Meet Deanna

Welcome! I am grateful to have the opportunity to connect with you. Like most of you, I have overcome hurdles on the way toward achieving my goals. On that journey, I realized how powerful cultivating and operating with resilience is. Before you can be resilient you need one foundational key; Hope. Today I am a licensed social worker, foster care alum, former teen parent, and an all-around #BounceBackQueen.

 

Despite many challenges in I continued to defy the odds stacked against me. My life began life like any other but quickly took a turn. Witnessing DV in the home, losing a sibling, and surviving a rough upbringing I was able to bounce back and stay in the fight. I was determined to excel, so I continued to persist. Just when I finally felt I was at a place where I could focus on my goals, life would throw another set of curve balls at me.

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By the age of 15, I survived a house fire where we lost everything, endured several types of abuse, and entered foster care while being a teenage parent. That is a lot to write! You can imagine it was a lot to endure. Reading it you may wonder how did I overcome these? I decided to decided to stand. This is the cornerstone of resilience. Resilience allowed me to get back up when I had been knocked down. It wouldn't let me quit when I was tired. Identifying and utilizing resilience ensured my success. 

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From here I became part of the 3% of foster youth that obtain a degree upon aging out of the foster care system. I would then be a caseworker in the very agency I aged out of! Now I bring a unique perspective from both sides of the table.

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As a result of these experiences, I  speak to various groups as resilience intersects with everyone across industries, experiences, and goals. Every strata of life speaks to cultivating resilience to overcome any obstacle and achieve success. I look forward to sharing this with you! 

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In solidarity, 

Deanna