Meet Our Bloggers

David Lifsey, President and CEO

I was fresh out of college when I joined Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee back in 1969.  I grew up in Memphis and went to undergraduate school at Lambuth University in Jackson, Tennessee, and then to Vanderbilt University where I earned my Masters in Divinity.  My first job at Goodwill was as the director of vocational rehabilitation.  It wasn’t a big company then.  We had fewer than 90 people working for us.  But interestingly,  in spite of our growth, our mission hasn’t changed over the years.  Our mission is to help people with disabilities and other barriers to employment find work.

I didn’t realize when I started at Goodwill that it would become my life’s work.  But I did realize that growing our  company brought more opportunities to fulfill our mission, to serve more clients, and to expand services.  I was appointed president and CEO of our Goodwill in 1973 by the Board of Directors.  And although the company has grown exponentially in the 27 years I’ve had the privilege of serving as its leader, I still get great joy seeing people grasp the opportunity to improve their lives through work, whether they’re a client or a professional employee.

Today Goodwill employs more than 1,500 employees and more than 90 percent of them are mission-related, which means they have a disability or other barrier to employment.  I feel that our success comes as even the most severely challenged employee comes to work every day, puts in a full day’s work and earns a paycheck.  I believe that work should be fulfilling and that all businesses, whether for-profit, or not-for-profit, should exist for the greater good of society.  That’s the real joy of Goodwill…we change lives and communities.

I see Goodwill as a great company.  We’re business-oriented, we have generous donors, a supportive Board of Directors, a great staff and people who want to improve their lives.  Nothing beats that in a job.

On the personal side, my wife, Judy, and I have a grown son and daughter and four grandchildren who live in the Franklin area.  Many of the students who went to Franklin High School may remember that Judy was a librarian at the school for many years.  In my spare time I enjoy two hobbies, each unique in its own way.  I enjoy wood turning and growing orchids.  And I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to get Goodwill out of my system!

Betty J. Johnson, Vice President of Employment Services

It is my honor and privilege to serve Goodwill, our staff and clients, in a role that allows me to oversee and chart the direction for our Career Solutions services and our human resource responsibilities. I’ve been with Goodwill for 18 years, after having spent five years with Walgreens in their personnel department, and five years as a GED instructor at a community college in Illinois.

I enjoy working with our career counselors at our 16 centers as they serve and train our clients. I look forward to the opportunities to open more centers throughout our territory. I have the privilege of working with our leadership team in Career Solutions as we design and propose new programming. New in 2011 will be an entry-level training program for clients who are interested in jobs in the healthcare industry. We are also implementing a custodial/janitorial training program and another training program for document imaging.

I’m active in the community promoting Goodwill and assisting other organizations as-needed. I am on the Nashville mayor’s poverty leadership team to implement plans developed in 2009-2010 to reduce Nashville-area poverty by 50 percent in 10 years. I am also a member of the Nashville Chamber of Commerce’s workforce committee and I volunteer my time with a Nashville area human resource professional association.

On a personal note, I’m married with one husband, two grown children and three little grandchildren. I am blessed.

The future for our Goodwill is wide open. It is what we make it. I expect we’ll serve more people in the future, giving back to our communities more and more newly trained and employed individuals.

Karl Houston, Senior Director of Marketing and Community Relations

As the senior director of marketing and community relations for Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee, I juggle a lot of projects.  I work with the marketing team to create our television, radio and newspaper ads and the media in our stores. I also manage our donations team and the great folks who accept your greatly appreciated items when you give to Goodwill.

I’ve been with Goodwill more than 12 years and my passion for the company is cemented in my belief that when we help others achieve their goals, and when we give back to the community, everyone wins when a life is changed.   I absolutely love what I do, especially seeing the impact every day of how Goodwill has changed the lives of our clients and employees.  That’s some impact.

I’m originally from Charleston, S.C., and am married with three children – twin girls and a son who is medical student at UT. I attended the University of South Carolina and studied psychology and business administration and am as passionate about the Gamecocks as I am about Goodwill!

Matt Gloster, Senior Director of Career Solutions

I joined Goodwill in 2006, but I was already very familiar with the organization.  I started volunteering at Goodwill in 2002 and joined its Board of Directors in 2005.  At the time I was working in the restaurant industry as director of operations for a company which oversaw 18 different restaurants including Shoney’s and Captain D’s.  That was in Virginia.  Then I moved to Tennessee where I oversaw human resources for all of Captain D’s corporate restaurants.  Not much later I was the vice president of administration where I oversaw human resources, employee benefits, legal, risk management and restaurant information systems.

But I really enjoyed Goodwill.  And in 2006 I joined the company as the senior director to assist in fulfilling Goodwill’s mission of helping people with disabilities and others with disadvantages, to find and keep a job.  In my job I now oversee three center-based Career Solutions offices and the Career Solutions Center on the corporate campus in Nashville.  I work with two field trainers and a full-time computer instructor.

There are several other parts to my job which I enjoy.  I work with the Goodwill call center training program and then I travel off our campus to the Nissan Americas building in Franklin, Tenn., to manage Goodwill clients who are working on the mail and fulfillment team.

I love technology. I’m a self-taught computer and technology enthusiast and I combine that passion with my work of helping people so they can improve their lives and that of their families.

