Natalie Cook

Natalie recently joined the Oishei staff as Grants Associate after serving as Community Impact Coordinator with The Mobile Safety-Net Team (MSNT), an initiative of the Oishei Foundation.  As Grants Associate, Natalie assists the Director of Finance and Administration and works with grant seekers to guide them through the application process, provide grants management and administrative support to internal team members, and provide support to the Board of Directors.

She joined MSNT in 2016 and focused on coordinating the Lackawanna Stakeholders Coalition, Cheektowaga Community Collaborative, and Building Unity through Community: Akron-Newstead Alliance. She has been recognized in the communities she served including being honored in 2017 with the Cheektowaga Chamber of Commerce Community Service award, in 2016 by the Lackawanna Chamber of Commerce as the Non-Profit of the Year award, and in 2014 with the Main Street Business and Professional Association Beautification Award

Natalie has served with AmeriCorps in Niagara Falls (with ReNU Niagara) and was the grant coordinator at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Niagara County of the New York State Department of Health’s Creating Healthy Places to Live, Work, and Play and Creating Healthy Schools and Communities programs until 2016. Natalie has been involved with community gardens in Niagara Falls and Buffalo since 2012 and currently sits on the board of Grassroots Gardens of WNY. She received her bachelor’s degree at Siena College in sociology and business in 2010. She then came to the Western New York area in pursuit of her Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning with a Community Development concentration from the University at Buffalo.