Heather Ruhsam exudes enthusiasm for her life on St. John and her new job as development director at the Friends of V.I. National Park.
"I’m so excited to be here and have the opportunity to work with an organization like the Friends," she said.
She and her boss also see that her skills match those needed by the group.
"She has all of the qualities – marketing, sales, public relations. She has a lot of local knowledge and lots of local contacts," said Joe Kessler, president of the Friends.
Ruhsam had a job with the Friends on her radar. She said as soon as she heard the person who had the job – Noreen Cavanaugh – was leaving, she sent her resume.
While she brings plenty of skills to the job, she said that she’s needs to brush up on fundraising. She doesn’t find that daunting, and said she can learn from Kessler and from a course in philanthropy she plans to take during the summer at the University of Indiana in Indianapolis.
As for goals, she hopes to increase membership in the Friends and develop an annual giving campaign.
Now 32, Ruhsam hopes to tap into her generation of donors.
"It’s a matter of informing them and getting them to care," she said.
Ruhsam spent many of her younger years on St. John. Her father, Jonathon Ruhsam, mother Diana Ripley and sister Rebecca Ruhsam, moved to the island when Ruhsam was 15 from their home in Cornwall, Conn. While Ruhsam, who was born in Virginia, went off to boarding school at the Kent School in Kent, Conn., she was here off and on until she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in international studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
After spending more time on St. John, she subsequently moved to New York, where she worked as an analyst, in recruiting and as an event planner for Lehman Brothers. She then moved to Washington, D.C., to work for the Four Seasons Hotel. She went on to work for the hotel chain in Sydney, but decided it was to far away from home and family.
Los Angeles was her next stop, where she ran a catering and event planning company for more than four years. When she decided she wanted a break she moved back to St. John. Frequent trips to Los Angeles followed, until she finally decided St. John was where she wanted to be.
"I really decided I wanted a smaller, simpler way of life. I’m a country girl at heart with metropolitan tastes," she said.
She then worked as operations manager at Pond Bay Club, volunteered with the Friends of the Library and with the Animal Care Center of St. John before the job at the Friends opened up.
When she’s not on the job, Ruhsam spends her days out on the water, snorkeling, swimming, hiking, and walking her pet Oliver, a dog she rescued from the Animal Care Center.
"He’s my sidekick," she said.
Ruhsam can be reached at the Friends, 774-4940.
