After the Headlines Fade, the Real Work Begins.

The Challenge:
Following multiple disasters and mass violence incidents, communities were looking for ways to support survivors emotionally while staying connected long after first responders left. But many healing efforts were short-term or lacked trauma-informed leadership that honored both emotional care and sustainable systems.

The Approach:
I partnered with Stars of HOPE to build sustainable models for art-based healing, scalable program expansion, and trauma-informed community partnerships. We restructured operations, designed repeatable activation models, and created accessible programming for communities processing grief and trauma, embedding clinical partnerships and peer support structures.

The Outcome:
Under my leadership, the Stars of HOPE program scaled by over 250%, serving more than 280 communities impacted by crisis. Costs were reduced while impact grew. The program became a national model for using creative expression as an emotional recovery tool following mass violence and disaster events while protecting survivors' emotional safety throughout.

The Challenge:
Survivor communities often carry the emotional and logistical weight long after media attention fades. National survivor-led groups require structure, trust, and trauma-informed practices to collaborate effectively across incidents while preserving dignity and honoring lived experiences.

The Approach:
As a founding member of STOP, I worked alongside other survivors and advocates to co-create peer-led frameworks for cross-community collaboration, remembrance planning, peer engagement, and long-term advocacy efforts. My role supported operational structure, trauma-informed advisory processes, and systems that centered survivor voices while protecting emotional integrity.

The Outcome:
The STOP Coalition now operates as a trusted national voice supporting survivor-led recovery, remembrance, and advocacy across mass violence events. Survivor leaders have tools to engage ethically with funders, the media, and public systems, while protecting the emotional safety of their peers within the work.

The Challenge:
Communities impacted by mass violence needed both immediate crisis response and long-term trauma-informed care structures. Federal and national response teams lacked trauma-informed guidance on peer support, survivor advisory, remembrance planning, and emotional safety frameworks that honored the lived experiences of survivors.

The Approach:
I consulted with national networks and provided subject matter expertise to federal agencies, national hotlines, victim service providers, and remembrance planners. This included developing training content, survivor-centered operational guidance, and emotional care protocols for leadership and frontline responders.

The Outcome:
Federal-level victim assistance teams, community responders, and remembrance planners now have access to trauma-informed training that integrates peer voice, ethical survivor engagement, and long-term system sustainability, while protecting providers and responders from compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma.

The Challenge:
After a mass violence incident, one community faced the difficult task of honoring loss while creating space for survivors and families to safely process ongoing grief. Public events and remembrance activities often risk retraumatization without proper emotional care frameworks in place.

The Approach:
I partnered with local leaders, survivor families, remembrance organizers, and support teams to co-design a trauma-informed year-mark plan. We balanced public visibility with private space for survivors, trained staff in vicarious trauma protocols. We facilitated creative healing opportunities that provided survivors and their families with safe outlets for reflection.

The Outcome:
The remembrance event offered multiple access points for those impacted, both publicly and privately, while respecting survivor autonomy. Media engagement was carefully managed, peer support networks were activated, and healing art sessions provided a compassionate and hopeful space for families to reflect at their own pace.