Kristy Offitt: Member Spotlight (May 2017)
May 1, 2017Rodney L. Fields, Ph.D.: Member Spotlight (July 2017)
June 30, 2017“Becoming actively involved in the organization has allowed me to meet some amazing, insightful people…and all of these amazing, insightful people look like me!”
-Desire’e Anthony, Operations Manager, Jonathan Adler
Members and friends, meet Desire’e Anthony. Another Georgia-born and bred member and an alumna of Clark-Atlanta University (go Panthers!), Desire’e currently works as an Operations Manager and has over 10 years of experience as a General Manager in retail operations. When Desire’e is not soaking up all of the knowledge that she can about the field of Human Resources, she spends her time being a mom, enjoying the great outdoors, and paying it forward through volunteer work.
Desire’e began her career in training as a District Trainer for international clothing retailer Express, Inc., where she trained managers to train other managers. It was during this time that Desire’e developed her passion for training.
What I liked most was that I could train people and watch them blossom and move to the next level. Watching that is exciting to me.
And Desire’e is no stranger to training, neither in her professional or her personal life. Before Desire’e began her life in the retail arena, she was a student athlete competing as both a gymnast and a competitive cheerleader. For those who don’t know what competitive cheerleading is, regular cheerleaders at a ball game perform during the main event. Competitive cheerleaders ARE the main event and travel across the country competing against other cheerleading squads to ultimately make it to the championships. I supposed one could argue that Desire’e began developing her passion for training back when she began gymnastics at four years old! …okay, that may be a stretch, but to say that her experiences as a competitive athlete and as a corporate trainer have allowed her to understand the psychology of the development process through the lens of both the trainer and the trainee, is not.
While Desire’e revels in the joys of watching human flowers blossom and grow through her training, Desire’e is passionate about the field of Human Resources as a whole and that is what inspired her to ultimately begin preparations to take the PHR certification exam. As a matter of fact, she was introduced to NAAAHR through NAAAHR Atlanta’s PHR/SPHR Study Group.
I found NAAAHR through the study group and I initially became a member so that I could gain more exposure to the challenges and opportunities in the field of Human Resources. Becoming actively involved in the organization has allowed me to meet some amazing people. Everyone has been so insightful. I’ve also been exposed to several different areas of HR. For example, I had never heard of Diversity & Inclusion before hearing one of the Subject Matter Experts speak on the topic. …And all of these amazing, insightful people look like me!
Now that Desire’s spark for Human Resources has turned into a full-blown flame, she says that her next move would be to pivot into an HR generalist role to be exposed to even more experiences in the field, and then back to a training specialist role or Learning & Development.
Have you met Desire’e in person yet? If not, come on out and say hello to her and meet other professionals in Human Resources and other industries on Wednesday, June 10th, at NAAAHR Atlanta’s 2017 Spring Mixer!!! This will be our last event before we take a small break for the summer in July, so don’t miss out! Click here for more information on our upcoming event and future events.