2008 40 Under Forty: Josie Shagwert
Josie Shagwert
Age: 28
Title: Director of Development
Company: Regional Environmental Council
Company location: Worcester
Residence: Worcester
Career highlights:
I am the director of development for the Regional Environmental Council. My main job is to fundraise and “friend”raise for REC. REC is a grassroots, non-profit organization whose mission is to build healthy, sustainable and equitable communities in Worcester through urban environmental programming. I came to Worcester to attend Clark University in 1998, and I never pictured that I would go into the development field — actually, I didn’t really know what “development” was. But I became involved with REC as an intern my freshman year at Clark, and I was immediately hooked by their environmental justice work. When I was about to graduate, REC opened up the director of development position and I successfully applied.
Community involvement:
I am a volunteer cook at Dismas House, a community of former prisoners. I also sit on the Board of ARTSWorcester. In 2006 I traveled to the Middle East to participate in a women’s bike ride for peace.
Biggest professional success:
My biggest success professionally has been helping REC grow, over the past five years, from a staff of two to a staff of more than seven, while also helping to develop the YouthGROW program. YouthGROW is a unique youth program that employs teens to run an organic farm in the inner city.
Dream job:
Personal chef, greasecar mechanic, or travel writer…
Businessperson you admire most:
I most admire my aunt, Joan Dwyer, because she began a small center for holistic health in Wakefield, R.I., in 1995 and it has grown to be one of the biggest of its kind in the region.
If you weren’t doing the job you’re doing now, what would you do?
If money wasn’t an object, I’d be traveling and reading.
Favorite movie:
I can’t pick just one! “Spirited Away,” “Café Au Lait” (the 1994 one by Mathieu Kassovitz), and “City of Lost Children.”
If you were stuck on a desert island what book would you want to have with you?
I really can’t pick just one! “Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor” (Gabriel Garcia Marquez), “White Teeth” (Zadie Smith), and “Ulysses” (James Joyce).
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