At the time, I was in leadership at a large statewide nonprofit responsible for supporting 42 local programs serving survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Some shelters were damaged beyond occupancy; others remained open. Staff and residents faced personal travesties — lost income, property damage, loss of family members. We created a statewide response system under pressure and built something that worked.
The success of those efforts led me to assist programs in Mississippi and Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, New York and New Jersey after Superstorm Sandy, and Texas, Florida, and Louisiana after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It also led to applying what we learned to support programs in the aftermath of domestic violence homicides. As a result, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services invited me to co-author and train the disaster curricula ‘Domestic Violence Advocacy: Disaster Response’ with the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
The lessons learned from natural and human-made disasters translate seamlessly to other crises organizations face — leadership transitions, internal harm events, public crises, and any disruption that threatens an organization’s ability to serve its mission. Whatever the crisis, I tailor and adapt the approach according to the type of crisis. I bring the experience and steadiness to help your organization navigate it with integrity while centering both staff providing services and those they serve.
