When Sheryle Gillihan re-entered the business world, she wanted a job that gave her a purpose.<\/p>\n
Gillihan joined the U.S. Army while she was in college. After boot camp, she trained for over a year as an Arabic translator for the military. But with her first child on the way and nearly eight months pregnant, Gillihan felt the pressure to choose between being a mother and a career that would require her to leave her baby. One month before she completed training, Gillihan was honorably discharged.<\/p>\n
Then, after seven years as a stay-at-home mom raising two kids until they were school-age, Gillihan was ready to get back into the working world. She sought opportunities working with nonprofits, but found that the sector paid less than she was expecting and her qualifications on paper only translated into entry-level positions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really challenging because I joined the military just after my junior year of college,\u201d Gillihan said. \u201cI was still working towards finishing my degree and struggled to find a good job without my bachelor\u2019s and without paid work experience for the seven years prior to my job hunt.\u201d<\/p>\n
But a friend recognized her work ethic through her countless hours of volunteering and gave her a chance at Due Diligence Online, a company specializing in virtual data rooms similar to Dropbox that focused on mergers and acquisitions.<\/p>\n
Eventually, Gillihan learned the online platform and the requirements for M&A transactions. She worked her way up to become the company\u2019s Vice President of Operations. Being on this career path allowed her to complete her bachelor\u2019s degree and offered stability for her family. However, over time, the stress of the 24\/7 global service company overwhelmed her and she began to feel like her work didn\u2019t have a meaningful purpose.<\/p>\n
In 2010, her husband, Michael, found the perfect job for her. CauseLabs was looking for a project manager for a scripture translation project, a role that leveraged Gillihan\u2019s linguistic background, management skills, and aligned with both her faith and her search for meaning.<\/p>\n
There was just one catch \u2014 the job posting was on Craigslist.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember saying \u2018That is such a scam,\u2019\u201d Gillihan said. \u201cYou don\u2019t find good jobs on Craigslist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gillihan interviewed with CauseLabs several times \u2014 most of the calls just to make sure this was, in fact, a real job \u2014 and she took the leap of faith to join the team in December of 2010. She\u2019s held many roles at CauseLabs from project manager to Director of Project Management, Director of Marketing, and Director of Partnerships. In November 2016, Gillihan was asked to accept the position as CEO of CauseLabs.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything that I did at CauseLabs revolved around \u2018How do we define our mission? How do we create positive impact? What partners do we chose? How do we connect with people?\u201d Gillihan said. \u201cI wake up loving my work, which is powerful. But also I found my purpose at CauseLabs and as the company evolved, so did I. The fact that I\u2019m CauseLabs\u2019 CEO today is a testament to the notion of \u2018starting in the mailroom\u2019. There\u2019s value in understanding the different roles and perspectives in a company. There\u2019s also value in our relational approach to projects. While it allowed me to serve our clients better, connection and alignment has always been very important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, Gillihan serves on several advisory boards, the United Way of Tarrant County\u2019s social innovation committee, and is in her 10th year as a Girl Scout leader. Gillihan is also the Purpose Ambassador for PurposeWP, a WordPress agency and product company that creates solutions for nonprofits, which her husband Michael founded in January 2016.<\/p>\n
But Gillihan isn\u2019t bogged down by the added load of helping so many nonprofit organizations. Instead, it\u2019s her way of giving back after the help she received as a child.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not born knowing that you\u2019re poor.\u201d Gillihan said.<\/p>\n
Gillihan grew up in poverty in Angeles City, Philippines. One of her most vivid memories is the excitement her great aunt had for their shower, which was just bucket overhead that dumped water when a rope was pulled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bucket above was empty at the time, but I imagined the gush of water I would have felt,\u201d Gillihan wrote in a blog post about her relationship with water.<\/p>\n
Gillihan was sponsored by the Pearl S. Buck Foundation at the age of 18 months, which helped her get life-saving medical treatment, a fact she wouldn\u2019t learn about until her 30\u2019s.<\/p>\n
“It’s through the philanthropy of others that I’m even here today,\u201d Gillihan said in an interview for Forbes. \u201cAnd so I’m glad to be to be a part of that for somebody else.”<\/p>\n
At the age of six, Gillihan\u2019s parents married and they moved to the United States. While she has never forgotten where she\u2019s come from, she didn\u2019t fully understand poverty until her work at CauseLabs parallelled her childhood experiences. Nor is she willing to sit on the sidelines while others go through similar situations.<\/p>\n
\u201cTechnology is changing the world and I want to be a part of using that technology for good,\u201d Gillihan said in the Forbes interview.<\/p>\n
Gillihan isn\u2019t 100 percent sure what the details of her Saturday keynote talk will be about for WordCamp DFW. She does know that she wants to talk about purpose and community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWordCamp is about community and how the people in the room come together, even it\u2019s your first time coming to a WordCamp and even if you haven\u2019t touched WordPress before,\u201d Gillihan said. \u201cThe experience of the two days is going to be what we make it, who we meet, and how we continue to connect with each other long after the event.\u201d<\/p>\n
And she hopes people come away with \u201cthe confidence to start something.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether that be a business, a new project, a new conversation, or a new blog on WordPress,\u201d Gillihan said. \u201cWhatever that might be; I hope people gain the confidence to start something.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tickets are now on sale<\/a>\u00a0for this year\u2019s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 11-12. There are also plenty of opportunities to\u00a0sponsor the event<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0help run it<\/a>. We hope to see you there!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Sheryle Gillihan re-entered the business world, she wanted a job that gave her a purpose. Gillihan joined the U.S. Army while she was in college. After boot camp, she trained for over a year as an Arabic translator for the military. But with her first child on the way and nearly eight months pregnant, … <\/p>\n