Alumnae Working to Empower Women
Julie Marx-Lally, MSCP ‘14 and Taneshya Williams, MSCP ‘16 are both graduates of Chatham’s Master of Counseling Psychology program; they also both work for Pennsylvania Women Work, an organization devoted to the employment and empowerment of women across the state. Pennsylvania Women Work offers free, intensive programs designed to help women build confidence and professional skills that will help them on their path towards finding employment. In honor of Women’s History Month and Chatham’s long legacy of empowering women’s leadership and gender equity, we caught up with Julie and Taneshya, two women who are using their platforms to empower and advocate for other women. Check out our conversation below—
Julie Marx-Lally, MSCP ‘14
Taneshya Williams, MSCP ‘16
Can you tell me a little bit about Pennsylvania Women Work and your work there?
Julie Marx-Lally, Executive Director and CEO: I've been Executive Director starting a little over nine years ago, and then made CEO a few years after that. Pennsylvania Women Work is focused on helping women with workforce issues. The original focus of the organization was to help women who were looking to re-enter the workforce after some kind of life-changing event. Pennsylvania Women Work used to be part of a national network of women work organizations that disbanded a long time ago. In the 70s, a lot of people were starting to deal with the ramifications of divorce once it became more acceptable for women to leave difficult marriages. [Women were dealing with the] consequences of trying to get back into the workforce after being out of it for a long period of time. It's evolved significantly since then, and we now work with women dealing with all kinds of situations. We work with women who have lived in impoverished situations for a long time. Maybe they are a first-generation college graduate, and they don't know how to get into the professional workforce because they don't have guidance for it. We work with women who are coming into the workforce after incarceration. We work with women who are already working, and don't know how to network themselves into a higher role in their company. We also have some men who decided that our career services suit them more than others. We're a little bit more intensive than other career programs. Our flagship program—New Choices, New Options—initially dealt with women who were leaving domestic problems or situations. It's a line item in the state budget. I always characterize it as being a psychotherapeutic orientation for career development. We know that people who need a higher level of assistance are probably dealing with issues related to difficulty in the workforce. It could be depression, anxiety, or low self esteem. Sometimes they are not just women's issues, but the majority of the clients we serve are women.
Taneshya Williams, Senior Program Manager for 3 Cups of Coffee: My role is to manage and to oversee the [3 Cups of Coffee] program. We have three programs that fall under 3 Cups of Coffee: the traditional program, 3 Cups of Coffee GRAD in partnership with CCAC, and 3 Cups of Coffee GRAD in partnership with Westmoreland County Community College. My role is to oversee all three programs to ensure that we are fulfilling our grant expectations and requirements. I recruit mentors—professionals in a wide range of different industries and fields—to be sure that we have a diversified group of professionals who are willing to pay it forward to help those who are seeking employment. Another component is recruiting job seekers, interviewing them, and helping them feel prepared to work with a mentor. It's about building relationships and helping individuals to build a professional network. We know that who you know can often help you land your job, so it's finding corporate advocates to give our job seekers industry specific advice and support.
What led you to working at Pennsylvania Women Work?
JML: When I finished at Chatham, I had the good fortune that one of my professors was an adjunct who worked in the late life depression program at Western Psych. She recruited me out of Chatham and I went directly from Chatham into doing my practicum and internship in her department at Western Psych. I did that for a number of years. It was pretty intense over at Western Psych. After a period of time, I started to think that maybe there were other options. I got this offer from Jewish Family and Community Service to work in their regular counseling department, and as a career counselor for people who were having a difficult time getting or keeping a job. I spent half my time in the clinical department and half my time in the career department. After a short time, I was promoted to director of the career department. From there I went to Pennsylvania Women Work. It made sense for me to go from that [job] to being Executive Director of a workforce organization that focused on women and focused on women who were having issues getting into the workforce.
TW: When I initially started my career I was working with mothers, infants, and toddlers. I was going into homes and helping caregivers to build healthy and secure attachments with their babies. We were doing that through play, through child development activities, and so forth. I loved it, but when I looked at, what do I enjoy about my job? I realized that I enjoyed working with the mothers, the grandmothers, and the dads. While I loved the children, I knew that I didn't want to be a teacher. That wasn't my calling. When I looked at the bigger picture, I knew that it was the adults that I felt more passionate about. I knew that if I could find a position that would allow me to work with the grownups, then the grownups would then be able to be better grownups for their kids.
