Leadership Corner: Susan Au Doyle
Interviewed by Catherine E. Toth
Advertiser Staff Writer
Name: Susan Au Doyle
Age: 53
Title: President and chief professional officer
Organization: Aloha United Way
High school: Punahou School
College: MBA, University of Hawai'i-Manoa; AB in music, Brown University
Breakthrough job: Her first management position, as a cable TV administrator with the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. "It was a very exciting time because that's when the cable companies were first being franchised," Doyle said. That job "gave me opportunities to get into other jobs."
Little-known fact: Doyle was a member of The Chatter Talks, an all-female choral group at Brown University. Doyle played folk guitar — and she still has the album that the group recorded.
Major challenge: "One big challenge is that, particularly with the health and human services part of the sector, there's a real need for coordination. And we really have a resource deficit."
Q. You served as deputy director of the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs for seven years. What motivated you to move into nonprofits?
A. I remember writing in my application essay (for the MBA program at UH) that I wanted to help nonprofits manage themselves better. So way back then I had this idea. Then I went wandering through all kinds of other jobs and finally ended up back here. ... I was hoping to help make the community a better place. Maybe that sounds overly altruistic or optimistic, but I really thought that was a way, working through the nonprofits, to make a difference in the community.
Q. Is that why you later became president and CEO of the YWCA?
A. The mission of the YWCA appealed to me. It's very big, broad. Empowering women and eliminating racism could take us a long time, so I figured I could do that a long time. And the organizational challenges were pretty great when I started there. Then when I had the opportunity to move over here ... the job was really to help build the community. I had the opportunity to take a broader look at not only issues relating to women, girls and racism, but the whole community. That was a broader challenge, in a way, but still making a difference.
Q. How important is cooperation and coordination between nonprofits in Hawai'i?
A. There are so many nonprofits doing so many different and good things that not everyone has a chance to rise above those individual things and pull it all together. And that's what I see Aloha United Way being able to do. We really don't provide direct services, except with Volunteer Hawai'i and (the) 211 program. We are sort of a coordinating piece, which I think is what's needed in the industry. Not to say that people aren't doing a good job; it's just the kinds of problems we have in our community are such that they require complex solutions because they're complex issues. That's really one of our biggest challenges — trying to get people together, trying to help people find the time and the reasons to come together.
Q. Have you seen a change in the way the community has come together to deal with these complex issues?
A. You can see it in efforts like Weed & Seed, that synergy happening. It's simple if you think about the UH volleyball team. Any one of those girls is a terrific player. But they only win the games because all of them play together. It's a very similar thing. We know that teamwork, different skills and assets people and organizations have can, if brought together, create a better result.
Q. As vice president of AUW, you helped create five core areas of focus for the organization — reducing homelessness, increasing family self-sufficiency, reducing crime and drug use, helping children be ready to learn, and increasing volunteerism. What has been the results of these initiatives so far?
A. Right now there is very little disagreement that these are five important things for our community to look at. From lawmakers to grassroots agencies to people in the community, if you polled them, if you read the newspaper, these are things people agree on. And these are things we know we'll have a good return on in terms of improvement in quality of life if we were to work on them together.
Q. How is investing in these areas, whether with time or money, worthwhile to the community?
A. For example, we're focusing on helping kids get ready to learn before they get to school. If 45 percent of kids get to school without being ready to learn, it makes it harder for them to get out of school, participate in the community and be self-sufficient. What we've heard from Art Rolnick (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis director of research), if you put dollars into this early-childhood area, there's a 16 percent return on investment. If you could get that in any other scenario, you'd put your money right there. So there's an economic return on this investment.
Q. Volunteer Hawai'i, a Web site to help recruit volunteers, was launched this year. Why is growing volunteerism important to AUW?
A. The volunteer piece supports the other areas. Get involved. People talk about Hawai'i being the biggest village in the world. Everybody seems to know everybody else. And I think that village concept — "It takes a village to raise a child" — is true. ... But we're saying do it in a strategic way. We're not trying to displace any other efforts. We're trying to lend whatever assets and support we can to help people get engaged. We have a unique place in the community, we reach out every year through our campaign. We can use that to get information out. Awareness is a big part of the job.
Q. How can people get involved beyond donating to AUW's annual campaign?
A. If we could get people to donate not only dollars but time and energy ... because it'll take all three to effect change.
