Sammy Monk’s career thus far has not been what she initially planned.
An advertising major from Syracuse University, Monk was working as a copywriter for a firm contracted with Toyota’s North American operations in Los Angeles when it hit her that none of it was for her. Selling cars, advertising, Los Angeles, all of it.
“I have done so many things in my life to care about the environment and yet here I am selling giant trucks to people,” Monk told The Jewish Review. “I just didn’t feel good about that, so I quit my job, got in my car drove north until it felt like it reminded me enough of New York.”
That place was Portland, where she embarked on a path that was recognized with the 2026 Laurie Rogoway Outstanding Jewish Professional Award, presented at the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland’s annual meeting yesterday at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center.
“Her mission is to strengthen the entire communal ecosystem. She believes in a snowball effect of goodness: when she cultivates a positive experience for a volunteer, they are more likely to keep giving back to the Jewish community at large,” Rogoway Committee Chair Sarah Howard said at the meeting. “Her work builds a culture of volunteerism that benefits us all.”
While she left a lot in California, Monk brought her connection to Judaism with her to the Pacific Northwest; in fact, she leaned into it in her early days as a Portlander.
“Right when I got here, I just started networking with people in the Jewish community,” Monk said. “The Jewish community has always been really important to me.”
Thus, she joined the PDX Pathways program, a young professional mentorship cohort put on by the Federation, and connected with current Congregation Neveh Shalom Assistant Executive Director Michelle Caplan. The timing was impeccable.
“We were talking about engagement work and were exploring volunteer professionalism and [Jewish Family & Child Service] had put out an ask in conjunction with the Federation for a Volunteer Coordinator,” Monk said. She became that coordinator in 2020, producing an immediate impact.
“[Monk] leads the annual Thanksgiving Food Box program, which mobilizes 100 volunteers to touch the lives of more than 1,000 people each year, coordinating logistics and deliveries with a calm and clarity that inspires everyone around her,” Howard told the audience at the annual meeting. “She manages the Senior Social Hours and Friendly Visitor programs, taking the time to truly know each volunteer and each client, their stories, their needs, their personalities, and building connections that often grow into lasting relationships. She introduced a digital volunteer management system that made it easier than ever for community members to give their time, revived JFCS’s volunteer appreciation event, and contributed her wisdom to the Jewish Federation’s Volunteer Task Force, helping lay the groundwork for the Federation’s own volunteer coordinator role.”
She’s also been instrumental in the success of JFCS’s transportation program, matching clients who need help getting to events, medical appointments or synagogue services with volunteer drivers.
“I think the longer I was at JFCS, the bigger the need became,” Monk said of the transportation program “More of our clients are aging and phasing out of being able to drive themselves... To have volunteers kind of bridge that gap during that time, I think it just restores a lot of dignity to clients and it builds community.”
Building community has been a focus for Monk throughout her time at JFCS, which ended earlier this month when she became the volunteer program manager for homelessness non-profit Path Home; community amongst volunteers, amongst clients and all the intersections thereof. She stepped into that work at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and continued it through the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks – twin shocks that made Jewish community connection as essential as ever.
“Creating safe, social, connected community spaces post-Oct. 7 has been really fulfilling,” Monk said. “I think there’s a lot of services that JFCS offers that feel tangible, but I think the intangible connection that comes out of just a caring, present community is what I love most.”
Monk wrote about that intangible impact in her award application, particularly her work and connection with Rabbi Mel Young, z”l.
“My relationship with Mel encourages me to treat my work as a mission to build an extended family rather than just a volunteer base,” she wrote in the application, a copy of which she provided to The Jewish Review. “This story is a reminder that community is built through the heart, and that is the impact I strive to leave on everyone I work with.”
That commitment hasn’t changed, even though Monk’s employment has.
She’s planning to pursue board membership and other service opportunities in the coming months as she maintains her deep connection with the community, organizations and people who brought her to this moment and this award.
“Being Jewish and experiencing Judaism with other people is just part of my soul and that’s never going to change,” she said. “I think working outside of the Jewish community will actually give me a chance to connect in my own way.”