2020 Year in Review: Melissa Fish-Crane, Peabody Companies

 What is the best advice you have received, and who was it from? “Nurturing yourself is not selfish – it’s essential to your survival and well-being” is a quote from Renee Peterson Trudeau that was shared with me by a close friend. Now that we’re ten months into the pandemic, we are all well past the point of COVID fatigue. It’s hitting our teams, clients, residents – everyone, hard. Collectively, we need to approach the New Year with a sense of understanding, gratitude and grace. We need to help ourselves and others, both personally and professionally, and navigate this difficult time together, because that’s where we’ll find resilience.

What aspects of working from home have you enjoyed most? I never thought I would have a deep appreciation for video calls, but in addition to keeping our teams socially distanced, it has also helped us form connections that we might otherwise think impossible. We’re readily able to connect not only on a professional level, but on a deeply personal one as well. 

To that end, it allows us to get the facetime with our team members that is so incredibly critical to maintain morale, collaboration, cohesion and the mission-driven approach that drives what we do, through all phases and stages of the pandemic.

What was the most difficult part of working during the pandemic of 2020? The most difficult part of working during the pandemic of 2020 was doing so in an environment of nearly continuous uncertainty for more than nine months. Political uncertainty, economic instability, social unrest, the list went beyond just the pandemic and nearly all of it impacted business operations in one way or another. Additionally, while there was a slight lull during the summer months, I think we all understood that a second surge was around the corner and that we would need to readjust our reopening procedures to meet the needs of more challenging times once again. And, here we are.

What was your greatest professional accomplishment or most notable project,

deal, or transaction in 2020? The creation of our Community and Resident Emergency Support (CARES) Program is one of the most meaningful and impactful projects we’ve implemented in 2020. Aligned with Peabody’s mission-driven, relationship-focused approach and intended to proactively address to the growing needs our resident populations during the pandemic, we established a multi-lingual team of resident outreach support specialists, whose exclusive purpose it was to safeguard the well-being of our residents, by reaching out on a regular basis with the goal of developing trusting relationships while at the same time providing much-needed compassion, care and support.