241 Leading Communication, Corporate Citizenship & Social Responsiblity for Impact with Debbi Jarvis, Chief Communications Officer at AtlaGas | Greater Washington DC DMV Changemaker

***DISCLAIMER: Please note that the following AI-generated transcript may not be 100% accurate and could contain misspellings or errors.***

[00:00:00] Mahan Tavakoli: Debbie Jarvis, welcome to Partnering Leadership. I'm thrilled to have you in this conversation with me.

[00:00:05] Debbi Jarvis: I'm so happy that we're finally getting a chance to talk like this. Thank you, Mahan.

[00:00:11] Mahan Tavakoli: Debbie, I have seen and admired your leadership and active involvement in the community, your heart-centered approach.

So I am thrilled to get a chance to find out more about you and your. Background, but also share it with a much broader community because I think purpose-driven leadership is really important and you exemplify that. So to start off, Debbie, whereabouts did you grow up and how did that upbringing impact who you've become?

[00:00:47] Debbi Jarvis: I am a Midwest girl through and through. I grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan. That's where I learned how to lead with my heart. It has impacted me every step of the way. And clearly in my adult life and career that's why it's easy for me to connect with purpose driven careers and being a part of the community is.

Who I am.

[00:01:19] Mahan Tavakoli: What was it like growing up in Kalamazoo?

[00:01:23] Debbi Jarvis: Oh wow. Kalamazoo was, like a little bubble, if you will. When you talk about football games being a cheerleader being in plays being in orchestra and musicals I lived the Midwestern high school life.

You cared about your neighbor, you knew your neighbor, your friends, it took a village to raise you. You were a part of that village to help others. That's what I remember. It was a lot of fun and there was a lot of love and care and concern that was next door across the street in your schools, at the stores.

Hi. How you doing today? , a lot of that growing up, .

[00:02:09] Mahan Tavakoli: That's awesome. Warmth to have in your life growing up. So when people ask you, what do you wanna become when you grow up? What did you wanna.

[00:02:20] Debbi Jarvis: Oh my gosh. It changed often but the careers that stood out.

One time I wanted to be an architect. I wanted to be a lawyer. I wanted to be a doctor. Those were the three things that stood out and I became none of the above , but the one thing that I was always good at was talking. So I was turned onto public relations in one of.

Classes when I was at Western Michigan University. I think I was a sophomore and I took a marketing class just as an elective and I loved it and I was able to be creative cuz I was very creative. Anyway, drew, I did calligraphy, all this stuff and that was the beginning of. What I would eventually become, and then when I transferred and went to Hope College in Holland, Michigan, and that's where I graduated from, I took a.

PR class, or no, it was a economics class or something. I can't remember. But the professor said that in my report and how I did my presentation he said, have you ever considered public relations? And I didn't really know what it was all about, but those words were spoken into me. And eventually , that's what I ended up doing.

Being a communicator has always been a part of who I am. Just simply talk a lot. She always talked in class. It's what teachers would remember, . She always had something to say but I said it with a smile.

[00:04:08] Mahan Tavakoli: You took a strength and eventually made it into a career,

but initially you ended up in sales, what was that experience like for you?

[00:04:21] Debbi Jarvis: I think that we sell every day. We just don't realize it when we're talking with our neighbor. We're talking at work. We are selling something, an idea concept, a way of doing things differently.

And when you dissect the sales structure, looking at how you set it up and the information and how you engage It was very much who I'd been all along and I just continued to perfect that. Then when I had the opportunity to become a reporter and it's kinda like, how did you get there?

 Because someone said that I should consider that. And I did. After I'd been modeling and types of sales and doing sales presentations, they're like, oh, you would be a good reporter, news anchor. So I pursued that and it worked because being in news you're selling, but the key thing to selling is listen.

Because then you pick up what are the hot buttons, and you can close the deal if you're saying the right thing. If you're saying what the other person needs to hear, that's what I wanna buy.

[00:05:38] Mahan Tavakoli: It's one of the things that a lot of times people don't understand about sales.

It's that ability to ask the questions and listen. Same thing in interviewing, you were also a professional. Cheerleader at this point for Cincinnati Bengals. What was that experience like?

[00:06:01] Debbi Jarvis: Becoming a professional cheerleader for the Cincinnati Bengals was really a part of who I was also, and that was a goal.

So I'd been a cheerleader since junior high. High school, college. Both colleges that I attended. I coached cheerleading. I judged cheerleading. So it's like. What else can I do with cheerleading? I can become a professional cheerleader. And that's exactly what I did. So it was really a part of my goal setting.

