Bio
Liz is a Chief Talent Finder, Headhunter, Coach, and trusted partner to growing technology companies in the Pacific Northwest.
After graduating from the University of Oklahoma, she started her career at a boutique staffing company. In 2004, she joined then-startup Centerstance and helped them grow from 11 to 75 employees. In 2011, she left Centerstance and started her own company, Liz Dooley Recruiting, to focus on providing recruiting and consulting services to professional service organizations and software companies.
Liz founded the nonprofit, the Ladybug CDH Foundation in 2011 after becoming intimately aware of the little known birth defect, congenital diaphragmatic hernia when her youngest daughter was diagnosed and ultimately survived. This birth defect claims the lives of 50% of the babies diagnosed. In 2012, she started the Ladybug Run for CDH Awareness 5K and 10K which has raised over $100,000 to date for research and to help NW families.
What are you up to?
It’s always a dance juggling the many roles I play, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Since my largest client got purchased by Oracle this year, I’ve got bandwidth to add a few new clients, so I’ve been actively meeting with new companies. I find that I end up being a coach to both my candidates and clients, and I love being able to use my many years of experience to advise both sides.
On the nonprofit side, I’m looking at potential research projects for our 2017 donations. The Board will make their decisions in December. We’ve donated to research efforts at Boston Children’s, Seattle Children’s and UTHealth over the last few years. We also spend time visiting families and offering emotional support while in the NICU. We are currently looking to replace our Treasurer on the Board who had to step down earlier this year.
I enjoy being active at my girls’ school. I am partnering with the nonprofit Joy of It and bringing their Friendzy curriculum to 1st-6th grade girls teaching social/friendship skills and also coach CYO Track in the spring and love working with the 3rd and 4th graders to hopefully instill a life long love of MOVING!
Why Portland?
I grew up in Eugene, then moved to Alaska, and then Oklahoma where I finished school at the University of Oklahoma. Living out of state made me see what a treasure the PNW truly is. My boyfriend at the time (now husband) and I compromised on Portland as where we would move after we graduated. It’s been 17 years and we haven’t regretted it for a second! Traffic is getting worse – but there are so many things we love about this place;
The proximity to the Cannon Beach, Bend, Seattle…
The food and beverages (coffee, wine, beer, kombucha, fresh juice, etc), mmmmm! I don’t get out as often as I’d like to try new restaurants since we have 2 kids – but we love the Portland food scene – some of our favorites are Pok Pok, Screen Door, Andina, and Boke Bowl.
The outdoors – so many amazing places to run and explore! I’ve got Wildwood and Tyron Creek within 15 min of my house.
The tech scene!
Links
- Twitter – @lizdooley, @ladybugcdh
- Websites – lizdooley.com, ladybugrun.com
- KOIN on the Ladybug Run
Interested in being featured?
Silicon Florist introduces one person, each day of the work week, to the Portland startup community. If you’re interested in being one of those folks, please let us know a little bit more about you and you’ll be selected at random to be featured.
