President
Nikkie Ellis
What year did you join the Board? 2017
What does volunteerism mean to you? Volunteerism means giving back to your community while making a difference in the lives of others.
What should people know about your career, education, and other skills? I have served on the DOVIA Leadership Board for the three years as the VP of Events. Currently I am on the Leadership Board for The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization Volunteer Management Section. I currently volunteer for the NV Volunteers/Governor’s Points of Light planning committee – I assist with planning the award ceremonies, as well as judge the GPOL nominations. I have built an amazing relationship with the staff at NV Volunteers in which they would love for us to work with them in growing their outreach. Currently I also am the Chair for the Hospice Veteran Partnership of Nevada. I work with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the community hospices in the State of Nevada on how we can educate the community on the end of life benefits veterans have available to them. As a Director of Community Engagement with Infinity Hospice Care I not only oversee the Volunteer Department for our Reno, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Pahrump locations. I volunteer at my church in the preschool teaching bible study to three year olds, parent volunteer at my son’s school (when school is open), every year I volunteer at Opportunity Village Magical Forrest, just to name a few.
What drew you to serve on the board of DOVIA? The leadership board! We have so much fun working together planning member meetings. Being apart of this leadership board has helped me grow in my career.
What is your favorite DOVIA moment? Being a part of DOVIA, I have so many favorites moments… meeting, working with such wonderful people, sharing ideas with others, learning from subject matter experts and more. But my most favorite moment is working with the board and planning the next member meetings.
What do you envision for DOVIA’s future? My vision for DOVIA is to hold an annual professional development conference that will inspire, motivate, and encourage Volunteer Managers. I would love for us to offer a mentorship program for new volunteer managers. This will give new volunteer managers a person they can go to when they have a question or just need a bit of encouragement. I also would love to see DOVIA on a social media platform such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to showcase how we work together as a group which will help us grow and maintain our membership. I would love for our goal to have 125 members within the next two years. I would also love to have an awards ceremony for the Volunteer Managers to allow for them to be recognized for the work they do as well.
Treasurer
Almendra Johnson
What year did you join the Board? 2021
What does volunteerism mean to you? Volunteerism is an opportunity to participate and be an active good in the community.
What should people know about your career, education, and other skills? I am a people person, an extrovert, and even studied Sociology in school. I have been active in the Las Vegas volunteer space for over 14 years. I started volunteering in local school organizations with my kiddos and that quickly spiraled into serving on multiple volunteer athletic team boards, school parent organizations, and 8 years with the Boy Scouts of America. Most recently, I have leveraged my volunteer management experience into a career with Get Outdoors Nevada for 3 years.
What drew you to serve on the board of DOVIA? The board members always looked like they were having a great time! I wanted to be able to share my volunteer management experience with others and also learn more about the ever changing volunteer space from the other board members.
What is your favorite DOVIA moment? Connecting with new members at each meeting, I enjoy meeting new people and hearing about what keeps them busy.
What do you envision for DOVIA’s future? A positive space for continued learning and collaboration.
Secretary
Rachel Warner
What year did you join the Board? 2021
What does volunteerism mean to you? Volunteerism is giving back to your community and feeling like you have truly made a difference. In my previous role, our nonprofit wouldn’t be the same without our volunteers showing up each week, in big and small ways, giving their time selflessly.
What should people know about your career, education, and other skills? I attended the University of Nevada, Reno and graduated in 2016 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Community Health Sciences with an emphasis in Public Health. From 2017 – 2022, I was lucky enough to be a part of the Immunize Nevada team in various roles – the most recent being the Outreach and Volunteer Manager. In this role, I focused on volunteerism and outreach efforts across the State of Nevada.
What drew you to serve on the board of DOVIA? Although I have only been attending DOVIA meetings for about a year, I always felt like I gained a ton of valuable information from all of the board members and attendees, on top of the meetings being so positive and leaving a lasting impression. I am very excited for the opportunity to take on this leadership position!
What is your favorite DOVIA moment? I enjoy networking with fellow Volunteer Managers in various organizations throughout Nevada, and getting their perspective on certain components of volunteer programs, especially volunteer engagement and retention.
What do you envision for DOVIA’s future? I would love to see DOVIA expand into a statewide collaborative organization, especially because I live up in Northern Nevada and there is not as much support up here for Volunteer Managers as there is in Southern Nevada. I am eager to get more people involved with DOVIA and to feel inspired by professionals of different backgrounds and levels of expertise!
VP of Education
Heather Davis – Opportunity Village
What year did you join the board? I joined the DOVIA Board in 2023.
Why are you interested in serving as the VP of Education? It is my desire to help grow the professional development, build relationships, and grow a network, of those in the volunteer engagement world within Nevada.
What qualifications do you have to serve as the VP of Education? Over 25 years of volunteer engagement work through personal service (church & community) and professional roles. To include all aspects of volunteer management from recruitment to retention.
Credentials / Certifications: MSE, CVA, CPLC Certified Coach, Commissioner with Nevada Volunteers, and Experience growing local, regional, and state wide volunteer programs/events.
What are three of your strengths? Advocate of Lifelong learning, people person, who is always looking to build bridges within the community to create a positive impact.
What is your vision for DOVIA? To be a hub for professionals in Nevada to connect, collaborate, learn from and with each other.
Advisory Board Member
Melissa McDonald – Aging & Disability Services
What year did you join the board? I joined the DOVIA Board originally in 2015. When we “Recharged” in 2017, I joined the Board as Treasurer. I am currently serving in an advisory capacity.
What does volunteerism mean to you? Volunteerism is the opportunity to share your time, skills and/or experience with other people or causes to make a difference for the good. No act of volunteering is unimportant. I include in volunteerism the range from small acts of kindness to an individual to working on major projects that will benefit groups of people or causes. It all makes a difference.
What should people know about your career, education, and other skills? When first joining DOVIA, I was the Volunteer Coordinator for Nevada Senior Medicare, a Federally funded grant administered by the State of Nevada that utilizes volunteers to provide outreach and education on how to prevent healthcare fraud. While this was my first paid position on the management side of volunteering, I have been a volunteer and served in leadership roles with volunteer organizations all my life. My education includes a BS in Business Administration with a career in Investment Banking.
What drew you to serve on the board of DOVIA? Networking is one of the best way to excel in what you are trying to achieve. DOVIA offers that networking opportunity for volunteer management. I wanted to volunteer my skills with the other Board members to strengthen the organization and enlarge the membership to increase DOVIA’s beneficial networking and education opportunities.
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