Supporter Stories

Tricia Motiff Stearns Shares Time and Talent to Keep AFFW Connected
By: Jennifer Seeker Conroy

Tricia Motiff Stearns is a woman of many talents and diverse interests. Her passion is fine art, and she explores abstract expressionism through pastels and pencils. Her dream is to succeed as a working artist. But for now her canvas is the Internet and her medium is web design. Stearns is a rare mix of creative inspiration and technical savvy, and AFFW benefits enormously from her time and talent.

Stearns has degrees in English and Art from UW-Whitewater, but she was drawn to the Internet from its infancy. She constantly learned about the field, and she evolved as the technology changed.

Stearns currently works at The Douglas Stewart Company as a website designer. She designs websites so that they are appealing and user-friendly and so consumers can easily find the information they are looking for. It was through The Douglas Stewart Company CEO Cheryl Rosen Weston that Stearns came to share her skills with AFFW. Rosen Weston invited Stearns to AFFW's Annual Event in 2007 and asked her to help with a technological issue. AFFW happened to be looking for someone to redesign its website, and Stearns was up for the challenge.

Stearns grew up volunteering—from candy-striping to working in a museum. "I just like to help out I guess," Stearns said. Volunteering for AFFW seemed like a natural fit. She had the skill set needed, and AFFW's mission appealed to her. Stearns liked that AFFW is Madison-based and that it helps women and girls through a variety of approaches. She appreciated that it brought women together and gave them a chance to contribute, regardless of age or financial status. Stearns is also a financial donor, but she knows her best donation is her passion and talent. "That's the best I can give," Stearns said. "It's better than giving money. I'm never going to have a lot of it!"

AFFW's website was in need of an update. Stearns dove in to the project, using Google Analytics to analyze its traffic. She found people weren't using navigation and weren't finding much of what the site had to offer. "We have a lot of content on the site, but no one could see it because they couldn't find it."

Stearns redesigned the site so it was easily navigable and better organized. The new site launched in October of 2009, and traffic has been increasing. Stearns is constantly polishing the website and says goals for the future are to increase traffic, attract more young women to AFFW, and to make the website a go-to destination for news and information on women's issues worldwide.

Inspired by President Barack Obama's robust online campaign that attracted millions of supporters, AFFW is pursuing a similar idea on a much smaller scale. Stearns is leading the "Friend-raising" committee, which is exploring ways to harness the power of social networking to spread the word about AFFW.

Stearns is humble about her many contributions, but she does hope others will follow her lead and lend whatever they have to offer to AFFW be it financial support, organizational savvy, or artistic skill. "There are so many women with so many talents," she said. "We need fresh ideas, fresh talents, just someone's time."