Welcome to “Ten Questions With”…an ongoing series of posts let us get to know the unique, creative, and energetic folks who drive Miami’s nonprofit sector. In other words…all of us. And stay tuned, because we’re building out a new feature of the PhilanthropyMiami website that will let you upload your own answers to Ten Questions With.

PhilanthropyMiami: Miami is special because…”

Gepsie Mettelus: It’s a place of new beginnings.

PM: What does our nonprofit community to be at our best?

GM: Community respect and support.

PM: What’s the biggest thing you are working on right now?

GM: The 2020 census

PM: What are you reading?

GM: How Change Happens by Kathryn and Ross Petra and The One Thing by Gary Keller

PM: Where is the one place in the world you are dying to go?

GM: Russia.

PM: Who inspires you?

GM: My mother, and a number of women from different backgrounds and sectors from Angela Blackwell to Diane Sawyer.

PM: If you could invite any five people, dead or alive, to dinner, who would they be?

GM: Toussaint Louverture, Harriet Tubman, Simone de Bauvoir, Jean-Price Mars, and Frida Kahlo.

PM: When you are not working you are…?

GM: Resting my nerves anyway I can: a good book, period dramas, The History Channel, history channel, and just chillaxing.

PM: A night on the town is…

GM: In any foreign capital.

PM: What advice would you give to your younger self?

GM: Don’t allow anyone to intimidate you.

Gepsie Mettelus is the executive director of Sant La, Haitian Neighborhood Center, Inc.