Amiable Aesthete & Ardent Abolitionist

Ms. Katie Rhodes

Katie holds a Master of Social Work and over ten years of experience with nonprofits and government agencies serving people affected by trauma, poverty, homelessness, and disabilities. She earned an undergraduate degree in Communication Studies and continues to hone her skills in public speaking, interpersonal interactions, and writing. Katie is adept at strategically analyzing the "big picture" as well as organizing and implementing detailed program enhancements. A positive experience of public/private partnership in social work brought Katie to her current position as a team leader in administrative services at Ventura County Children and Family Services.

Katie, first person, here. Life is not all about responding to trauma. I enjoy being married to my favorite feminist, planning trips, fair trade shopping, analyzing personality tests, and picnicking under avocado trees.

“So much there is to see, but our morning eyes describe a different world than do our evening eyes, and surely our wearied evening eyes can only report a weary evening world.”

~ John Steinbeck in Travels with Charley

“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil, but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good, that it may prevail.”

~ Helen Keller

TRAININGS and CERTIFICATES

·       Public Administration Certificate (precursor to Doctorate in Public Administration) (Valdosta State University)

·       Grantwriting Bootcamp (Ventura County Community Foundation)

·       Excellence in Volunteer Management (Ventura County Community Foundation)

·       Family Finding Bootcamp (National Institute for Permanent Family Connectedness)

·       Resource Family Approval (Central California Training Academy)

·       Tools for Caregiving (Camarillo Healthcare District)

·       Sexual Assault Crisis Counselor (California Emergency Management Agency)

·       Trainer: Human Trafficking Caseworker (California Office of Emergency Services)

·       Hands that Heal: Train the Trainer (Faith Alliance Against Slavery & Trafficking)

·       Word on the Street (Los Angeles County Probation Department)

·       Ending the Game (Sowers Education)

·       CSEC 101 & 102 (Nola Brantley Speaks)