I decided to go back to school and I went to Chatham to get my Master’s in Counseling Psychology. I did my internship at Pennsylvania Women Work because I knew that I wanted to work with women. I love to be a part of an organization of women helping women, even though we don't only serve women. It's really my passion—women's empowerment. [At PA Women Work], I realized if I can help moms to be empowered to find family sustaining jobs, to build their confidence, to get out there and make change, and be the best that they can be, then when they go home they can be the best moms they can be. I know that the work that I'm doing here is still impacting the family. I'm helping to get their moms in a good place financially, and to learn all of the things that they need to learn. I was hired on as a full time staff person [at Pennsylvania Women Work] once I graduated. Four and a half years later, here I am.
What is your primary goal for the women you work with?
JML: My primary goal is to have women feel empowered to make the decisions that make their lives what they want them to be. For me that means taking the next job might not be the right decision. Sometimes it means going back to school, sometimes it means going to get a certificate, sometimes it means coming in, and addressing barriers that have made work difficult. We see a lot of people from low-income situations who have childcare issues or who are housing or food insecure. We can help people along that path, and make sure that we're not just getting people jobs but making sure that their barriers to access are addressed.
TW: When I was at my last job, I would go in with a toy bag. I was like Barney, I had a bag of tricks. I would pull all this stuff out and my goal was to get mom and baby to engage in activities, but sometimes the mom would have an eviction notice, or her water would be in danger of being shut off, or she didn't have transportation, or know if she was going to have enough food to feed her family. Here I was saying, I want you to read this book to your baby, I want you to do watercolors. When we think about the hierarchy of needs, we know that people need to have their basic needs met before they can think about all of these other areas. If I don't have food to feed you and we can't keep the lights on, then we can't read a book. If I can help a mom find a job that's going to help her be able to keep her lights on, pay her bills, and be able to meet her basic needs, then her stress level has decreased. Now she has time to read because she is not in survival mode anymore. She is now maintaining a life. That's what keeps me going every day—helping people get out of survival mode. If you're in survival mode, then you're not in a good place in your life. Even for our own mental health and wellness, we want to know that we are safe, that we have food, shelter, and all of our basic needs are met. From there, we can be a better person to the people in our lives, our loved ones. That's what I hope that we're doing at Pennsylvania Women Work: helping people to find family sustaining wages so that they can take care of their family whether they have children or not, so that they can be their best selves, whatever that looks like.
Can you tell me about one of your favorite programs that Pennsylvania Women Work runs? How does it aim to help the women who participate?
JML: When I came on, we had one program, which was New Choices. I knew that was not a sustainable situation but I needed to be with the organization for some period of time to understand where it could go. What I discovered [with New Choices] was that people come in at intake with their head down and not doing well; a lot of times they've waited until the end of their unemployment or they've never had it. But by the time they finish New Choices, they're doing so much better and feeling better about themselves. They have a great resume put together, and they understand what the next step in their path will be and how to get there. But what I saw was that that didn't often translate to the next step. Often, a couple of months later, we'd hear from them and not have too much else to offer except an individual counseling session. Over time, if they didn't have what they needed, they lost the power of the program. I did some research and it didn't take me long to find out that more than 80% of people who get a job do it through their own networks.
The majority of the people who came to us had been out of the job market for a long time or didn't know anybody in the professional workforce, so they weren't able to network. I started 3 Cups of Coffee very intentionally to provide a networking partner for somebody coming out of New Choices. It's grown over the years and now it serves many other populations. [It gives you a] person who can say, hey, you really don't want this on your resume, or offer, I know a couple people, I'm going to make some calls on your behalf. Taneshya tells our mentors what they're charged with, which is helping people meet their goals. We're replicating the program at a larger scale in Philadelphia with another organization, and the hope is that the program will be replicated on a national level at some point.
TW: The 3 Cups of Coffee model is that a mentor and a mentee will meet for three, one-hour conversations over a six to eight-week period. Since the pandemic, we’ve converted everything to be virtual and found that it works. Moving forward, we're going to do a hybrid model, giving individuals the flexibility to either meet in person or virtually. We want to keep it a short-term commitment for both parties. There is space for these relationships to become long-term, but if they don’t, that’s okay. We know that not everybody needs that long term connection. It's a customized program: the mentor and the mentee create a customized plan to help that job seeker overcome whatever the barrier to employment is. In the traditional 3 Cups of Coffee program, any person can join. Anybody interested in seeking a job and wanting a mentor would be eligible for that program.
