Scott Perkins joined the Center for Medicare Advocacy in 2012 as the organization’s first Development Director and in 2020 moved into the newly formed role of Operations Director. As Operations Director, Mr. Perkins manages the Center’s operations, serves on the organization’s Leadership Team, and oversees the Development Director and Systems Administrator. He develops grant proposals and budgets, prepares and manages outcome measures and drafts reports, and monitors staffing, project development and progress. Mr. Perkins also helps oversee personnel issues, board relations, adherence to policies, procedures, and employment laws.
Mr. Perkins has 27 years of executive leadership experience developing and implementing strategic management, communications, and fundraising programs for local, national, and international organizations committed to alleviating human suffering in compassionate and skillful ways. These organizations have varied in their missions to include hospice and health care, affordable housing, homelessness and domestic violence, adoption of hard-to-place children out of the foster care system, as well as spiritual and educational organizations. Each of these organizations spoke not only to Mr. Perkins’ commitment to social justice, but also his passion for organizations that are well-run, programmatically and fiscally nimble, and provide staff with a professional and supportive environment. In 2009, he was part of the 4-person Executive Management Team at Doorways for Women and Families responsible for winning the Washington Post Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Management.
Mr. Perkins has an MA in Buddhist Studies from Naropa University. While Naropa University provided a rigorous course of academic study, Mr. Perkins also received extensive training in how to remain present, responsive, and resilient in the face of instability, uncertainty, and change; as well as in recognizing and understanding different styles of thinking and communication and how this can help avoid misunderstandings among individuals with differing styles. During graduate school, Mr. Perkins was most deeply impacted by experiences that illuminated one universal fact: we all desire to be free of suffering. Originally planning for an academic career, Mr. Perkins refocused his career path to work with organizations that make an impact on society, particularly those who are often marginalized and underserved.
Mr. Perkins was at Naropa University, located in Boulder, Colorado, when voters in that state passed Amendment 2 which deprived gay and lesbian people legal protection from discrimination based on their sexual orientation. This mis-guided legislation was eventually overturned by the Supreme Court for violating the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. Having only recently come out as a gay man, Mr. Perkins’ experience of living through both the personal loss of “equal protection” under the law, and the law being deemed unconstitutional, not only strengthened his commitment to social justice, but also emphasized for him the power of the law and legal advocacy in creating a just society for all individuals.