Meet our new Intake Coordinator, Zack Bissell. Zack sat down with our comms team to discuss his background, his new role at MCR, and MCR's role in the nonprofit sector.
What is your background?
ZB: I have a Bachelor of Arts in Arts & Humanities, a minor in Spanish, and a specialization in Latin American & Caribbean Studies. A lot of my education focused on languages, culture, society, the arts and creativity, education, and community. I also have a background in classical music in piano, alto saxophone, bass vocals, and flute.
I taught English in South Korea and worked in public health at a queer community center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I spent 10.5 years running youth arts programs infused with social emotional learning at Living Arts, mostly based in Southwest Detroit.
My work has centered on building community around nonprofit programming, involving the community, building representative councils (parent councils, teen councils), improving systems and processes, relationship building, and general program support including staffing, budgeting, planning, evaluation, and execution.
I play alto saxaphone with the Ferndale Community Concert Band, where I am also Vice President. I am also Board Vice President with the Akropolis Reed Quintet, who excitingly won a Grammy this year!
Music has always been a big part of my life, and these roles help me stay involved in music and open up more opportunities to others to get involved as musicians and listeners.
What drew you to Michigan Community Resources?
I was drawn to MCR because of the nature of the work, especially its focus in Detroit. MCR helps grassroots organizations find the resources they need to have an impact, and helps in other areas that small nonprofits need but often don’t have capacity for.
The Intake Coordinator position felt like a great fit for me to help connect people with MCR services, develop relationships, build trust with partners, and to ensure that the services that MCR provides are accessible and reflect the values of the organization.
I tend to be a person who gets everybody involved in things that I get excited about, and I’m really looking forward to building on that work at MCR.
What do you see as MCR’s role in the ecosystem?
MCR supports organizations in solving issues and meeting strategic needs when they may not have the resources or capacity to do so on their own.
In the process, MCR connects them with other orgs and resources that may be helpful along their journey or in the future so they can learn from each other and support the broader community of nonprofits doing impactful work.
This creates a network and amplifies the impact of nonprofits beyond what they may be able to accomplish on their own, but still on their own terms for how they’d like to approach the work.
How will you help other nonprofits in your new role?
I hope to be a compassionate listener, clear communicator, and a connector who helps nonprofit leaders know they can trust MCR.
I also hope to be an advocate for other nonprofits, knowing that what is shared with me during the intake process is often the raw challenges and emotions that nonprofit leaders face. I hope to be able to share these with my team and the larger community of people who serve nonprofits so we may all reflect on our roles in the ecosystem and resolve sticky points together.
What can our clients and partners expect from working with you?
If money wasn’t a concern, what would you be doing?
That is a big question! If there was continuing inequity and I had a lot of money, I would give it away to causes that are important and impactful. I wouldn't need to vet everything, and I would let communities decide the most impactful way to use the funds.
Photo: Zack Bissell plays alto sax with the Ferndale Community Concert Band. Photo credit: Michael Holser
If equity was not an issue and everybody had what they needed, I think I could be a troubadour—traveling around, making great music with people, enjoying food and culture from around the world, and constantly learning and sharing as I go.
I imagine there would be some element of sharing with everybody what I learned and encouraging them to get curious and adventurous, to get out there and learn more about what is going on in the world through experiences, conversations, and artistry.
Send Zack a note to welcome him to the MCR team at info@mi-community.org!