Laurie Jackson – Executive Director
Laurie Jackson is the Executive Director for National Safe Place. She joined the organization in June 2010, and has been active with Safe Place for more than 15 years. She recently served as Associate Executive Director for Synergy Services, Inc. in Kansas City, Mo. Jackson was with Synergy Services, Inc. for 16 years and prior to that worked for several years with Cedars Youth Services in Lincoln, Ne. She has been active with local, regional, state and national efforts in the areas of runaway and homeless youth, child welfare and domestic violence.
Jackson holds an executive master’s degree in business administration from the University of Missouri Kansas City and a bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Nebraska Kearney. She serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the National Network for Youth and is dedicated to bringing awareness to the issues of runaway and homeless youth.
Robin Donaldson – Program Development & Research Director
Robin Donaldson joined the National Safe Place staff in August 2008, but has been involved with Safe Place for the last 10 years. She is responsible for the development and implementation of new programmatic initiatives for National Safe Place, as well as collecting, analyzing and reporting statistical data regarding all aspects of the National Safe Place program.
Donaldson was first a Safe Place Coordinator and was one of two awarded the honor of “Safe Place Coordinators of the Year” in 2000. She then joined the National Safe Place Advisory Board and served in that capacity for seven years before joining the NSP staff. Prior to joining National Safe Place, she served as the Assistant Director at Youth Services Bureau of Monroe County in Bloomington, In., and had been at YSB of Monroe County for 12 years.
Donaldson has a master’s degree in counseling and social psychology from Ball State University and bachelor’s degree from Indiana University. She is a licensed Mental Health Counselor and also teaches psychology classes at Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana.
Susan Harmon – Organizational Advancement Director
Susan Harmon is the Organizational Advancement Director for National Safe Place, delivering instruction for new Safe Place agencies and working on expanding Safe Place’s national network of programs. She joined National Safe Place in July 2000 after serving 10 years as the Safe Place coordinator for the Louisville, Ky., program.
Harmon is responsible for organizing and conducting multiple training sessions held each year to prepare new agencies and coordinators to operate a Safe Place program, as well as regional and national conferences that provide networking and training opportunities for Safe Place personnel. In addition, she represents National Safe Place at various regional and national conferences nationwide.
Prior to joining Safe Place, Harmon worked for Louisville’s Jefferson County Public Schools. A native of Griffin, Ga., Harmon holds a bachelor of science in secondary education and history from Shorter College in northwest Georgia.
Sherry Casey – Program Coordinator
Sherry Casey is the Program Coordinator for National Safe Place, serving as the primary contact for the more than 140 local Safe Place coordinators across the country. She joined the organization in February 2003 as an administrative assistant and was promoted to her current position in 2006.
Casey is responsible for monitoring each Safe Place program’s annual goals and maintaining the national database of Safe Place statistics. In addition, she serves as the lead staff member on the National Safe Place advisory board’s Quality Enhancement committee.
Prior to joining National Safe Place, Casey spent seven years in a variety of roles for the YMCA of Greater Louisville, including both office manager of the Bullitt County branch and site director for its Before/After Child Care program.
Hillary Bond – Communications Coordinator
Hillary Bond is the Communications Coordinator for National Safe Place, providing public relations and communications support for the organization and its 140+ member agencies. She joined National Safe Place in July 2011 and is responsible for communicating with the media, coordinating publications, such as the annual report, newsletter and eNews, writing press releases, managing social media accounts and more. In addition, she serves as the lead staff member on the NSP advisory board’s Awareness committee. Prior to joining the organization, Bond spent two years as a publicist for an independent book publishing company. She was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio and holds a BA in public relations from Belmont University.
Julie Arney – Office Manager
Julie Arney is the Office Manager for National Safe Place. She joined the organization in February 2007 as the Administrative Assistant, after five years in a similar position at the YMCA of Greater Louisville and fifteen years prior management experience. Arney provides support to the National Safe Place team and responsive service to the Safe Place agencies. She manages the daily operations of National Safe Place.
Prior to joining the YMCA, Arney served three years as a manager for Meijer, a regional superstore, and a project assistant with a Fortune 500 contracting company.
Danielle White – AmeriCorps VISTA
Danielle White is a 2011 graduate of Bellarmine University in Louisville, Ky. While at Bellarmine, she studied English and communication with an emphasis in digital media and photography. White was an editor of The Concord, Bellarmine’s student newspaper and was the president and co-founder of the creative writing club. She also served as the VP of PR for the Bellarmine Communication Association and was inducted into Lambda Pi Eta national communication honor society. After graduation, White made the decision to serve as an AmeriCorps VISTA at National Safe Place. Previously, White served as a Resident Assistant at Bellarmine, as well as a writing center consultant in Bellarmine’s Academic Resource Center. She is from Columbus, Ind.
