Membership in CREW Upstate has its definite advantages. Part networking organization and part educational program, CREW Upstate (a local chapter of the 12,000-member-strong national CREW organization) brings together professionals from every area of commercial real estate to have a stronger voice in the industry. The Upstate chapter has over 100 members, and that’s a lot of real estate experience in one organization.
And now, CREW members can take advantage of that experience with a new mentorship program. Created by CREW Upstate’s Career Outreach Committee, the mentorship program pairs experienced commercial real estate professionals with those who are newer in their career paths.
“This year was our first year of developing our mentorship program,” says Career Outreach Committee’s incoming committee chair Britney Barnes. “And we had a handful of CREW members, seasoned professional ladies within the CRE industry, who agreed to be mentors this year.”
The program was spearheaded by the motivation and experience of Debbie McDonough, recently retired from Cherry Bekaert and 2021 committee chair, and partially shaped by feedback from CREW Upstate members themselves, says Barnes. “We sent out a survey to the CREW Upstate chapter members who were within 10 years or less of their careers, in an effort to gauge the interest of our members and what they may need or want out of a mentorship program at this point in their careers,” she says. “We were trying to target professionals who were young in their careers or had possibly just switched careers, and we paired up the mentors and mentees based on the mentee’s feedback to the survey.”
Mentors from the program include:
- Debbie McDonough, recently retired from Cherry Bekaert
- Meg Scoopmire, Hanysworth Sinkler Boyd
- Lisa Dwight, Dodge Mechanical Power Transmission Company
- Britney Barnes, Civil and Environmental Consultants
- Jayne McCall, Hughes Development
- Ramona Farrell, Farrell Insights
- Maggie Kleger, Win Agency
- Michelle Dodge, Truist
- Lindsey Cannon, Quest Site Solutions
- Jackie Baxley, HRP Associates
- Christina Moir, Sage Point Valuation
- Kimberly Bailey, Brasfield & Gorrie
- Shelby Dodson, CBRE
- Tanya Jones, Bonitz
The plan initially was for mentors to meet up with their mentees once per quarter, but Barnes says some of the program participants have been more active. “The hope was that after the first meeting, everything would happen organically,” she says, “and many of the members we have paired up have been meeting on a more frequent basis.”
Even though the program is in the early stages, CREW Upstate is excited about where it could go, says Barnes. “This year, our main goal was to get people engaged, keeping in mind COVID was still impacting our daily lives, but we’ve already got ideas on how we want to grow the program.”