My favorite sayings are: “Getting a job, is a Job,” and “If you don’t own your past, you can’t own your future.”

NaTisha Moultry, Community Relations Manager

I’ve always wanted to work in the nonprofit sector. I studied business management in college and had completed a four summer internship with Junior Achievement of Middle Tennessee, Inc. Once I graduated, I started working at Goodwill in the donations department as an administrative assistant. I learned the importance of obtaining donations and how these items play such a vital role in Goodwill fulfilling its mission.

Two years later another opportunity presented itself and I became special projects manager. In this job I plan and organize special donation drives from businesses, neighborhoods and organizations. I also manage a small crew that picks up donations from businesses and estates. We have a lot of fun interacting with the many donors who believe in, and support, our mission. I also organize special donation events such as the Wedding Gala. I really look forward to planning this event because I mesh my love for weddings with my goal of bringing in non-traditional donations.

On a personal note, I am married and have a two-year old son who keeps me on my toes. I enjoy working in the community and being an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

Niketa Hailey-Hill, Marketing Manager

As a Kentucky native and world traveler, my background is a vast, mixed bag of living and working in rural and urban settings in both not-for-profit and for-profit industries. After graduating from Murray State University with a degree in PR and advertising and a Master’s Degree in mass communication and not-for-profit leadership, I moved to Nashville where I combined my education and relationship-building skills, and continued my not-for-profit work as marketing coordinator at Goodwill.

Several years into my job with Goodwill, I moved to the for-profit world and joined a Nashville ad agency where I gained practical and applicable experience assisting a wide variety of clients, including law firms, technology companies, and political candidates seeking to develop and execute marketing campaigns. Although I stepped away from it for a few years, I realized my heart belonged in the not-for-profit world, and decided to again follow my passion and now serve as marketing manager at Goodwill where I oversee branding, research and assist with overall marketing strategy, new initiatives and events. It’s an absolute pleasure to work every day for a company that is filled to the brim with goodwill – from the people to the mission to the impact made.

Aside from my day job, I’m passionate about helping nurture the young professionals of Nashville. Alongside the Center for Nonprofit Management, I helped form the Nashville Young Nonprofit Professionals group in 2009. I was fortunate to be among the 2009 class of Nashville Emerging Leaders. I serve on the boards of Hands On Nashville, the State of Tennessee’s Workforce Development and the YP Nashville Advisory Council. I’m a self-proclaimed music fanatic, a coal miner’s granddaughter, volunteer and market-teer through and through.

Mary Stockett, Manager of Continuous Improvement

My job at Goodwill is as the continuous improvement manager for Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee.  I’ve been with the organization since 2005. In addition to my job in continuous improvement, which is focused on applying methods of process efficiencies and ensuring procedure continuity throughout the company, I also manage our salvage and recycling departments in an effort to create green jobs and to reduce our waste stream.

I joined Goodwill to explore my altruistic side in the not-for-profit sector after more than 20 years as a publisher and manufacturer. For me, working at Goodwill is not just a job, but an expression of my belief that anyone can overcome hardships, disabilities and disadvantages when given support, encouragement and goals. I’m dedicated to the mission and the people we serve.

I’m a native Nashvillian, born and raised in a family with five generations of businesswomen. My son works in marketing at a Fortune 50 company and I have two young grandsons. I studied geology at the University of Tennessee and my passion is travel. I have traveled to 19 countries, so far, in pursuit of my other interests of art, history and ancient architecture.

Jennifer Kalifa, Donations Manager

I joined Goodwill in 1992 and was the manager of our Priest Lake store. I had been with Merry Go Round Enterprises, which had a clothing store in the Hickory Hollow Mall. I started working there when I was 16 and by the time I left the company I was manager of the store.

So how did I go from a mall store to Goodwill? A friend of mine from Merry Go Round changed jobs and was hired by Goodwill as a store manager. She told me that Goodwill was opening a new store and she thought it would be a good move for me; so I applied and got the job. Wow, I couldn’t believe how different it was working with a for-profit company and a not-for-profit company. I realized that the more money we made at Goodwill the more people we could hire and give them jobs. There was a lot to learn because it was so different from what I was used to.

I was a store manager for two years and then was promoted to district manager, the first-ever for the company. I was a district manager for three years, had my first child and was an operations liaison which meant less travel. I returned to my district manager’s position until 2006 and then transferred to the donations department as the donations coordinator. A short six months later I took over the donations operations as donations manager. It’s what I continue to do.

Since taking over the department I’ve opened 22 new donations sites in three and a half years and our department is 100 percent mission-related, which means all employees have a disability or disadvantage. That’s 100 employees. It’s something I’m very proud of!

I oversee the donations operation including the staff, looking for new location sites and visiting the our attendants in the field. It’s important to me to be out there as often as I can, even if it’s just to drop by just to say, ‘hi.’ Their job is difficult. They work in challenging weather and through difficult situations. I’m constantly reminding the attendants that our number one priority is customer service.

When I’m not working I’m home with my daughters, Ahlia and Zaynab. They’re big fans of Goodwill because they like shopping. I think it’s been good for them to know what I do and my job has made them more accepting of people for who they are. They ask a lot of questions, they’ve learned a lot and can see that no matter what the barrier, everyone can be happy. I hope I set an example and show them the true meaning of work and how it pays off.