What is your full name?
Rita Alexander Arancibia

What is your profession?
Civic Entrepreneur

Where are you from originally?
I grew up in a very small rural community in central Illinois, land of Lincoln, home of the prairie and tall cornfields. A place where everyone knows each other - there is a corner diner on main street, a few churches and lots of potlucks. People gathered at real places; close relationships with neighbors and feeling connected was the norm. I moved to Santiago Chile and lived there for almost two years. Upon my return to the United States, we settled in a smaller community until 1996 when we moved to Nashville. In the fall of 2002, my husband Marcos and I moved to Clarksville.

How long have you been in Clarksville?
Since September 2002.

What brought you to Clarksville?
My husband’s job with the Montgomery County Health Department

Tell us about your family.
I am married to Marcos Arancibia, a family physician. We have a daughter, Patricia who lives in Whitehouse with her husband John and their three daughters Claire, Lucy and Marie Rose. Our son, Mark lives in Hendersonville with his wife Tara and their two children, Sadie and Alexander.

What do you like most about Clarksville?
While I have lived in other places, I like that Clarksville has a “smaller” community feeling - like the community that I grew up in, yet there is some diversity--it really is a melting pot. People move here from all over the world. I love that living here I have lots of opportunities to reach out and connect to new people, ideas and experiences. I like that good things have happened to me here. I have made wonderful friends and had the opportunity to participate in the community.

If you could have any other profession/dream job what would it be?
I feel like I am living my dream. I have always felt that we were put here on this earth to share our gifts, talents and resources-- to help each other out and to work toward making our world a better place for our families, our neighbors and our communities. I believe that we really are all tied together- to each other and we each have an effect on the health and collective well-being of the communities we live in -- and in our world.

For about 6 ½ years I worked for the City of Clarksville’s Office of Housing and Community Development, first as a program coordinator for the housing repair program and then as Director. I worked closely with many local nonprofit organizations so I saw firsthand the needs in the community. After organizing the Housing and Homeless Coalition in 2003, and discovering what a group of organizations and citizens could do together, I was hooked. I love the energy and synergy that comes from a group of people who put aside their individual agency missions for the greater mission: helping those who need help the most and building a strong, sustainable and healthy community.

When I resigned from my position with the City in May 2009, it was with a much greater understanding of our community’s safety net—all the programs and services provided to those in need by local agencies and organizations that often go unnoticed. It was also when I had an AHHA moment, you know the one that everybody talks about; it was when I finally discovered that I was already doing what I always wanted to do and that was to help connect organizations and agencies to one another, and community resources to needs. And although I had no formal authority, I felt optimistic. If we could work together, across missions- if we could grow collaborations, build relationships and recruit volunteers to support the organizations that provide so many helping services then we would be a healthier, stronger and more resilient community. If we could come together – find a starting point and see the value of making positive choices about our future together, we could act together on an optimistic vision of how our community could be more successful into the future.

So in June 2009, I invited local nonprofits, government agencies and faith organizations to gather together to “talk” about the community safety net and how the mobilization of volunteers could help support their programs and provide citizens an opportunity to feel connected, participate and make a difference in their community. In July 2009, organizations unanimously agreed to help organize Clarksville TN Volunteers, a program to inspire and mobilize volunteers. The program is now Hands on Clarksville and recently mobilized more than 900 volunteers in service during the 9/11 Serve to Remember: Days of Service project. Hands on Clarksville received a $ 25,000 grant award from the Corporation for National and Community Service for this project.

In April 2011, local agencies and organizations were once again invited to come together to “discuss” community collaboration, networking and partnerships--the key to their future success and sustainability. A Nonprofit Partnership Network (NPN) was formed. The NPN is a growing coalition of community organizations, businesses, academia and government working together to unify and support the nonprofit community. In September 2011, the NPN launched its website and list-serv, an exciting new e-mail tool available to Clarksville-Montgomery County nonprofits and other partners. The NPN-List-serve provides a place to distribute and receive information through a dedicated email to allow for better coordination and cooperation between community partners and organizations. NPN’s goal is to strengthen our community by improving the viability, impact and effectiveness of our local nonprofit and service organizations through comprehensive education, networking, community awareness and volunteerism.

The great thing about my job is being able to work with so many different people in the community, and on different levels and on different issues - every day is a different day.

I would like to see the programs grow and expand so that I can do more in the community.

What is your favorite meal?
I love to cook and bake, so picking a favorite is really hard to do. I read cookbooks like novels. I also have taught cooking classes off and on for about 17 years. I guess if I had to choose, I would probably pick pasta, any pasta dish and tiramisu or chocolate cake with ganache frosting.

What is the easiest and most difficult part of your job every day?
My work is oriented around helping and serving. It’s fun. I get really excited about all the possibilities in our community. That is the easy part, but the most difficult part of the job is being able to balance-there are so many opportunities to be supportive and help that sometimes it becomes difficult to balance it all. Being exposed to so many different needs and finding that there just is not enough time to do everything is really frustrating.

