Portfolio Manager Melissa Carter Celebrates an Empowering Five Years with Cardinal

At Cardinal, our culture embodies many different elements: it’s about improving as a team while having fun growing together both personally and professionally. Our team members are the heart and soul of our culture! We are so grateful for the efforts our team members put in daily to go the extra mile to help change the industry and challenge the status quo.

Today we’re celebrating Melissa Carter and her dedicated years of service to the growth of our team over the last five years.

Learn more about Melissa’s journey below!

 

What’s your role?

I am a Portfolio Manager for HSRE over Cell 12.3.

 

Tell us your cardinal journey

I started with Cardinal 5 years ago as an Assistant Portfolio Manager. Life tossed a few challenges my way and I was unable to travel so in true Cardinal form, I was given immediate support and was able to transfer into an on-site Community Manager role in Denver. After a brief stint there I was then ready to step back into an APM role and was afforded the ability to join a stellar team in 7.3. After 2 years of supporting that role, I became a Portfolio Manager.

 

What’s the most significant lesson you’ve learned in your time here?

Your voice matters and do not need to pick between your personal and professional morals they can align within the right organization.

 

What do you find most exciting about your job? Most challenging?

The most exciting part is identifying potential in team members that they may not see and being able to foster that potential to see them flourish in their careers.

My most challenging is not being able to be everywhere at once.

 

If you could choose one word to describe your time at Cardinal, what would it be and why?

Empowering

 

What advice would you give yourself five years ago?

It is ok to do things a different way. Look around and take bits from everyone but be confident in making it your own. You bring a unique perspective to the table and that is an asset, not a liability.

 

Who has been influential in your professional and personal life and how have they helped guide you?

My kids have impacted me the greatest in my professional and personal life. They are my number 1 priority and have shaped how I lead and the standards I hold. I take the role of leader and mom incredibly seriously and want to show my children that a mother can do both and in turn, show other mothers that you do not have to pick.

 

What is your biggest motivator?

Advocating for our people. I want to make sure everyone has a voice or someone representing their voice in the room where decisions that impact their future happen.

 

What’s something people may not know about you?

I am an introvert personally and tend to question every social interaction I’ve ever had.

 

What is your favorite college town in America?

Boone, NC is my favorite college town. Boone is where my student housing journey started and is a very dynamic place. It is a quintessential college town and where both of my kiddos happened to be born.

 

Are you ready to start your Cardinal Journey?

See our open opportunities.