Welcome Kelly Shetron and Wiley Gaby to the CMJ team!
It’s official! The CMJ team has expanded to include two incredible new leaders: Wiley Gaby and Kelly Shetron. Join me in welcoming both of them to the CMJ Team as our first employees! 🎉
When this company started in 2013, it was a solo endeavor, based completely on my experience as an online community builder. Teams (typically within startup and technology firms) hired me to advise community managers, set up forums, select new technology, or determine community initiatives.
But the last nine years have transformed the profession of community building as well as the expectations around what community could unlock for organizations. Today, all kinds of organizations are taking this work on—from software companies to spiritual institutions to artists and musicians. Those of us invested in this work understand this is a long-term investment that requires partnership of many kinds. This is not a journey we can go through alone.
With this in mind, I began working with Wiley and Kelly on client projects on a contract-basis over the last two years. Each time I worked with them, our energy catapulted our client results to new heights and made all of us feel a sense of camaraderie, purpose, and intention unlike anything I’d ever experienced before.
Today, I see this work as something that must happen not only within our organizations (extractive for-profit organizations being one of the main culprits for society-level disconnection and loneliness) but in each of our individual lives, families, friendships, and neighborhoods. This is culture-level work we are engaging in—and now is the time to engage in it.
I am proud to say that Kelly, Wiley, and I will be here for our clients and students like never before. As you navigate these changes and challenges, we will meet you and help you navigate the journey from a firm foundation based in our values of equity, ingenuity, and integrity.
Read on to learn more about Kelly and Wiley:
Wiley Gaby
Director of Operations
Wiley Gaby is a curious, creative problem-solver with a diverse professional background that includes working within everything from major publishing houses and magazines to fine-dining restaurants and cocktail bars. Wiley has led the content development and project management for numerous educational products and programs—from early elementary to higher education—for such brands as McGraw-Hill, Scholastic, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), and Oxford University Press.
Originally from the rural north Florida Panhandle, Wiley now lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, where he moonlights as a singer-songwriter and plays music whenever he gets the opportunity.
Wiley’s Role: Wiley will lead operations as we continue to grow our client offerings, Engage Your Online Community Accelerator, and many other programs to serve community builders and organizations. He is a certified Notion expert and excels at all things community automation. A lifelong Dolly Parton fan, Wiley also serves as our in-house Dolly Parton historian, which provides a constant reminder of the goodness we want to put back into the world with everything we do. #WhatWouldDollyDo
How We Met: Wiley and I initially met through community builder Joi Podgorny (whom he had worked with as part of Good People Solutions), and I met Joi via friend and fellow community strategist Bill Johnston. Thanks, Joi and Bill!
Kelly Shetron
Director of Strategy
Kelly Shetron has spent her career asking questions. A facilitator, writer, and strategist, she specializes in qualitative research and in-depth interviewing, helping organizations make research-backed decisions and clarify their values. Kelly has a background in documentary storytelling, working with organizations like StoryCorps and the Obama Foundation, and has had the pleasure of helping numerous authors write their books for major publishing houses. In all she undertakes, Kelly leads with empathy, prioritizes strategy, and seeks out the narrative throughline.
Kelly is originally from the Philadelphia suburbs and holds an MFA in creative writing from Stonecoast, a BA in economics and English from Muhlenberg College, and a certificate in writing and multimedia storytelling from the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. In her free time, you can most likely find her on a walk, raiding her kitchen for chocolate, reading under a blanket, or watching Mad Men (again). She lives in Maplewood, NJ with her dog Charlie and husband Ben.
Kelly’s Role: Kelly will direct strategy for client projects and training programs. This involves leading facilitated workshops, stewarding difficult conversations among client teams, and directing quantitative survey design and qualitative interview projects.
How I Met Kelly: I met Kelly via an introduction from friend and fellow strategist Sarah Judd Welch. Kelly and Sarah had met while working at New York-based coworking space and club The Wing. Thanks, Sarah and The Wing!
