New Member Profile

Name: Lisa Jenks

Family information- I have been married for 3 1/2 years to Mark and we have a 20 month old daughter, Ali. Mark is a carpenter and he built a three story addition on our house consisting of a garage, living room, four-season porch, two bedrooms and a bathroom. Ali is a lively little girl who demonstrates independence and imagination every day. She loves Elmo, puppies and books. I also have a 13 year old Springer Spaniel named Bubba who thought that he was in control until Ali arrived.

Occupation- I am a certified paralegal in career transition. I am looking for a corporate paralegal position and am particularly interested in intellectual property.

Personal or Career Goals- One of the things that I have realized - from my experiences in creating and delivering training, a graduate school class titled "Creativity and the Problem-Solving Process," and even from Toastmasters, is that I would like to have a job that has an element of creativity. This could take the form of training, research and writing or even working with the creative ideas of others in protecting intellectual property.

Hobbies, interests, talents- My hobbies pull me in a lot of directions. I love baseball and watch as much as I can. I collect bobbleheads and have a baseball memorabilia room. I can tell some great stories about camping out at the metrodome for bobbleheads, although many were obtained on eBay. I love hiking in State Parks, playing volleyball, softball and broomball. I have not missed a Canterbury Park craft fair in at least 12 years. I love reading, watching some reality television and surfing the web.

How long have you been a member of Toastmasters? I joined Stagecoah Speakers of Eden Prarie where I worked (Wells Fargo) last May. It was then and is now, one of the bright spots in my week.

What do you hope to accomplish/gain as a member of Marsh Winds? Of course I plan to achieve Competent Communicator status very soon. I also want to work toward being a Competent Leader. On a more personal note, I hope to get to know more about the members of Marsh Winds, and to be influenced by their creativity and positive spirit.


What is your favorite role as part of Toastmasters? Naturally, I enjoy telling stories through my speeches. A recent Toastmasters magazine article posed the idea of using a personal story for each speech and gathering them together in a notebook to serve as a collection that could be cherished by children or other family members and friends. I also enjoy being grammarian, as I love words and challenging myself and others to expand our vocabulary. I have not yet been Table Topics Master, but expect that I will enjoy that role, when I can draw out others' stories in entertaining and challenging ways.

Favorite quote? I am not sure that I have a favorite quote, but this one often serves as a good guidepost -
“The art of progress is to preserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order.” - Alfred North Whitehead.

Tip of the month? Take care to maintain and nurture your personal and professional networks. I have learned the hard way that it is critical that we carefully maintain our networks so that they are healthy when we find ourselves in need.

Book recommendation? "Leadership and Self-Deception" The Arbinger Institute - This book changed my life. It allows for great introspection of our human interactions.

Favorite “pig-out” food, worst nightmare, weird nickname, surprise announcement… In college, I went by Riz, because one of my first friends there decided that I looked like Stockard Channing (Rizzo from "Grease"). In recent years, though, I have often been told I look like Patricia Richardson (Jill on "Home Improvement").

Please welcome Lisa! Her contact information is posted in the membership roster.