Ericka Plater believes a great leader is focused on those they lead. Supporting them, encouraging them, and open to critique and change in their leadership style. It is in this manner she runs Our Lady of Mercy Outreach Services with great success.
“We all have different goals and different pathways to get towards self-sufficiency and self-actualization, but my goal is to help people get where they want to be.”
To be a trusted advisor who partners with each person I come in contact with, making an impact on everyone I mentor while leaving a legacy my grandchildren can be proud of.
Kate Raively Executive Assistant, American Water
To foster an inclusive environment in which passionate and innovative individuals can collaborate to make to make a social impact and bring about equity for others
Alexandra Arleo Lorenzini Leadership Ambassador
To be an authentic, inspirational leader who creates and achieves a vision for success for both organizations and the people in them in order to make a positive impact on the world through engineering.
Amy S. Fleischer, Ph.D. Dean, College of Engineering, California Polytechnic State University
To serve my community as a compassionate and truthful leader with the purpose of creating a more just and peaceful environment, empowering others to pursue equity and to contribute to the common good.
Soo Jin (Michelle) Han Lorenzini Leadership Ambassador
To act out of genuine compassion, accepting all diverse perspectives and pushing through difficulties to serve others and improve the world around me.
Kathleen Connor Lorenzini Leadership Ambassador
To empower and lead others and be an advocate for awareness and positive change regarding gender equity and women’s advancement through honest dialogue, mentorship, networking, education and the sharing of diverse perspectives.
Tessa Piontkowski Lorenzini Leadership Ambassador
To serve as an encouraging resource for others by using consistent methods such as mentorship and leadership development workshops in order to cultivate knowledge and personal growth. As a result, I hope that we can achieve justice for underserved communities
Gia Beaton Lorenzini Leadership Ambassador
As a leader, I will work collaboratively with others to cultivate a space driven by awareness, respect, and compassion that serves to empower people of all identities and experiences.
Claire Schaefer Lorenzini Leadership Ambassador
To be a compassionate global leader who inspires lasting social change by uniting people around the world
Ashley Miller Lorenzini Leadership Ambassador
To dedicate myself to a lifelong intention to make a positive impact on the world and cultivate a global culture of justice and empathy alongside others who value these same principles.
Alexandra Keresztesy Lorenzini Leadership Ambassador
To create a cohesive community by educating and working with others. To grow together and individually to further our goals.
Tara Otegui Lorenzini Leadership Ambassador
To embody and promote a happy lifestyle and maintain close relationships with the friends and family around me. And, to treat everyone how I would like to be treated, take care of my health and set goals and aspirations for myself, to learn from my past and make way for the future.
Kerri Weston Lorenzini Leadership Ambassador
To use truth, my community, and love to bring about a fairer, more equitable future. When I move forward, I bring everyone with me.
Michael Creighton Lorenzini Leadership Ambassador
To create open environments where everyone feels their worth and feels comfortable sharing their story with anyone around the world.
Rachel Voloshin Lorenzini Leadership Ambassador
To use my personal values of knowledge, responsibility, diversity, and communication to advocate for the equality of all people.
Daisha Crooks Lorenzini Leadership Ambassador
Through accurately portraying multiple perspectives, I want to demonstrate both the beauty in difference and the extent to which we are all innately alike. I aspire to reach an equitable world for all because only then can we thrive as a global community.
Kaylan Purisima Lorenzini Leadership Ambassador
I lead by focusing my energy on the needs of the team. People always come first. The leader’s responsibility is to empower followers, develop their skills, and provide feedback. The environment is always changing, so you need to trust in your team. In turn, the team will trust in you to listen and make hard decisions.
U.S. Army Captain Jaqueline Thompson
It is important to be open, be yourself and let people see behind the layers. That’s what I’ve tried to do with my story and what I try to do as a leader and a speaker.
Jennifer Lynn Robinson, Esq. CEO of Purposeful Networking
I do what’s in the best interest of the organization. I put the patient or the staff member in the center. I treat people with dignity and respect, which means making hard decisions when you have to. Coming from a place of curiosity. Driving to quality and knowing that the money is going to follow quality and anchoring what you do in gratitude. That is how I lead every single day.
Sandra Gomberg CEO at Philadelphia COVID-19 Surge Initiative
I listen to the needs of the community and create models to address those needs and bridge the gap for the resources and opportunities, so individuals truly have the chance to achieve their self defined success.
Adela Mendoza Executive Director, Hispanic Alliance of South Carolina/ Founder, Student Dreamers Alliance
I lead by example. We have to be the change we want to see in the world. Simply realizing there is a problem is not enough. Helping and supporting others will bring about change.
Lynn Pagano Community Manager, The Co-Co
I lead through building authentic and meaningful and grounded relationships. I lead with a loving heart and spirit. I lead with a belief in community; I am you and you are me.