What do you drive?
I currently drive a Toyota Camry.

What’s your favorite movie or TV show?
I love NCIS and the Big Bang Theory.

Who do you look up too?
People who are kind-I think that kindness is probably one of the most important words in the dictionary. Being kind is just basic; we should all try to be a bit kinder to others and to ourselves. I look up to people who are authentic, people who walk their talk. Integrity is super important to me, so I look up to those who say and do what they say they are going to do. Honesty too-- I respect people who tell it like it is- I would rather hear the good, the bad and ugly so I can deal with it. I think people prefer transparency- knowing the truth of things. There is not just one single person that I look up to; I have several, and each one has really special qualities that make them my hero.

Who is your role model?
I think we have many role models in our lifetime and each one teaches us something. I find role models everywhere, on any day and any place. People you see who are trying to make a contribution with their time, talent and resources. They are people that make me want to be a better person. Sometimes I see people who are really having a tough time, but they are making the best of their circumstances, for me they are the great role models. It is about living everyday life with a good attitude.

What has been the toughest challenge you’ve had to overcome in your life?
I am sometimes too optimistic and passionate about my work. It is challenging to be optimistic around people who don’t like their work. I totally believe that work should be enjoyed, it should be fun and we should find ways to be creative in our work. It is that deal about avocation. I want everyone to have a job that they are passionate about, so my biggest challenge has been working with people who are not passionate about their jobs, people who just want to get a paycheck. I have a really hard time figuring out how to reconcile myself to that kind of work ethic. I love to work and have fun with it.

We all have challenges in our lives, but overall I feel very fortunate to have people who care about me and love me. It is the people that hold us dear that help us overcome those tough times in our lives. My toughest challenge has been to balance my optimism with reality.

What do you hope to be doing 10 years from now?
I hope that I am still doing what I love, working with the community and hopefully making a difference. I would love to see Clarksville have a “Center for Community Partnerships and Innovation where community ideas, needs and resources could come together.

How would you like your life to look 10 years from now?
In 10 years from now, I hope that my family is healthy and happy and I am still loving what I do.

Why did you choose your current profession?
My profession chose me. I did not start out to work in community development, but when I look back, I realize that is what I have been doing for as long as I can remember. I actually started volunteering when I was 10, and I have always had a passion for connecting to the community where I live. I think it must be a soul thing and I just sort of grew into it. No matter what job I have held, I always have felt it was the job that I was supposed to be doing at that particular time; and in every job I learned something, met someone or found something I could put into my backpack- a new skill, a new piece of knowledge or a hard knock. I have had the opportunity to work in jobs that I love, jobs that don’t feel like work, because I enjoy so much what I do.

When and to where was your last vacation?
My husband was born and raised in Chile and in late 2009 we spent a couple of weeks in Santiago with my 14 year old granddaughter. We visited her great grandmother, uncles and aunts. We also visited some amazing vineyards and I took a cooking class. It was fabulous.

What is your favorite pastime or hobby?
It would have to be cooking and visiting with my grandchildren. I also love researching and reading.

What advice can you give others juggling a family and career?
Stop, drop and roll. That is what I tell my kids and grandkids. They laugh when I say that, but when we feel overwhelmed with so many responsibilities and decisions on our plate that we don’t know what to do next, it’s a good idea to just stop and breathe-- sit down, and look at the situation from a different angle. Just stopping for a moment will give you a new perspective and you can begin to refocus your energy. Think about how you want to spend your energy. You only have so much, and it is important that you plan how to best use it. If we get too caught up in the “being overwhelmed” we lose sight of what is really important.

What are you passionate about in life?
I am passionate about optimism, being positive. I firmly believe that we all have something we are supposed accomplish while we are here on earth; we each have an earth mission. An earth mission is a big deal, and it requires us to approach our lives with the right attitude, focusing on the steps that we need to take to produce positive results. Our self- talk vocabulary has to be such that it motivates us to move in the right direction and we have to have perseverance. Sometimes it feels like its mission impossible, but we’ve got to keep trekking, keep going. Helen Keller said that every optimist moves along with progress and hastens it, while every pessimist would keep the world at a standstill. Optimism is the secret to being able to bounce back from disappointments and setbacks in our lives. It motivates us to lift ourselves out of disappointment and see stumbling blocks as stepping stones and opportunities to learn and grow.

What is something most Clarksvillians wouldn’t know about you?
I speak some Spanish and I spent almost two years in Chile during the 1970’s, a very tumultuous time in that country politically. It really made me appreciate my country, and freedom.

If you could leave one message to the Clarksville community what would it be?
Be kind to each other- step up to help out when you can. There are many times when you are in a position where you can do something to help someone, it may take you a little off your path, but if you are empowered to do something- JUST DO IT!



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