Michelle West-James

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT MICHELLE WEST-JAMES

The common thread throughout my career is one of service, compassion, and empathy. These all have intertwined into learning the art of storytelling to help enhance the communities that exist all around us. While I started out in College hoping to restore the stories of the past in historic homes, everything changed after surviving the Haiti Earthquake in 2010 while on a mission trip. I finished my Bachelor of Art in History from Virginia Tech wanting to tell the stories of the modern world in service of spreading goodness throughout communities. As I made my way through my Master of Divinity Program at Duke University, I learned to listen to the great common stories of the human. The greatest loves stories. The canyons of grief. The moments of passion. All of them held a similar fact: the importance of us connecting to one another. While at Duke, I received my deepest education in fundraising. I worked at the Duke Lemur Center where I ushered thousands of individuals through the journey of the prosimian primates from the island of Madagascar. It was a journey of millions of years in six pound bodies covered in fur. And as I told the story of the animals, I was able to tell the story of the people of Madagascar. Their struggles and successes in preserving the forests for generations to come. The groundbreaking research, the care of the animals, and the increase of knowledge of conservation allowed me to create connections to cultivate donations. Together, my team significantly increased our gifts and outreach to individuals. There is definitely pride and accomplishment in successfully securing a large donation, but I always found joy in connecting people to a passion. From Broadway actors to Brewers to local Dentists, finding where their donations could make the most impact with the spark of their passions was the best part. And then. when they connected with each other, well, my heart would swell.I continued this journey through the local church before landing as a Hospital Chaplain. There I helped support care teams and families through the most difficult and most joyful times of their lives. it was again, that story at the core of it all, that was the beauty of the vocation. After two and a half years of of the pandemic, it was time to reimagine where I would continue to be able to tell and hear those sacred moments. I found myself back in fundraising. Only this time, taking a wealth of knowledge from years of listening into non profits across Kentuckiana, the nation, and the world so they can tell their story for generations to come.