Michelle Molitor Executive Director, The Equity Lab
I lead by inspiring young activists and allies to take hands-on action on social justice issues they are passionate about; by encouraging them to transform feelings of helplessness into creative advocacy.
Sophie Sandberg Founder and Co-Leader, Chalk Back
Leading as a collective, more can be seen and solved.
Tami Lee Co-Founder, Haven Media
Above all else, authenticity. I believe caring for and communicating with my staff authentically creates a rewarding and beneficial environment.
Ericka Plater Executive Director for the Our Lady of Mercy Community Outreach Services
I speak my mind. I speak my truth. I’m authentic. I’m honest. People know they can come to me and that I’ll never ask them to do something I wouldn’t be willing to do myself. Leadership doesn’t have to be hierarchical. And it isn’t. Leadership is a decision.
Glenda Gracia-Rivera Director of Professional Development and Training, The Center for Women & Work at Rutgers University
For Ericka Plater, leading in time of crisis through the COVID-19 pandemic has helped her reach into the deepest parts of herself and fortify her already extensive capabilities as a leader. As the Executive Director, Plater faced the difficult decision of having to shut down many of the organization’s programs. She knew people would need these services, but also that there was a greater need for others. Plater was able to keep the soup kitchen, clothing drives, financial, and unemployment/employment services open. She describes the environment of those first few months as having been all hands on deck. “This is what we were made for,” she told her employees “…This is why we were created.”
Plater then elaborated on what she meant by that statement. “If you’re working in a nonprofit sector, you’re kind of like a unicorn. Who wants to work that hard, with that much pressure? You’re accountable to the whole public and you don’t make that much money. So people who work here are mission oriented.”
IMAGE COURTESY OF ERICKA PLATER.
Ericka Plater works as the Executive Director for the Our Lady of Mercy Community Outreach Services in Charleston, South Carolina. The goal of Our Lady of Mercy is, “to give people the resources they need to be able to live an equitable life in whichever way they choose to live that life.” says Plater. At the heart of her work of providing resources, services, and basic needs to community members is a fervent passion that reigns over her heart. The more you hear Ericka Plater talk about the mission of the program, the faster you realize that for her it is more than just goals to achieve, but rather her vocation. That passion, the calling to do this selfless work for others, impacts every facet of her leadership.
As a leader, Plater centers herself not on her own successes, but how they would be rendered meaningless without the camaraderie, spirit, and efficiency of her team. Plater is there to work alongside her team. Whether that means lifting heavy boxes or making sandwiches in the soup kitchen, she says she never makes her staff do anything she is not willing to do as well. It is a display of her commitment, and her respect for those with which she works. She even created a “Swag Committee,” a group of employees that meet to come up with activities, such as outdoor yoga, to keep morale high amongst the staff. Plater values, above all else, authenticity. She believes that caring for and communicating with her staff authentically creates a rewarding and beneficial environment.
Plater’s ability to attune to her employees is what she calls a “soft skill.” To her, the strengths of careful listening, genuine care, and intuition, contribute to her success as a leader. Skills she identifies as more prominent amongst female leaders, and key to the success of Our Lady of Mercy.
Plater has led her team through COVID-19 the same way she does through all things, with a heart centered around the “why.” When Plater leads, it is all about the big picture: her mission of equity. “I’ve really dedicated my entire non-profit career to helping bridge the gap between the haves and the have-nots. I’ve always been dedicated to helping those who feel disempowered, disenfranchised in one way or another. So equity has always been an extremely important value in my work and a lens through which I look at all things.”
Ericka Plater does not just work, she aspires. She aspires to help those in need reach self-sufficiency, to ignite the passion she feels in herself in her staff, and to remain dedicated to improving her leadership skills. Being a great leader is everything to Plater, and is something she has found herself studying in moments of free time as a means of filling her “cup” so she can then fill others’.
Plater recounted an analogy that explains her leadership style. It starts out with the captain of a ship. Now, the captain could merely tell the crew what supplies to get, the tasks to be done and where to go. That is good leadership. However, Plater continued, great leadership is different. It is one thing for the captain to get the crew to do what is needed, but it is another completely different feat to impassion the crew to “yearn for the sea, and…yearn to love the sea and be a part of the sea.” To be such a person is to be a great leader.
Ericka Plater sails her own ship, the captain of her employees on the seas to create a better, equitable, and kinder world. As she does so, manning the ship’s crew with the same fervent respect she dedicates to their collective vocation, she mirrors quite admirably the second captain of which she spoke. The captain of great leadership.
Leadership Inspirations: Her first supervisor, Sharon Adams Taylor, who taught her to be authentic and bold in her decisions and self-assured as a woman, particularly as a woman of color in leadership.
Ruth Bader Ginsberg, for her valence in taking on obstacles publicly and fighting for the rights of women unapologetically.