Sawyer Bailey

Idealistic. Compassionate. Visionary. Viva. Las. Vegas

Current Employer & Job Title: AdkAction, Executive Director

Hometown: Voorheesville, NY

Education: Syracuse University, Maxwell School of Citizenship BA, Yale University,

Yale School of Environment MEM

Sawyer does not seem especially interested in giving expected answers. AdkAction’s Executive Director approaches leadership with the same blend of creativity, conviction, humanity, and optimism that defines much of the organization’s work itself. Equal parts idealist and pragmatist, she believes communities do not become stronger accidentally. They become stronger because people decide to care enough to build something better together.

In three words, how would others describe your personal brand—and where do those traits show up most in your work?

When we had our son, a friend sent a congratulations card and inside wrote “Viva Las Vegas.” I had to laugh. But I’ve thought about that phrase many times since, including when we took our six month old to Las Vegas for a family reunion. Enjoy it all, our friend meant – every high, every low, all the places in between. It’s a wild ride, and chances are you won’t be back. This moment won’t come again.

What aspect of your organization’s culture do you protect or promote most fiercely—and how have you influenced it?

I am focused on cultivating a new kind of nonprofit where AdkAction staff can do the best work of their lives and thrive in an organization that supports them as whole people. Together we have created a workplace where ideas and action flourish alongside employee wellbeing.

Where do you invest your time outside of work, and what motivates your commitment to those efforts?

My family is the heart of my life, and everything I do is with and for them.

4. Who has most influenced your leadership style—and what specific lesson from them still shapes how you lead today?

I learn from everyone around me, from my staff and Board of Director colleagues, to my family, neighbors, fellow nonprofit leaders, lawmakers, and literary figures. I am most inspired by the women who have come before me, leading with idealism, compassion, and vision.

5. Where are you making your greatest impact right now—in your organization, industry, or community—and how do you measure it?

Together, AdkAction and I are making the region we love so deeply a more resilient, balanced, and nurturing place for those who call it home, while charting a new course in the nonprofit sector. We do this work with all our AdkAction members, and measure much of our success by the kinds of new ideas we can design and launch together, and how often we hear our members use the word “we” when describing the organization.

6. What’s something about you that would surprise people—and what does it reveal about how you think or operate?

I am an artist and I bring creativity to my leadership every day.

7. What is one lesson your career has taught you that you had to learn the hard way—and how has it changed you?

My father always said the most valuable thing we have to our name is our word. Keep your promises, lead with integrity. That has only proved truer for me over time, especially as I’ve taken on more complex responsibility in my career.

8. What is the biggest professional or personal risk you’ve taken—and would you make the same decision again? Why or why not?

Taking on the Executive Director position at AdkAction. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

10. What’s one idea, belief, or change you hope to see shape the future of leadership in our region?

Nonprofits fill the gap between what the government will do and what businesses find profitable to do. That gap is getting wider, and the resources to fill it are getting smaller. This is both a reality, and an opportunity to try something new. Our sector can break through long held norms to do more and better work with that in mind. And just because we haven’t solved the challenge of hunger, gentrification, pollution and so many other issues as a nation, doesn’t mean we can’t solve them right here in our own hometown. Let that possibility be our fuel.