Top of Mind: D'Amato, Extended Version


JB: How do you take a break?

CD: I walk, I sing, I write. Friends are very important. I’m a connector of people, family. I enjoy a great meal, I enjoy cooking. I can cook a lot of things but it’s the kind of thing that it surprises people that in three hours you can make an eggplant lasagna, a chicken chili, bake apples, do a pork loin. To me, I look at it and go, “The oven’s going, you can make a chicken salad.” I don’t cook as much as I’d like, because of time. I cook on weekends for the week because I don’t have time over the week.

I’d like to travel more than I’ve been able to. Travel’s a fun thing. I enjoy being a world citizen but this, the completion of this, at least getting us here, I think for all of us is a relief. You work and work and work to get to that moment, and then you’re in that moment, and then you’re like, “That’s it? We’re done?” We’ve just spent five years to get here. Now it’s about going, it’s about using. Making it real.

I do think it’s important that we take care of ourselves. It’s a hard lesson to learn, to go home, because you believe you can make that difference by staying, making one more call. I probably don’t know one nonprofit executive that wouldn’t love to never raise money again in her life. It’s always there. I can do this kind of work or not.