WCADVSA STAFF

"Life is a work of art. Courage is to color the grass with the razzmatazz crayon and to live is to paint the sky mango tango." by Cass Burson

 

As a survivor, it was at Red Paint Alliance where my perspective shifted, and my understanding deepened of my own generational trauma and the impact that trauma has on the lives of others. I am a visionary who is passionate about my new position as the Prevention Specialist. I am excited to be a part of the WCDVSA team and that I am able to contribute to the collective shift towards ending violence and sexual assault.

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Email Cassandra at cburson@wyomingdvsa.org

We are each changemakers in our own corner of the world and it is up to each and every one of us to change the world for the better. I'm thrilled to get to work with such an amazing group of people. I'm excited to get to create spaces for people to come together to learn and eradicate oppression and violence. Most of all, I'm humbled to honor victim's lives through our Silent Witness Initiative so that people remember their names, their stories, and their strength.



When I am not working, you can find me spending time with my beautiful rescue mutts, hiking in the mountains, or buried in a pile of books, daydreaming my life away.

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“I believe that telling our stories, first to ourselves and then to one another and the world, is a revolutionary act. It is an act that can be met with hostility, exclusion, and violence. It can also lead to love, understanding, transcendence, and community." — Janet Mock

 

Email Celeste at ccollingwood@wyomingdvsa.org

Connection may be one of the single most important qualities in responding to and preventing violence in our communities. Through connection, we are able to create an experience for a person that is liberating; ingrained in mutual-dialogue; honors intersectionality and complexity in their lives; puts their reality and needs at the center; and is rooted in appreciating violence as a social problem. Tiffany believes that all of these aspects of connection with other people are achievable in our professional and personal lives; it’s what makes us feel whole.

 

In the pursuit of making connection viable, she feels most connected in a good chat, hanging out with her family, camping, and sometimes just reading a good book in solitude.

 

Email Tiffany at te-m@wyomingdvsa.org

"If you want to know where to find your contribution to the world, look at your wounds.  When you learn how to heal them, teach others."  Emily Maroutian

 

My hope is that every living being has a safe and peaceful place to live.  I'm honored to work with this organization as we collectively promote positive change to end oppression and violence. 

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When I'm not working, I'm most likely teaching a yoga class, or planning a yoga class, or taking a yoga class....

 

Email Angie at afessler@wyomingdvsa.org

Overcoming gender-based violence means confronting the problem from many different angles and from a perspective rooted firmly in compassion and empathy.  I am thrilled to act as a piece in this larger puzzle of work that envisions a society where all people may live free from  violence and from the harmful gender norms that perpetuate it. 

 

Outside of work, you’ll likely find me exploring the vibrant community events of my hometown and the outdoor opportunities that surround it.

 

Email Dani at dharrington@wyomingdvsa.org

I have a business background and spent nearly a decade in the workforce after undergrad and never felt fulfilled. I decided to go back to law school so I could try and make a difference in this world. During law school I really became interested with the idea of using my privilege as a white male to help the less privileged. I wanted to make sure I found the right opportunity after law school, and when I saw a position open with WCADVSA I jumped on it. The opportunity to work here and do good is not something I take lightly or for granted. 

 

In my spare time I like to spend time with my daughter, Asher. We like to play board games and video games and go to the park. I also like playing golf and watching sports.

 

Email Nick at nhopkins@wyomingdvsa.org

Use your voice for kindness, your ears for compassion, your hands for charity, your mind for truth, and your heart for love.

 

Email Lindsey at lhunt@wyomingdvsa.org

"Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”- Martin Luther King Jr.

 

I have always had a passion for helping and empowering others. Service and empowerment are at the center of our work at WCADVSA, and I am proud to be a part of a team working towards equality and justice for everyone. Changing the world for the better is no small feat, but together we can make progress towards a better tomorrow.

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Email Katye at klester@wyomingdvsa.org

I’m inspired and energized by the critical hope that continues to build as we work collectively to end violence. I believe a long history of destructive norms fueled by a quest for dominance, in a myriad of forms, has created intersecting cycles of historical and intergenerational trauma, loss, grief, violence, and educational, health, social, and economic disparities. Policies and systems for addressing these social problems have too often been created within these cultural norms.

 

We have a lot of work to do! Still, I have critical hope as I witness ripples of transformative change, through each of our personal and professional commitments. Being deeply committed to open-ended processes of growing in gentle self-compassion, insight, and healing; experiencing and working toward meaningful and healthy relationships built on foundations of dignity; humbly seeking and collectively sharing lifelong learning; and connecting in an equalized multicultural approach that values all voices, we are transforming our beloved communities together.

 

I am grateful for the privilege of doing this work, with, and on behalf of, all people, as we draw on our own otherness in the ongoing process of creating safe, supportive, compassionate, socially just and equitable spaces where we grow, live, learn, work, and play.

