“Therese has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to our community, consistently going above and beyond to ensure that every individual has access to the necessary resources and support they need to succeed. Her ability to bring people together and create a sense of community has been instrumental in the success of our mentor program. Therese’s leadership has been instrumental in our community, as she has successfully united individuals with legal resources, housing support, and even professional mentorship opportunities.” – Steven Johnson, a fellow mentee

As the first Mentor Program Coordinator for Resilience Education, a national nonprofit organization based in Charlottesville, Virginia, Therese had a steep learning curve to understanding the population and how to unite them with business and legal professionals to activate their futures post-release. Therese projects empathy in all she does – seeking to reduce barriers to professional mentorship while being sensitive to the unique needs of returning citizens. She is incredibly receptive to feedback and uses such to restructure and improve upon pilots, as well as creating workflows and processes that are easy to use for future program coordinators.

She has led all aspects of Resilience Education’s e-mentoring program: developing training materials, protocols, feedback surveys, post-pilot interviews, and user agreements for our digital platform. Without Therese’s initiative, exceptional project management skills, and collaborative work ethic, this program simply would not have materialized. In addition, this fall, Therese helped to onboard four additional employees now working at Resilience Education.

Through her hard work and dedication, Resilience Education not only became a finalist for a 2.5M foundation grant, but was also able to refine how its programming can incorporate law students and secure funding to pilot their engagements. Therese’s work has allowed Resilience Education to be able to extend their mentoring program design to include an assessment tool for barrier crimes to employment opportunities.

“Therese has been instrumental in my successful reentry into society. She has provided me with invaluable support in revising my essays, editing my resume, and even securing an internship” – Jonathan Wrenn, mentee in Pilots 1 and 3 of the Resilience Education Mentoring Program.