Polina Makievsky embraces new role as Alliance COO
On the Road Again” is an appropriate theme song to provide background music to Polina Makievsky’s first weeks as COO of the Alliance for Children and Families. Since assuming the role April 1, Makievsky’s top priority has been to introduce herself to members and become better acquainted with members’ specific challenges and achievements.
Given her professional and personal roots in the human services field, she was able to take the latter part of her mission in stride.
| Makievsky talks about how her former position as a senior executive for an Alliance member organization will influence her new role as COO of the Alliance. |
Makievsky’s passion for the human service sector began early in life when she, a first-generation immigrant from Ukraine, and her family benefited from a social services organization in New York. “I saw the impact social services can have in a community, and I wanted to feel connected to the work that’s happening on the ground.”
Between earning a bachelor’s in political science and master’s from the Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies, she spent four years working in the former Soviet republics of Ukraine and Georgia as part of an international organization that fosters civic leadership and cross-cultural learning.
Makievsky later helped impact the federal public policy process in Washington, D.C. Several of her former employers are nonprofit organizations that continue to partner with the joint public policy office of the Alliance and United Neighborhood Centers of America.
Most recently, she was director of programs at Alliance member La Casa de Esperanza, Waukesha, Wis., a position that brought her into frequent contact with the Alliance and its services.
During a rare morning when she was at the Alliance headquarters in Milwaukee, the Alliance for Children & Families Magazine sat down with Makievsky to learn more about her background and thoughts regarding the future of the Alliance.
| How can the Alliance be sure its new COO has the perseverance for this next part of her journey? To start, she spent three months hiking the Appalachian Trail. In this video, she talks about that experience. |
In what ways will your past role at a member organization contribute to your new position as Alliance COO?
Working at a member agency gave me intimate insight into the issues, concerns, and rewards Alliance member agencies go through.
I know firsthand about the realities of dealing with shrinking budgets while the demands for services continue to grow. I know about the challenges of recruiting talent for an agency and developing, nurturing, and retaining that talent. I also understand the challenges related to measuring the impact of programs and services, making sure programs are meeting the objectives of the agency and funders, and achieving performance goals.
Those experiences give me an understanding of what our member agencies are going through, and they give me empathy for the challenges of that work. I will look at how the Alliance delivers services to its members through that lens. It will help me be an ally for members, and will ensure the Alliance provides programs and services that are a good match with members’ needs.
What attracted you to the Alliance?
I’ve always been impressed with the work the Alliance does, the services it offers, and the staff’s commitment to the Members First philosophy. I knew the Alliance had an excellent reputation.
The opportunity to have impact on a national level is also something that was a big draw for me. It was an opportunity to connect my grassroots experience with what’s happening on the national scene, so that I can help members create impact and continue to be high-performing organizations.
What three traits do you bring to the position that members will appreciate most?
I think the first thing is more a quality about me than a skill set. It’s my commitment to service, my philosophy. It’s how I approach my work, whether it’s working with Alliance staff or serving members. That’s what drives me in my professional work.
Second, I enjoy making connections—whether it’s between people or between people and resources—and then leveraging those connections. I enjoy relationship building. So, trying to maximize those relationships for the benefit of members is something I bring to the position.
The third quality is my enthusiasm for resource development. That’s such an integral part of what the Alliance does, ensuring that members have resources at their fingertips that enable them to be high performing organizations. The Alliance also must continue to stay ahead of the curve to make sure members know what’s happening nationally and are equipped to do their work locally.
How has your public policy background helped you professionally?
My thinking in terms of public policy is that it’s not a moment in time that happens in Washington, D.C. Effective public policy is a process, and issue experts are critical because they inform and weigh in on that process. In that regard, service providers such as our members have just as much a role to play as legislators and their staff.
Having spent time on Capitol Hill as a legislative aide, I know that members of Congress actively utilize informed experts when they craft public policy. There’s a lot of power to be had in the Alliance network, and I know that people on Capitol Hill listen to that kind of an informed constituency.
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