The recipient of the 2021 Rhode Island Natural History Survey Founders’ Award for Exceptional Service is Joyce Valentine-Kenney. As a volunteer, director, and during her nearly 10 years as treasurer, Joyce contributed more to the growth and maturation of the Survey than anyone else you can easily think of. Joyce joined the Survey’s board of directors in 2004 and served as the treasurer from 2005 until her passing in 2014. But her contributions extend considerably beyond that period. In the early 2000’s, during the Survey’s absorption of the Natural Heritage Program and The Nature Conservancy’s science staff, Joyce volunteered her services as an accountant to set up the bookkeeping system we still use, develop an annual budget process, and ensure personnel and financial policies met the highest standards. As spouse of long time Survey secretary and founding board member Bob Kenney, Joyce no doubt influenced many other decisions and priorities going back to 1994 and even earlier.
As a Certified Public Accountant with many years of experience in the business world, and with other nonprofits, when the Survey began growing rapidly around 2000, Joyce Kenney recognized the need to establish financial processes that were robust, flexible, and of the highest standard, but nonetheless simple to use and maintain. She specked the software and hardware, wrote the new system, recruited other volunteers and advisers with accounting experience, trained staff, and, significantly, transitioned the old books into the new system without losing auditability. This was the first time the Survey was able to recruit the help of a person particularly qualified to juggle the books (all in the right way, of course).
Not only was Joyce Kenney a master of debits, credits, and other money metrics, but she was also really appreciated and enjoyed people and social dynamics and understood that finances were both the product of, and in the service of people. With patience and good humor, Joyce trained Kira Stillwell, someone hired as a program manager, to do the bookkeeping. Her Treasurer’s reports at the monthly and annual meetings presented easily digestible facts and analyses in ways that supported sometimes tough decisions. Her annual meeting reports were fact-filled and helpful, self-deprecating, and entertaining, not to say rousing, and how many times have you ever heard the words ‘treasurer’s report’ and ‘rousing’ in the same sentence? That is nothing short of miraculous.
More than just a crackerjack accountant and generous, sensitive advisor, Joyce Kenney helped out at most Survey events and made deep, personal connections with the rest of the board, staff, and members of the Natural History Survey. Whether she was signing people in at BioBlitz, chatting about her hobbies, inquiring after your family, contributing to a holiday party, or telling about adventures in her Miata convertible or on her beloved sailboat, Joyce’s bright, positive personality helped set the tone for the whole Survey. She was unfailingly positive and always a pleasure to have around.
As the Rhode Island Natural History Survey grew in size, influence, and complexity, Joyce was there to make sure that the financial infrastructure of our operation was sound and efficient. That, along with her good humor and seemingly boundless energy, helped drive the continued success of our organization. As a lynchpin of that success, Joyce Valentine-Kenney has more than earned the recognition of becoming the recipient of the 2021 Rhode Island Natural History Survey Founders’ Award for Exceptional Service.