548: How to Break Into Tenant Advocacy With Abby Volin, Opening Doors [Espresso Shots]

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Abby Volin is the founder and president of Opening Doors PLLC, a team of animal accommodation experts who help  residential & commercial property managers, tenants & residents, universities, employers, & healthcare providers, welcome paws through their front door. They accomplish this by developing progressive and safer pet programs that create a happy and  healthier community for people and pets alike. Before founding Opening Doors in 2017, Abby worked as a policy specialist for the Humane Society of the United States, managing legislation at state and local levels. She also has legal experience from her time at Harris Beach PLLC, a large law firm based in New York City. Abby graduated cum laude from Tufts University, where she majored in econometrics, quantitative economics and community health.  She got her law degree cum laude from Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT IN THIS EPISODE

• How working with advocacy groups or with a housing property can help you break into Abby’s field of work (4:19)
• Why Abby looks for empathetic and creative people who are willing to challenge her (5:23)
• Why your major is not as important as having specific experiences  (7:05)
• What kind of graduate degree would be most useful to pursue (9:08)
• Why Abby recommends doing volunteer work (12:20)
• How Abby embraces her father’s advice of having a contingency plan and her own motto:  “You can’t solve a problem until you define it” (16:00)
• How the book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City relates to Abby’s work within housing stability (17:46)
• Why Abby wants you to know that her work is mainly related to people, not pets (18:56)