Shannon Guimaraes (she/her/hers) is a firm believer in equality across the board and passionate about helping people and guiding them through the weary hoops of regaining control of their lives and empowering them. Born in California, she spent most of her youth in Brazil where her father is originally from. She has been working with human services since 1992, from juvenile incarcerated youth population to HIV counseling and testing. As a survivor of child abuse, she has had experience advocating for survivors of domestic violence and child abuse in Brazil and worked for 3 years at Casa Myrna Vasquez in Boston as a Safelink advocate. Shannon speaks Portuguese fluently and Is functionally fluent in Spanish. She loves to sing and play the guitar.
When not working Shannon spends her time with family, friends and her furry friend Willie.
Am was born in Cambodia and migrated to the United States with her family at the age of one. She lived in Atlanta for a few years then in 1999, her family decided to move to Lowell when Am was only six years old. Ever since the move, she has never lived anywhere else but Lowell. Am is very proud of the city she lives in and loves giving back to the community. She has been working in the community since 2005 and again recently, in 2016. Am started her journey with CHH as a partner and now is the most recent member to join CHH as a staff in January of 2020. Am is very passionate in her new role as a Khmer Advocate and Prevention Specialist because her passion is to help educate and give the Khmer community a voice, a population who silently suffers from different forms of oppression. During her free time, Am enjoys spending time with her children, writing, going to the gym, empowering others, and loves sunny skies and palm trees.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 978-452-7721 ext. 108
Olabisi’s drive for ending sexual violence prompted her to begin her journey as a trained volunteer who taught children and young teens age appropriate sex education at The Center for Sex Education and Family Life In Nigeria, an organization that generates family life solutions, responds to child abuse and assists people with sexuality challenges.
In 2013, Olabisi became part of the team of advocates who taught high school students Sex Education during Lagos Empowerment and Resource Network (LEARN), an Initiative of The First Lady of Lagos state in conjunction with the Center for Sex Education and Family Life. She continued in her journey of seeing a world free of sexual violence by joining The Center for Hope and Healing in 2018, where she completed a training to become a Certified Rape Crisis and Sexual Advocate Counselor. Forging ahead on this mission, she is presently the Web-Based Advocate and Administrative Coordinator at The Center for Hope and Healing.
Olabisi holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from Madonna University Nigeria, and has previously worked at a hospital, chemical company and independent living homes. She loves to take long walks and listen to classical music by Handel Messiah and Mozart.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 978-452-7721 ext. 105
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 978-452-7721 ext. 107
Isa Woldeguiorguis began as the Executive Director of CHH in 2012. Prior to this, Ms. Woldeguiorguis has worked in the anti-violence field for twenty years, holding several statewide and national roles in the movement to end sexual and domestic violence.
From 2007-2010. she worked at the Massachusetts Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence (Jane Doe Inc.) as the Policy Director and then Membership Director. Prior to this, Ms Woldeguiorguis worked at the Department of Social Services (DSS) now the Department of Children and Families (DCF) in Massachusetts. She began as an advocate and ultimately became the Director of the Massachusetts DSS Domestic Violence Unit- the first such unit in the country and a national model for integrating domestic violence advocates in the public child welfare system. Her final tenure was serving as the Assistant Commissioner for Practice and Policy from 2004-2007, during which time she played a role in redesigning the agency’s practice model to become family-centered and in building an integrated practice in substance abuse, mental health and domestic violence.
Ms Woldeguiorguis is a well-respected leader and national trainer in the field of children, domestic and sexual violence, systems change, policy and practice. Ms Woldeguiorguis is well known for her dynamic training style and teaching skills on these topics and for her activism in the areas of racial disparities. She has authored several articles on topics such as family-centered practice in child welfare, racial and ethnic disproportionality and immigration.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 978-452-7721 ext. 109
A native of Cambodia, Mana grows up witnessing transformative changes in her country which foster her passion for social justice, gender-inclusive development, and human rights. For over six years she has worked closely with youth and marginalized populations through volunteerism and leadership roles in education and community outreach projects with U.S Alumni association, youth/student associations and non-profit organizations.
Prior to joining the CHH, she served as a NUNV Coordination Officer for an Asia Pacific regional joint prevention program called Partners for Prevention (P4P) at the United Nations Population Fund Cambodia for one year; and a NUNV LGBT Human Rights Officer for ‘Being LGBT in Asia’ based at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Cambodia for another year prior to pursuing her graduate degree. Mana is a graduate of the University of San Francisco with an MA in International Studies. She also holds two BA degrees, in Education from the Institute of Foreign Languages (RUPP), and in International Relations from the University of Cambodia.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 978-452-7721 ext. 120
Masada Jones (she/her/her) is an artist, community builder, and youth worker. She is Founder and Executive Director of The Kindred Project, an organization creating visible community with Black people in Lowell. Since a young age Masada has been a community organizer, using her voice to uplift people historically at the margins of the community. She has made it her mission to work in prevention and create spaces that do not center the most common faces. Masada is a Lowell native dedicated to investing in her people and community.
