Amy Shirola leads VillagesOKC operations

Amy Shirola has an infectious laughter that quickly engages people. This is a good balance for her strong leadership and organizational skills. Her extensive experience in corporate accounting management, in higher education and in private business has been the perfect skillset to lead VillagesOKC as Operations Manager.

Her energy and “can do” approach is needed to engage all the VillagesOKC member/volunteers and part-time employees. For most, this would be a communications and staffing nightmare, but Amy has used these challenges for VillagesOKC’s growth in the 10 months she has been Operations Manager. Hired as the Office Manager, it was apparent she had much more to offer, and she was quickly promoted.

Intergenerational savvy would be a great way to describe the way she relates to the communication styles and preferences of all ages – from 43 to 101, the current age span of VillagesOKC members. She gained this through “on the job training” with a warm, long relationship with three grandparents. She has an understanding and caring heart. sought out, but now I am a 10-year member and can honestly say I love attending. I always learn something new at Economic Club dinners and have met the most interesting leaders. And always, always say yes to volunteering, whether it be serving on a nonprofit board or committee or working on the front lines of a nonprofit serving our community. I promise you will never regret it, and your experience will help you become a compassionate leader ─ a leader that will make a difference in our community.

Her top five StrengthsFinder qualities are positivity, communication, consistency, includer and activator, but VillagesOKC members just call her friend.

Amy holds a bachelors degree in accounting from Southern Nazarene University where she worked for 5 years as an alumni program specialist and director of alumni relations. She worked 15 years in corporate accounting. Her entrepreneurial experiences include two food-based businesses – Pie Prerogative OKC and 2 Women and a Whisk Catering Company.

She co-hosts the podcast “Around the Campfire with Amy and Ann,” which she describes as an “interview-driven weekly shot of inspiration.” She is working with VillagesOKC leadership to develop a podcast, “Empowering Independence.” She is a wife to Andy and mother of three young adults.

For more information about VillagesOKC and the many programs offered, visit www.villagesokc.org, call the office at (405) 990-6637 or email info@villagesokc.org.

David

Holt OKC Mayor

I think I just recommend that young professionals retain their strong work ethic, which certainly is necessary to success, while at the same time remembering that your professional relationships are secondary to your family ones.

Will there be days where work comes first? Of course, it happens, but family is what you need to prioritize as the default. Perhaps this COVID-19 experience has allowed us to each rediscover that in case we had lost sight of it.

I also encourage young professionals to have a wellrounded community involvement and to be present in the civic life of our city.

There are so many macro factors that will affect your ability to succeed, and you need to pay attention to those as well.

Mike Turpen Attorney

Three qualities of leadership: In our pursuit for success, it is important to always remember that — you can buy a house, but you can't buy a home; you can buy people, but you can't buy friends; you can buy a reputation, but you can't buy character. The most important qualities in life cannot be purchased.

With that premise, please consider my Three Qualities of Leadership:

1. Funny bone/a sense of humor.

A leader has to have a sense of humor ... hopefully the gift of self-directed humor. Shakespeare said: "Show me a man who never makes a joke and I will show you a man who stands as a joke to the whole world." Will Rogers observed: "Humor is a passport to the heart." Indeed it is, and inevitably laughter leads to listening.

2. Backbone/a sense of courage.

Courage is being scared, but saddling up anyway. As Andrew Jackson observed: "One man with courage makes a majority." It's always the right time to do the right thing. My No. 1 rule for meaningful leadership: Character is destiny!

3. Wishbone/a sense of idealism.

We are all fellow travelers on the spaceship Earth; we must believe in "WE" instead of "ME." As Martin Luther King admonished: "Life's most persistent and urgent question is — 'What are you doing for others?’’ Congrats to the Most Powerful Young Professionals in OKC.

Stacy McDaniel Executive Director Cleats for Kids

As a young professional, you are defining your personal goals. I encourage young professionals to define their goals not by “success” but by “purpose.”

Let your purpose be your long-term goal that ignites your passion and makes a contribution to the world.

Your purpose should be built on a strong set of values that are defined by your faith. Over the years, I have observed two important things in work.

First, more good work gets done and more people’s lives are changed when we work together for something bigger than ourselves.

Second, work is more meaningful and simply more fun by being “in the arena” and getting your “face marred by dust and sweat” as Theodore Roosevelt said.

I always like to remember a few pointers shared by the amazing and inspirational people with whom I have been blessed to work: kindness is never wasted, be courageous and do not fear mistakes, people’s time is a precious gift, your end goal is simply the sum of many small goals and don’t sweat the small stuff.

I commend all our outstanding and inspirational young professionals – you will shape the future of our great city.

Judy Love Founder Love’s Country Stores

I don’t really know what I can add that would help this group of young professionals in anyway. They are truly impressive and so very ahead of where I was at their age it is almost embarrassing.

I think the only thing I could add is to keep up the incredible job you have been doing. The community is very appreciative of you so never lose sight of that.

It is so great to see younger folks so focused on their personal development and their dedication to those that are not as fortunate as they are.

Just keep on chugging guys and gals, continuing your life in such a mean- ingful way.

Renzi Stone CEO Saxum

Being "powerful" and "young" is a big responsibility. And it is relative. Some of you are powerful among your peers while others are powerful in your industry. Most of you are well on your way to being powerful in the future.

Instead of focusing on “power” I’d like to encourage each of this year's worthy honorees to focus on the connection between being perceived as being "powerful" and what it means to be a good citizen. A citizen is defined as an inhabitant of a particular city. So Oklahoma City and all of us Fridaylanders are citizens.

Citizenship is the idea that there are civic duties that are incumbent on each of us to guide our behavior in that place we call home. Citizens who also have power are in an enviable position of influence. Those with the most influence are counted on to make things happen.

NATHANIEL HARDING