Okay, I'm gonna set that goal up. I achieved it. But at the same time, I do see myself having been a cheerleader for all of the organizations that I have worked for up until even today. I am a Washington Gas cheerleader now. I find the best. I bring out the best and it's yes, we are, yes we can , but that's my job.

And I embrace it. That's who I am.

[00:07:01] Mahan Tavakoli: You had a career. on the side that you were managing at the same time that you were a cheerleader,

[00:07:08] Debbi Jarvis: oh let's say that cheerleading was on the side, because I was full-time employed. I was a pharmaceutical sales rep, and there was the upside of being the cheerleader, but. The downside was that in the company that I worked for at that time, they really frowned upon that. They didn't think that it was a professional point that.

They wanted me to be associated with, and I just have to say that I know that it negatively impacted my future at that company to where I was actually let go because they objected to my participation everything was on the up and up with being a cheer. You got paid $10 a game.

So let's say $90 for the season, which is nothing to sneeze at, even, back in the eighties when I did that, wasn't a whole lot. It was fun. It was a side, activity, full-time work was most important, but they didn't see it that way. But you live and you learn. Their loss.

My game.

[00:08:24] Mahan Tavakoli: So you took both that cheerleading experience, the sales experience, all of those things, and you became a news anchor and reporter

what was that like being an anchor and a reporter not necessarily having trained or done that before?

[00:08:44] Debbi Jarvis: Let me just say this, the best sales job that I ever did was to get my first job as a news anchor and reporter, and that job was in Grand Rapids, Michigan at Wood Radio. I made the ask and I shut.

And then next I was a reporter and news anchor in Cleveland, Ohio. So that was a top 10 market at the time. Again, it was expecting good things to happen. Using my sales techniques, everything that I had learned being out there on the street asking questions.

None of this was foreign to me because when you're in sales, You're asking questions, you are probing, you are trying to get the story on what do they want, what do they need, and you put it all together and you present it in the, whatever the package is, the product is, and they buy it from you.

And that's really what. Being a reporter is all about. Then finally, how did I get here to Washington dc I came here from Cleveland, Ohio, and the news director at the time had. Worked in Cleveland, saw me there. He'd actually offered me a job there at another station, but I stayed at my other station then here, and I was trying to come here.

I spoke with him and I told him, listen, you know how I worked in Cleveland. You saw me. You know that I will do the same here. So if you don't offer me a job, someone else.

And I shut up. I smiled and I got the job

[00:10:37] Mahan Tavakoli: That is outstanding. It's your sales abilities all throughout, including getting that job good for you

[00:10:47] Debbi Jarvis: then. That's right.

[00:10:50] Mahan Tavakoli: You came here to DC now you eventually ended up meeting and marrying a great guy that I'd known even way before he was married. Debbie, Ernie Jarvis.

Ernie and I had a conversation last year for. Podcast. His mother, Charlene, drew Jarvis and I had a conversation for the podcast the year before, which by the way, makes you the only three members of a family to be on the podcast. Now, how did you end up meeting Ernie, and is it true that he said you are the one that Pursu.

He

[00:11:32] Debbi Jarvis: wishes

No. I think it was a mutual pursuit, but if anyone knows Ernie Jarvis, I know that they're laughing too, . But I got to know his mom and we call her cha. That's what her grandsons now call her. Charlene, drew Jarvis, they call her Chacha. But I got to know Dr. Jarvis. Before I met Ernie, I was interviewing her on a number of occasions as a reporter, as an anchor at nbc four.

I was invited to a birthday party. He was invited to. We had the same mutual friend who was throwing a birthday party for a significant other. And that was the first time I met him in person, saw him, and then everywhere I went, There was Ernie Jarvis . So one, Friday night I saw him and I was with a group of my girlfriends said, oh, there's Ernie Jarvis.

Let's have him come on over to the table. So I invited him over to our table and I was actually trying to hook him up with one of my girl. And everybody had left. She got up, went to the restroom. Ernie when are you gonna ask out? This other person? And he, it's like what if I wanna ask you out?

And I was like of . So anyway, we ended up going out and then a couple of months later we Reconnected, and that was like September of 97 or so. And I'd say basically we've been together ever since.

[00:13:21] Mahan Tavakoli: That is wonderful. And by the way, I don't wanna get Ernie in trouble.

