My Story
MY STORY
It all started when...
I was born in an urban housing project in Saint Louis, Missouri, the youngest of five children who were each removed from the home by the age of five. I spent my early years in foster care and orphanages. This certainly was not a trajectory for success.
I was fortunate enough to be adopted by an incredible mother and given nearly every chance for success in the book. I know how lucky I was to be given a different life and feel compelled to give those in similar circumstances the same opportunity.
I live and breathe to make the world a safer place for those around me. I don’t know how not to. My greatest strength is the ability to blend fierce compassion with action.
My career is dedicated to making the world safer, and over the past decade my team has worked with thousands of schools across the country to provide training, consultation, and support.
My Why
I have dedicated my career to making communities safer, which initially took shape in my work in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) as a first responder, opening my eyes to the broader need for safety skills. Too often, people would be standing idly by at a scene when they could have been engaging to save a life. Fueled by this, I began teaching life saving skills to educators, and from there became a safety consultant, helping schools build skills and systems for peace of mind.
My life experiences – complex identity, trauma, and instability – ultimately shaped my safety philosophy – safety through confidence, connection, and communication – and have allowed me to uniquely see, understand, and relate to many different perspectives and people.
Today, I lead Joffe Emergency Services, a company wholly dedicated to – and leader in – school safety programming, event safety, and emergency preparedness, and over the past decade our team hasworked with thousands of schools across the country to provide training, consultation, and support. I also co-founded SwimGuard and successfully launched Get CPR Done. I strive to make the world safer in every way possible, including speaking about my learnings, business, and experience.
I studied paramedicine at UCLA and earned my Master’s in Technology, Business and Integrated Design from the University of Southern California (USC). I stay sane by running marathons, and enjoy reading, horseback riding, and aviation. In 2021, I became a licensed pilot, and I am currently in the process of publishing a book on the principles of community
“A crisis highlights all of our fault lines. We can pretend that we have nothing to learn, or we can take this opportunity to own the truth and make a better future for ourselves and others.”