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After moving to Tulsa to join Teach for America, Leila taught for a couple of years and then decided to switch careers.
After moving to Tulsa to join Teach for America, Leila taught for a couple of years and then decided to switch careers. With the help of inTulsa, she landed in a role at The Arc of Oklahoma, supporting the work to help individuals with disabilities and their families.
How did you land in Tulsa?
I grew up in the DC area and then moved to Pittsburgh in middle school. From there, I went to university at Cornell, where I studied biology sciences. I started the pre-veterinary track, but decided veterinary school wasn’t for me. I had always had a knack for sharing with people and making information easy to digest, so I added an element of education and communication to my studies. When I graduated, I applied for Teach for America and they placed me in Tulsa. My fiance was accepted by Tulsa Remote, so we were both able to move here.
What led you to your new role?
When I realized teaching isn't for me, I began searching for a new role and posted about it on LinkedIn. Phillip at inTulsa reached out and said, “We have some nonprofit positions.” It was serendipitous. The first position I applied for, I didn’t end up getting, but he reached out again with another position that was right up my alley, and here I am at The Ark of Oklahoma.
What makes working with the inTulsa team unique?
On LinkedIn, you get so many automated messages that are impersonal and disconnected. But it was very clear from the jump that Philip was a real person with specific information that aligned with my job search. The connection felt genuine. He was receptive to my questions and helpful.
I was nervous about switching out of teaching, as it was the only career I knew at that point. Phillip helped me to conceptualize how my skills as a teacher were easily transferable to the skills I would need in this new position. He had the knowledge I needed, and he is very personable and friendy. That made it simple to ask questions, which meant a lot.
What’s a typical day in your role like?
Each day is pretty different. I’m the administrative assistant to the CEO, so I'm making copies, sending emails, scheduling, working on file systems, helping around the office—I love that kind of stuff. It’s a way to connect, and as long as I'm helping somebody, I'm happy. I sometimes help with setting up for events or going to resource fairs to help support our team.
The other part of my position is the program specialist. There’s a monitoring program called OK AIM—Oklahoma Advocates Involved in Monitoring. Trained monitors go into the living situations of individuals that have intellectual and developmental disabilities, not to inspect, but a friendly visit once a year to see if the individuals have a space that represents who they are, have opportunities to express their interests, and can communicate with the staff. If there's an issue, we put that into the system, My position involves setting up the visits. I'm connecting the monitors to the homes and making sure everybody's schedules align.
What do you like best about your role?
So much of what The Ark does is policy and advocacy based. Just learning about the history of disability rights, especially in Oklahoma, has been very interesting. It has been super informative, allowing me to peek into this vulnerable community that I don't have a direct connection to—beyond just knowing that if there's a need, I want to be able to serve.
What is the culture like at The Ark of Oklahoma?
Right now there are seven of us, so it's a very small group of people. One of my own challenges is that I have a hard time asking for help. Whenever I get the guts to do that, people are completely open. It’s never, “Don’t ask me that.” It’s, “I'll answer your questions. Let's talk.” It is as collaborative as you want it to be. There's a lot of momentum to change, do better, update things and modernize in a way that is beneficial to the organization. Everyone here is like-minded in that we have a job to do and a population to serve and do what we can to give them what they need. Everyone is insanely competent and passionate here.
What do you enjoy most about living in Tulsa?
My fiance and I moved here never having visited. I didn't know what to expect, so I had a very open mind. There are a lot of things about Tulsa that I enjoy. The cost of living is lovely. There's a lot of history. I love the infrastructure and how fast it is to get from place to place here.
One place I really love is WOMPA on Charles Page Boulevard. Teach For America held a core conference there, and I was on a panel. On the outside, WOMPA is a very big, industrial looking building. Inside, it is just gorgeous—a beautiful event space. And then, of course, Mother Road Market and the Gathering Place are classic. There are so many little coffee shops and bookstores. Black Wall Street as a whole is so cool.
What would you tell people who are thinking about moving here?
With Tulsa, there's more than meets the eye. That has been the mantra of my fiance and me. There are a lot of places here that people have made really special. If you’re thinking about moving, know what you want, and make sure you are ready for change. Try something new as often as you can. Tulsa has a lot of great free areas to be in, which is really nice. Be open and flexible to change and new experiences.
