Facilities @ Management

3.9 Paying It Forward Through the IFMA Foundation

Diane Levine

My dream as a youth was to become a classical violinist and play the Bruch Violin Concerto on stage with a symphony orchestra and the audience wrapped with me as one in a beautiful state of entrainment. A funny thing happened on the way to the concert hall. Life experiences took me in exciting directions, and I wouldn’t change any of the detours I’ve taken from a full-time music career to my current job as Executive Director of the IFMA Foundation. Why? Because along my journey, I accomplished more good than I ever imagined and, at the same time, discovered talents that I never knew existed. Had my career only focused on music, I would not have been exposed to opportunities to change lives, mentor staff, learn about the built environment and FM, experience managing people, create innovative workplaces, make global friends, write publications, speak in public, and travel the world. Incidentally, as you will learn later, my music and orchestral training was instrumental (no pun intended) in my success within IFMA and my career.

In college, I always pictured myself running a nonprofit, exposing disadvantaged children to the world of music and the arts, taking them to orchestra concerts, art museums, theaters, and training students in the various arts disciplines. I was afforded this opportunity growing up in a single parent home, given a violin in a school program and was able to obtain music scholarships to St. Xavier’s ...