If someone wanted to join as a mentee, do they apply?
TW: They apply to the program, then we'll have a meeting. It's really just getting to know that person; we want to be sure that they are eligible and ready for their next career move. We want to be sure that we get to know our mentees, and understand their needs, their background, and what they're looking for. For us, it's important that we're making the best match possible. The matches are always thoughtful and strategic. We don't use fancy algorithms or computers to make the match, we are literally making the match based on similar backgrounds. If somebody is looking for an accounting job and they want to work at the bank, I can look at all of my mentors to see who I have that can help this mentee.
Do you recruit the mentors or do people apply to be mentors?
JML: Because we're a workforce organization, we have a lot of corporate partners. In sharing this program idea with our Corporate Advisory Committee, everybody really loved the idea. One of them said, why don't you come to our company (which happened to be BNY Mellon) and present it and see if you get mentors? I was thinking I would get five to ten mentors at most; I ended up getting 80. 3 Cups of Coffee is such a cool way to give back and pay it forward, and you're not giving up a lot of time. I haven't met a company that doesn't endorse it because it's wonderful professional development. We've had two different studies, one from University of Pennsylvania and one from Chatham, looking at what the program components are, and seeing whether there are high levels of satisfaction from mentors and mentees. As it turned out, the mentors had the highest level of satisfaction.
Can you tell me a little bit about the program you completed at Chatham & your Chatham experience?
JML: I was an adult student at Chatham. A few years before I went, I realized that it looked likely that I was going to be getting a divorce; I was in my own difficult life situation. I ended up taking a course here and there because the writing was on the wall. I already had another graduate degree in communications from before I got married. But communications had changed so much in those years, and I was very interested in psychology. I started to do [my degree], really loved it, and eventually finished it. [Chatham was] incredibly gracious in terms of letting me take whatever time I needed to finish the program. I went on to get my license and work at Western Psych. I got remarried 10 years later and now I'm in a happy marriage. It all worked out. I see people all along that spectrum so I feel like I can relate. I grew up in Brooklyn, living in a little apartment with my mother and grandparents. I understand a lot of the financial struggles that people go through. I feel like I was meant for this job because it gave me such a great opportunity to put into action all of the things that happened in my own life.
TW: My Chatham experience was wonderful. I loved it so much that I try to get involved and give back however I can. I always love when I have the opportunity to be on campus or to see a part of the student body. I recently did a workshop; I like to drop into the alumni coffee meetings. When I initially started about seven years ago, Chatham was an all women's college which I loved. I loved the spirit of what Chatham stood for. As far as the MSCP program, I think Chatham produces the best therapists around. The professors were always super helpful; they really pushed you to think beyond a diagnosis and to think about why people do the things that they do. Chatham incorporates the mind and the body, it's a more holistic, well-rounded program. I got accepted into another program and I'm so glad that I chose Chatham. I feel like it has helped me grow into the professional that I am today. I'm not sure if I would be where I am at now if it wasn't for the knowledge and experience I gained in the MSCP program.
What advice do you have for women who are job-searching and having a difficult time?
JML: I think the number one thing would be to search within themselves to figure out what would really make their hearts sing. Try to figure out a path to get to that place. That place may change along the way; it did for me. To the extent that it's possible, try to keep that heartfelt goal in mind and work toward that, even if that means needing to do part-time work along the way. I believe that if you stay authentic, and really go for the thing that feels important to you to make happen, it will happen. I hate to use Mr Rogers but find your helpers. Pennsylvania Women Work is a helper. We would be so happy to help women who want to take the next step, especially coming out of Chatham. We are now doing an abbreviated New Choices that is virtual. People can sit in their kitchens and take the class, and then get matched up with someone [in 3 Cups of Coffee].
TW: Find the thing that makes you happy. Find the things that you enjoy doing and turn those into a career or a business or a job. You don't want to wake up every day saying, I hate that job but it's a paycheck. Talking about my experience, I looked at, what was it about my job? I loved my job. But is it the whole job that you love or are there components that you love? When I was able to unpack all those layers, it was that I enjoyed working with the moms and then my goal was to find a career that would allow me to work with that group. Find the thing that gets you excited, and then work from there. Don't just find a job to have a job, because you're not going to feel content. Find your passion, find your love, and then work from there.
Curious about the next step in starting or revamping your career? Chatham’s Career Development services are available to current students and alumni. You can explore Pennsylvania Women Work’s classes and programs here.
