board member spotlight: Courtney herda

7/28/2019

It may not sound like a logical fit for an advertising CEO to sit on the board for A Step Ahead, and though her path to us was not linear, Courtney Herda is a passionate member of the board, assisting in a wide variety of marketing roles. Meet Courtney below!

When people ask me how I ended up on the board, I always have to say, “Well, it’s kind of a funny story.” My marketing agency, Smarter Searches, has done a number of promotions and projects with the Health Department. So when A Step Ahead was getting off the ground and wanted to learn how to use social media more effectively, I was connected with Wendi, our executive director through some friends at the Health Department. My team leads social media training sessions (in addition to a number of other services) so we set up a session for A Step Ahead.
During the course of that social training, I learned a great deal about the organization and loved everything I heard. Even though my background isn’t medical, I married into it. My husband is a physician and I like to tell people I’m at least 25% of a doctor since I was his study partner all throughout medical school and residency. Wendi and I hit it off and she invited me to a board meeting to see more about the organization. It seemed like fun so I agreed. I’m not sure if I knew what I was in for in terms of work, but it’s all a labor of love.

I work closely with the team - mostly Wendi and Alison - to help them strategically frame social media campaigns, administer Google Ad Grants, answer questions on marketing for non-profits (Venmo? Facebook Payments? Invitations for an event? Analytics?), and take my decidedly un-medical perspective and try to help frame our mission for the masses.

We joke that most of the board isn’t particularly savvy about social media. Cue everyone looking at me, where I sheepishly have to admit that I spend almost as much time on Instagram as I do sleeping. But hey, that’s the job, right? I love that I can share something I love - marketing and advertising - and bring it to the organization at large for a larger, greater, more powerful platform.

If you could help me in the organization, I would ask you to like our posts, share our stories, spread the message. Invite your friends to like our pages. Read the emails we send out.

The mission of removing barriers is a powerful one. That’s what we do. No insurance? No problem. No transportation? No problem. Not sure if LARC is right for you? No problem. Afraid about privacy and confidentiality? No problem. No access to a regular provider? No problem. We tear down all the barriers that block a woman from claiming ownership of her body and her reproductive health. And it’s pretty amazing that I can do that with an Instagram post.

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