Melvena Counts

What is your role at UWSWVA and how long have you been a part of the team?

I am the Executive Assistant to the President and CEO and the ‘Gate Keeper’ extraordinaire. I’ve been with UWSWVA for almost a year.

What is your favorite part of your job?

Working in an organization where we are all working towards a common goal, helping to improve lives and strengthening communities.

What does a typical day look like in your position?

There are never two of the same day. The work is plenty and the days are too short. Previous to coming to work at UWSWVA, I used to complain to my husband that I was bored at my job even though at times I was assisting up to 6 executives in the C-Suite. Since working at UWSWVA, not once have I said that, which means I am staying busy and love it.

What is your personal motivation?

Being a part of an organization that is a catalyst for change in the communities we serve.

Favorite event/program at UWSWVA?

My all-time hands down favorite is Celebrity Bagging. I volunteered in Celebrity Bagging with the last organization I worked for. Now, I'm participating with UWSWVA. I love being out in the community and seeing those that volunteer their time to help raise funds and all the comradery. Last year we had the Marion PD with us and they are just a great bunch of people. We had so much fun with them. Can’t wait to invite them back again.

What are some of your favorite hobbies?

I love to garden from spring into fall. I grow tulips, dahlias, peonies, lavender and sunflowers. This year I will try vegetables again since everything has gotten so expensive.

I also love to bake, you name it, I will bake it. Cinnamon rolls, cookies and scones is my favorite to bake.

Another one of my hobbies is watching bald eagles. I watch about 5 different eagle nest cams between September through May. It’s very interesting to see nature in the raw from nestorations, mating, egg laying, incubation, hatching, feedings and until the eaglets fledge the nest. You bond with these eagles as you watch them year after year. You also bond with their eaglet(s) as you watch them grow. They kind of become family, if that makes sense. I often cry once the eaglet has left the nest for the final time. It’s very emotional, for me and I know for other BE lovers too.

What is something that is fun and unique about you? Or tell me one thing about yourself that our team doesn’t know about you.

I scold our fur babies in Hawaiian and they understand, or I like to think they understand….lol

Tell me about your favorite day at work, in your current position, that you’ve ever had.

Every day is a favorite day when I come to work at UWSWVA. But seriously, it would have to be surprising Travis for his 40th birthday with our team. I had just started with the organization and his birthday was coming up and I didn’t know what the protocol was for birthdays around here. So, I’d enlisted Leann Vernon to help me. Then I had to make up a story to get him to the downstairs conference room and said Leann had an IT emergency and needed his help. I think he thought that was fishy, but he went anyway and surprise!!!! Balloons, cake and ice cream. That was fun.

Do you have a quote or mantra that you always look to that is meaningful to your work here at UWSWVA?

Jeramiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”

God is always in control of each and every situation, we just need to follow his lead and direction. If the funding didn’t come through or the meeting didn’t happen that we planned for, it’s all in His timing, not ours.

Another one that I love is “today is a good day to have a good day.”

What was your very first job and how do you use a lesson you learned in that job still today?

I was an office assistant at the local elementary school. Just because you plan and try to execute that plan with precision and efficiency, it doesn’t always work out, take it with a grain of salt and move pass it. You can only do what is in your power, nothing more nothing less and He will do the rest.