Employee Spotlight: Lewiston-Auburn Outcome Broker Wendy Collet

Normally GHHI Outcome Broker Wendy Collet can be found running around her town of Lewiston-Auburn, Maine for a million meetings – with partners and stakeholders to raise awareness of healthy home interventions, and with clients in need of home rehabilitation services. Wendy still makes all her meetings, but with twins on the way—due to arrive November 11th if not sooner!—she’s moving slightly slower these days.

Wendy is used to all the running around – she came to GHHI from the construction world, overseeing residential and commercial projects large and small and coordinating a circus of contractors, sub-contractors and building permits. In early 2016 a friend sent her GHHI’s job posting for an Outcome Broker. Although she considered it a long shot, she sent her resume along, and in March was hired as GHHI Lewiston-Auburn’s Outcome Broker.

“I’d never done work like this before, I’d always been involved in for profit industries. This non-profit world is a game changer for me. The work is so important. We’re making a difference in the lives of people in our community, giving kids the opportunity to go to school healthy and ready to learn. I love the work,” said Wendy.

Wendy works closely with Healthy Androscoggin, a comprehensive community health coalition, and local and state government, philanthropy, weatherization contractors, and health and accessibility experts. Her work ensures that all partners coordinate and leverage their collective resources to achieve healthier and more energy efficient homes, higher quality green jobs, increased economic opportunities for low income communities, and better health outcomes for children and families in Lewiston-Auburn.

The most critical skill Wendy brings to the job is her ability to build solid relationships with many different types of people, determining the best way to work together to do things like increase green and healthy homes outreach and education in the community, and improve the partners’ referral system for low income clients in need of services.

“My greatest aspiration here is to completely prevent lead poisoning in every child. I don’t want to hear about any kid being poisoned. It’s a tough road, but we’re on the right track and we’re making progress,” said Wendy.

Meanwhile, Wendy, her husband Ray and their 3 year old daughter Grace are getting ready for the twins’ birth. Grace is a big help already, and promises to help out a lot once her twin brothers arrive. The family has already picked out their names – Joseph and Daniel!