 

Email Susie at smarkus@wyomingdvsa.org

Practicing law was not the reason I went to law school; I wanted to change the world as it seemed the world was entirely out of balance for those wanting to live free and safe lives. If our legal system is oppressive and not functioning for those who need it, it is because we made it so. We can change it. Find your voice. Recognize you have a story to tell and join us.

 

My favorite quote for this work is from Alice Walker, “I am the woman offering two flowers whose roots are twin. Justice and Hope. Hope and Justice. Let us begin.” 

 

Email Tara at tmuir@wyomingdvsa.org

I like to imagine French philosopher, Luce Irigaray’s world where we “love across difference, not by
reducing identity to notions of sameness, but by accounting for belonging through the recognition of the
irreducible differences between us.” (G. Blue)

 

My hope is that to imagine such a world is to see it. To see this world, able to language it. To language it,
able to live it. To live it, transform self and help make a world more equitable, inclusive and free.

 

Email L'Dawn at lolsen@wyomingdvsa.org

“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” ~  Robert F. Kennedy

 

My work focuses on providing legal services and access to justice for those in need.

 

Email Charlotte at crand@wyomingdvsa.org

Each of us has the power to change.  I am honored to be part of this wonderful organization to help promote positive changes to end violence. 

 

When I am not enjoying my time at work, you can find me spending time with my family in the mountains. 

 

Email Sadie at srandeau@wyomingdvsa.org

“Beautiful Lightbearers, Your wounds and trauma do not define you. You are not the darkness you endured. You are the light that refused to surrender” - John Mark Green, Australia

 

Nu Sosori nI en Doya Donzia; my Eastern Shoshone name is Mountain Flower. I have worked in the arena of domestic violence and sexual assault for approximately a half-century. I am very excited and honored to be a team member of an exceptional organization that provides indispensable services, education and support to a critical population, domestic violence and sexual assault victims and survivors, in Wyoming and the Wind River Reservation. I am looking forward to working with a unique group of colleagues with diverse and unique experiences to increase and expand my ‘vision’. 

 

Email Sara at srobinson@wyomingdvsa.org

Education is empowering and transformative. When communities are empowered, they have the ability to change their lives and the lives of future generations.

 

When Jody is not collaborating with communities for social change, she tries to spend as much time as possible climbing rocks, running miles and miles, and sharing her love of the mountains with her daughter. 

 

Email Jody at jsanborn@wyomingdvsa.org

We are the colors of the earth.

Together, a kaleidoscope of hope.

       We are whispers of love.

       Together, the voice of change.

            We are winds of reason.

            Together the storm of justice.

                We are

                Together.

 

Email Joyce at jschaedler@wyomingdvsa.org

Anyone can be a victim of sexual violence. Domestic violence transcends race, culture, economic status and social class. I seek to help individuals identify their legal needs and offer a wholistic approach to legal representation that aides healing.

 

“Doctors…still retain a high degree of public confidence because they are perceived as healers. Should lawyers not be healers? Healers, not warriors? Healers, not procurers? Healers, not hired guns?”

                                                                                    ~ Warren Burger, Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court (1969-1986) 

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Email Kristen at kschwartz@wyomingdvsa.org

Our prime purpose in this life is to help others.

     And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them.

          Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries.

               Without them, humanity cannot survive.

                                                                                                                                                                              ~Dahlia Lama​

Email Janet at jstansbury@wyomingdvsa.org

Men play the most essential role in ending gender-based violence. The messages we receive about masculinity from our earliest ages create a barrier between us and the people we want to ally with. It begins with our willingness to step out of our comfort zone and understand that not everybody sees through the same lens; then we can take that knowledge and initiate it into how we raise our young boys.

 

Bob is a Kansas City Chiefs and Royals Superfan and loves an occasional rock concert with his family.

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Email Bob at bvines@wyomingdvsa.org

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Email Jennifer at jwittstock@wyomingdvsa.org

My dream is to live in a world where we celebrate diversity and equality; where everyone has an equal opportunity to be physically, psychologically, and economically safe and secure; where marginalized populations have a voice and are universally supported; and where communities can have important discussions on issues of social justice and social services that will foster progressive social action and strong alliances.

 

The movement toward social justice is at the core of our work and this requires that the truth of our lives and what has happened to us be told, that the harm we have experienced be repaired, and the conditions that give rise to the violence be eradicated.

 

I am grateful to work for an amazing organization with friends and colleagues who share my dream and are dedicated to making it reality.

 

When I am not at work you can find me loving on my four-legged family members, wining and dining with friends/family, spending time outdoors, shopping ‘til I drop, interior decorating, or dreaming about the future.

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Email Trish at tworley@wyomingdvsa.org