He knows that he married up he's smart enough to say that he's smart enough to know that Debbie,

[00:13:33] Debbi Jarvis: he even says that. No, he is a great guy. We both say that. We are. To have found each other and he is wonderful. He's a wonderful father. He's a wonderful husband.

I might be as mad as heck with him for something silly that he said, but then he turns around and says something even more silly and makes me laugh,

So our household is filled with a lot of love and a lot of laughter. Thanks to Ernie Jarvis .

[00:14:13] Mahan Tavakoli: That is beautiful to hear. You also have two very handsome, athletic young men as your sons.

[00:14:26] Debbi Jarvis: They are and always have been since the day they were born. The light of our lives.

Our youngest is a junior at Oberlin College. and he is doing really well. Law and society is his major and he runs track. So it's coming to that point where we're dividing our time going to Oberlin for track meets. And then our oldest is a senior at Yale and he is on Yale's basketball team and he's doing really well.

Urban Studies is his major and we divide our time, go to Yale, watch basketball, go somewhere else to watch the basketball go to Oberlin. So we're on the road a lot, you take advantage of the times because ejs a senior. He'll be out soon.

Jacob's a junior. He'll be out next year. So you've gotta just be there with them. While they're there and just enjoy it. And that's what we're doing. Whew. We get tired, worn out at this old age, but hey, we just keep going because like I said, they are the light of our lives we're so blessed , to have them and they just bring us so much joy.

That's

[00:15:49] Mahan Tavakoli: beautiful to hear and it's really important for us to have that grounding that comes from the joy of family whether it is the supportive partner or the kids, which is wonderful to have. Now what. Got you after almost 10 years, nine and a half years at N B C News here in Washington, DC move on to join Pepco.

[00:16:18] Debbi Jarvis: So the industry itself was changing. We had two small kids and it was getting difficult to manage. I had an opportunity come my way to go to the other side. , if you will. Actually friends of mine, when I left NBC four and went to Pepco, they're like, oh, you're going to the dark side, cuz it was prs, manager of media relations,

And I called them up and I said, oh no, honey, I have seen the light, but Right. It just gave me a little. Of that life as a parent, a little more control. If my child was sick it was a whole lot easier to manage that than being a reporter. Your child is sick, you're in the middle of a story.

What happens? It just ends. There's not typically somebody else who can carry that on. Being a parent and being a reporter is not the easiest thing. So my family was most important to me and Pepco gave me a great opportunity to come on board. And I was there for 14 and a half years.

And it was great. I moved from manager media relations to vice president of corporate communications and eventually had an opportunity to create the department at the time, corporate citizenship and social responsibility for Pepco Holdings.

[00:17:53] Mahan Tavakoli: So what initiated that? Debbie Pepco had been very engaged in the community. Why was there a need and how come you created this corporate citizenship and social responsibility department?

[00:18:10] Debbi Jarvis: Because businesses communities. Evolve and corporate social responsibility was evolving. So C S R was really coming into play as its own. Major in college and how companies were going to use their corporate donations for things that were more specific and that were related to more of the business initiatives. Not that altruism was no longer a part of how a company was giving.

You've heard the adage, if you will, doing well by doing good. Companies wanted to also get recognized for the funds and how they were supporting the community. And corporate social responsibility helped to put a little framework into this. So that's why the leadership of Pepco Holdings decided that we needed a focus on citizenship and corporate social respons.

And I was honored to create that department for the company and build it from scratch. And when Exelon came in, they called it corporate relations. So one way or another, there was going to be a separate department that incorporated the company's philanthropy in the community engagement. It was more tracking and being strategic about it, a percentage of earnings before taxes, it's a formula. So that's why it was created. It was business strateg.

[00:20:01] Mahan Tavakoli: I like the thinking in that it's not necessarily just who knows whom and who is buddies with whom.

From an organization's perspective, there's a strategy associated with it. And I imagine there are measures that you also look at to see the kind of impact you're having. So the Exactly. Community engagement you're looking for a return, not just spreading money around. Hoping for the best.

[00:20:30] Debbi Jarvis: Exactly. And I spent seven years focusing in on that while at Pepco Holdings and corporate communications corporate contributions or corporate relations are so closely aligned that now. I head up corporate communications here at Washington Gas. I'm the vice president, chief Communications Officer, and , I now have corporate contributions under my purview as well because of that experience that I brought to the table.

From Pepco now to Washington Gas. So it's exciting.

[00:21:16] Mahan Tavakoli: It is exciting, Debbie, and it is exciting to see it professionalized with measures. The needs in the community are. Broad, they are deep. There are lots of different needs.

