* Name: Ann Treadwell
* Job title: Program director for the Jewish Federation
* Location: Jewish Cultural Center
* First job: Scooping ice cream at Baskin-Robbins in high school
* Favorite part of job: “I never have a boring day and I’m always learning something”
* Worst part of job: Paperwork, record keeping and filing. She dislikes anything that doesn’t use the computer to keep records.
* Special rewards: “I get to meet interesting people and hear their stories. I talk to and interact with people of all generations. It could be something as simple as a preschooler discovering a huge spiderweb or a senior telling me about the different places they’ve lived.” She said translating people’s experiences into programs that keep them active and engaged is particularly rewarding. “Probably the most special thing I get to do is learn about people of all ages and create dialogues to let them learn about each other.” These dialogues, she said, can range from oral history to witnessing young children’s discovery of the world.
* Best advice: “Really look and listen. There’s so much out there that often we are too busy to pay attention to.” In Ms. Treadwell’s line of work, following this advice leads her to be able to create engaging programs.
* Making a career of it: With a bachelor of fine arts in painting and drawing and a master of fine arts in sculpture, Ms. Treadwell advises all career seekers to be open to being creative. She said she came to her position “in a very roundabout way.” In the midst of a number of years doing consulting work with nonprofit organizations, she said she had been doing some consulting work with the Jewish Cultural Center and it developed into a full-time job. “It was very important for me to work in a place where I could also pay attention to my teenage son.”