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Christa Perfit
Senior Manager, Monitoring and Evaluation at City Harvest
Professional Background
Christa Perfit is a seasoned professional specializing in development management and public policy, with an impressive educational background coupled with extensive experience in various managerial roles across sectors. With a passion for enhancing community health and improving public services, Christa has dedicated her career to making a positive impact on the communities she serves.
Currently, she holds the position of Senior Manager in Monitoring and Evaluation at City Harvest, a prominent organization dedicated to addressing food insecurity in New York City. In this role, she strategically directs and implements evaluation systems that not only measure the effectiveness of food recovery programs but also enhance program outcomes for the community. Her ability to work collaboratively with diverse teams and stakeholders allows her to create sustainable and impactful solutions for hungry New Yorkers.
Before taking on her current role, Christa made considerable contributions as Senior Manager for Retail Partnerships in the Healthy Neighborhoods initiative at City Harvest. Here, she was instrumental in developing partnerships that connected local businesses with community health goals, ultimately fostering a healthier neighborhood ecosystem. Christa’s expertise in liaising with various stakeholders, including retailers and community organizations, helped bridge the gap between food access and community wellness.
Apart from her significant contributions to City Harvest, Christa also has a wealth of experience in consulting and communication within various sectors. As an Operations Consultant at Aqua Capital, she provided strategic insights that enhanced operational efficiencies in a high-paced environment. Her previous experiences as Communications Manager at Viva Transcription Corporation and Communications Officer at UCLA showcase her proficiency in crafting compelling narratives that communicate organizational goals effectively.
Additionally, her earlier career included key roles such as a Public Relations Account Executive at Gold PR & Social Media, a Marketing Manager at Southland Micro Systems, and a Production Manager at IPW Product Development. Each of these positions has honed her abilities in communication, marketing strategy, and operational management, making her a well-rounded professional adept at navigating complex organizational dynamics.
Education and Achievements
Christa's educational journey is rooted in her commitment to understanding global issues and fostering meaningful change. She obtained her Master’s Degree in Development Management and Public Policy from Georgetown University, a prestigious institution known for cultivating leaders in public service and international relations. This program equipped her with the critical thinking and analytical skills necessary to address complex social challenges through policy development and implementation.
Christa also studied International Management at Fundação Getulio Vargas, a renowned institution in Brazil, where she gained a unique perspective on global markets and cross-cultural interactions. This experience further complemented her academic foundation in international studies, contributing to her holistic understanding of development issues on a global scale.
Her undergraduate studies were conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in International Development Studies and Latin American Studies. At UCLA, Christa delved into essential topics such as economic development, social justice, and cultural competency in the Latin American context, which continue to inform her professional work today.
Achievements
Christa Perfit has achieved significant milestones throughout her career, marked not only by her roles within various organizations but also by her contributions to community health initiatives and policies that support underprivileged populations. Her ability to leverage her academic knowledge into actionable strategies has led to increased funding and partnership opportunities for City Harvest, further enabling the organization to serve more individuals in need.
Moreover, her commitment to public service is evident in her long-standing engagement with initiatives aimed at reducing food waste and promoting food justice. Christa’s work at City Harvest has brought recognition to the organization, highlighting the critical intersection of hunger prevention and community well-being.
As a versatile professional, Christa has consistently demonstrated her ability to adapt and thrive in challenging environments while driving meaningful change. Her career trajectory reflects a deep-seated commitment to public health, community development, and effective communication, making her a respected figure in the fields of development management and public policy.
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Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.