreek.org. Um we are on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and you can follow us the Rock Creek Foundation. You can follow me. I am on LinkedIn um at Najula. So we will be very excited to share our journey, our mission, our impact with anyone that is interested. So please follow link up. Nasa, thank you so much. For those that still watching, make sure you guys subscribe, comment, share this with somebody else, man. We're talking to leaders all around the world sharing insight of what's happening daytoday in their organizations. How they're scaling, how they're pivoting, how they got into the seats that they're in today. My name is Ephrain. This is Naja. We'll catch you on the next one later. Thank you.

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