So as someone that has started, corporate responsibility and corporate citizenship, whether it was at Pepco, you did that then at Howard University. Now you are leading the effort at Alta Gas. What I wonder is how do you prioritize and what are the measures that you look for the organization's investments in the community?

[00:22:03] Debbi Jarvis: So just like in sales, it's about listening, so it's listening internally, what are the company's goals? Where do we feel that we need to be as a company in the community? So internal listening, but also external listen. What is the community telling you? So where we may think about education, I think every organization thinks about supporting education, especially with K through 12 because I know we've said this, you've heard this. The young minds, they are the future.

They are going to save us, keep us going. So investing in those young minds and any way we can with stem, science, technology, engineering, and math, and maybe it's steam where we throw in arts in there as well. And just in the community taking care of those who. Need assistance, whether it's having some food insecurity housing, those basic needs.

I think that knowledge is power. So here again, education, but also the knowledge of knowing that if you can help someone have the basics, food housing that strengthens. You can help break that poverty cycle. So finding ways in which you can do that. . And again, really focusing on listening, economic development, it plays a big role in supporting the community.

Workforce development, helping to break that poverty cycle. I personally like to focus on women and children because if you're helping women, Become stronger, become independent, you're typically going to break that poverty cycle twice for the woman and the children who are with her.

So it's an honor to serve in the community. I serve on various boards at one time. I served on 12 boards. I think I'm now just. Four, five maybe. I just feel it's very important and I know that it's important for us here at Washington Gas to support our nonprofit partners, our board services.

We can bring our talents to the table. Cuz sometimes it's not just about the money, but the connections the knowledge and Who you know, where you've been. . I'm a big, let's come to the table.

Let's talk about it. Let's figure this out together. Collaboration is a key.

[00:25:09] Mahan Tavakoli: It is important. A lot of the issues that we're facing as a community in general require different stakeholders to come to the table and work. Together to solve the issues. It is not just throwing money at the problem.

 I would love to know your perspective with respect to workforce development and the challenges that you as an organization are having. With the workforce and creating the workforce of the future,

[00:25:40] Debbi Jarvis: first and foremost, I think it starts with the realization that we must engage. One of the first things that I did coming here to Alta Gas, Washington Gas Alta Gas being our parent company coming from Howard University that was a purpose driven position where I was helping connect companies with our students for full-time employment opportunities, internships different types of partnerships.

So what I did was that, oh, hey, I used to deal with corporations trying to get our students connected. I need to bring a student or two. Here. So I've only been at the company now, not even 10 months, but in my first two months I was interviewing for summer internships. And I did bring two students on board who are from HBCUs, one of course from Howard University, and another student who was from Warhouse.

They both live locally. Which made it a lot easier for them to manage through summer internships. But you have to do it. It's not just gonna happen just by talking about it. It has to accompany action. You have to open up the doors. You have to be willing to bring in students to create.

Opportunities to engage, to teach, to show them the ropes, what it takes. It has to accompany action. And if you have people inside willing to act, then that's a great start.

[00:27:24] Mahan Tavakoli: You've started doing that over the past year at Washington Gas, which is outstanding. As you mentioned, three and a half years at Howard University. Creating the Office of Corporate Relations, making connections happen there many years at Pepco, then Exelon, and then at N B C News in the region so if we fast forward, Debbie, to the future where you have had the kind of impact you want to. As a leader in this community, what would you like people to say about Debbie Jarvis's contributions to this community?

[00:28:08] Debbi Jarvis: I am pausing now because I think that it would be, she really cares. She's ready to help roll up her sleeve. and help make good things happen for the people of this metropolitan Washington DC region.

That's it in a nutshell. I do, I care and people know that, and I don't care who's knocking on my door, who's calling me. I'm willing to help cuz it's important and that goes back to those Midwestern roots.

[00:28:54] Mahan Tavakoli: That's the beauty of it.

Where some of the values that you grew up with are the values you still hold. And bring to your leadership roles and your engagement in the community, whichever boards you serve on, however you contribute. You do.

Care and it shows through your actions. So I really appreciate your purpose-driven leadership and the impact you have had up to this point, Debbie Jarvis, and the impact I have no doubt you will continue to have both at Washington Gas and in our entire community. Through your actions and through your example.

Thank you so much for this conversation, Debbie Jarvis,

[00:29:47] Debbi Jarvis: thank you, Mahan. It has been my pleasure.