Knowing the importance of telling one’s own story and being heard, she also co-founded FreeVerse!, a group focused on enriching the lives of young people by fostering their love of poetry and performance. She is humbled and blessed to do more of this work in her current role, Community Impact Manage, at The Center for Hope and Healing, Inc. Masada looks forward to growing and doing more building work as a student in 2020-2021 Institute for Nonprofit Practice Core Certificate Program.
Masada is also a poet and published author. “Becoming Broken”, her first full-length collection of poetry was released March 2016.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 978-452-7721 ext. 115
Holding a Master of Social Work at the Erikson Institute in Chicago, Nani is proud to return home to Lowell to work at The Center for Hope and Healing. They hope to support and advocate for survivors in their journeys toward healing while fostering compassion and strength within CHH’s Survivor Services Team. Nani believes, that by centering the voices of the historically marginalized and oppressed in the movement to eradicate violence, we can change systems and repair the pain and hurt that have spread through generations.
Nani has previously worked in counseling, program development, education, advocacy, community organizing, and looks forward to integrating their skills in these areas into their work with folx at CHH and beyond. Nani’s clinical work is rooted in cultural/relational practices, psychodynamic frameworks, and systems theories and they understand survivors and their families through an intersectional lens.
When Nani is not at work, they are often found reading on the couch with their cat Wilson Frisk, visiting breweries with their partner, or cooking up something new in their kitchen.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 978-452-7721 ext. 114
Olga provides trauma-informed counseling to survivors of sexual assault in Spanish and English.
“I do individual counseling. I empower survivors to continue to reach their life goals. I teach them coping skills to manage the impact of the assault and decrease the symptoms they may experience. It’s important survivors have someone to listen to them and believes them without judging. Through different techniques they start seeing that there is hope and they get motivation to fight for themselves and against sexual violence in the world.”
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 978-452-7721 ext. 104
Shirley, a Harlem native, has lived in the Greater Lowell area for over 20 years, and she has served her community as a youth worker, mentor and tutor for over 10 years. As a former AmeriCorps member, she volunteered for CHH and is excited to join the team, collaborate with its partners, and to be a part of such a dynamic movement. She also comes to the team with several years of Human Resources experience including employee relations, understanding emotional intelligence in the workplace, and system analysis.
Shirley has grown to love Lowell’s culture from its delicious, ethnic foods to its breakdancers and is humbled to be back to serve the community that has had such an impact on her life personally and professionally.
When she is not working, she enjoys spending time with her family, singing, writing and finding random restaurants to visit, no matter how far.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 978-452-7721
Stephanie was born in Port au-Prince Haiti, she then moved to the United States when she was about twelve years old. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a Minor in Biology at St Thomas University in Miami Gardens. Upon graduating, she moved to Jacksonville Florida to pursue a master’s degree in Experimental Psychology at the University of North Florida. Stephanie later moved to Massachusetts to undertake a doctorate in Applied Prevention Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Her current research explores the lived experiences of those with stigmatized identities (sexual assault, sexual and gender identities, mental illness) and addresses racial inequities in treatment and services for women and girls of color.
While pursuing her doctorate, she began her journey at the Center for Hope and Healing as a Healing Corps volunteer in 2018, providing hotline and medical advocacy to survivors of sexual assault. She later joined the Lowell Commercial Sexual Exploitation (CSEC) Taskforce as a research fellow and has since expanded her passion for working with at-risk youth and survivors of human trafficking. In her former role as an Advocate/counselor, she provided individual counseling and psycho-educational groups to young survivors and families navigating difficult life challenges at different settings. Over the years, Stephanie chaired the Lowell CSEC training sub-committee with the effort to bring awareness of sex trafficking of youth to the Lowell community, and fostered collaborative discussion to better identify barriers and challenges to serve disenfranchised youths. She was instrumental in applying and ultimately receiving the grant to serve trafficked minors in our community.
As an African American woman, an educator, and an advocate, she is dedicated to creating trauma informed and survivor centered practices that supports young people, and uplift their voices, while building/restructuring systems for youth in black and brown communities. Stephanie is thrilled to expand her work at CHH as the Lowell Ending Trafficking of Youth (LET Youth) Project Manager, building a stronger and safer foundation for healing work of youth and adolescents through spreading hope, advocacy, prevention, training and collaboration. She hopes to continue to elevate the mission and vision of CHH and raise awareness on sex trafficking as a social epidemic impacting the lives of many of our youth. On her days off, Stephanie likes a good Netflix binge, exploring different parts of the world, hiking and trying out new dishes with her husband.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 978-452-7721 ext. 122