About Mary
Built from a calling. Shaped by what I witnessed.
“I have spent my entire life trying to get to the people who have no one fighting for them. This is just the version of that I can build to reach everyone.”
Where this started
Long before I had professional credentials, I had a conviction. I grew up in a church with a missions group that went beyond the sermon — we showed up at homeless shelters, youth programs, disaster relief sites, local outreach events, and international missions trips. Not for the optics. Because people needed us there. That calling never left me. Mary’s Mission is the version of it that can reach more people than I can physically get to — and that doesn’t stop when I leave the room.
What I’ve done — and what I’ve seen
My professional experience is in direct care with children and vulnerable people. Not from a distance. In the room, in the moment, in the facility. As a 1:1 Paraprofessional, I worked directly with students with disabilities — reading individual plans, supporting each student’s specific needs, and learning early how much the written plan and the lived reality can differ. At Melmark, an ABA residential facility, I reviewed IEPs before compliance meetings to catch errors and verify accuracy. Melmark has distinguishing factors that demonstrate what quality care can look like: cameras throughout the facility, individualized plans, homes built to feel like homes, and staff trained on each client before touching their case. That contrast matters — because I’ve also seen the other end.
What I Witnessed at Easterseals
I worked as a Residential Education Instructor at Easterseals, managing a unit of girls, mostly preteens to teens, some older residents with lower cognitive ability. The facility was designed for temporary stays but functioned as a permanent placement for many of them, with no cameras outside of the medication rooms and no uniformity between units. What I witnessed: physical interventions that went beyond what any legitimate de-escalation framework requires, resulting in injury. Children reporting sexual assault by staff members — staff who kept their jobs. Incident reports are written in specific ways to reduce the appearance of harm. Children retraumatized by placement decisions — including a sexual assault survivor placed in the same facility as her abuser, with no one having checked the connection between them. I was told when I first started that a child could die, and staff would still have jobs. I later understood why someone said that. I reported what I saw. To supervisors and to the state. Nothing changed. I was retaliated against — given impossible tasks, isolated by other supervisors, and made unwelcome for refusing to look the other way. I left. The children stayed. This is not one bad facility. Residential youth care across this country operates with minimal oversight, institutional cultures that protect themselves, and children who have no one advocating for them from the outside. That is part of why this mission exists.
My training and approach
I am trained in both CPI (Crisis Prevention Intervention) and TCI (Therapeutic Crisis Intervention). They cover similar ground, but the philosophy underneath them is different — and that difference matters enormously in practice.
Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI)
Centers the relationship between the person in crisis and the person supporting them. De-escalation through attunement and understanding — not control. This is the framework that actually works because it treats behavior as communication, not a problem to be suppressed.
Crisis Prevention Intervention (CPI)
Similar goals, but in practice can default more readily to physical intervention. The gap between TCI and CPI is often a gap between understanding a person and managing them. Those lead to very different outcomes.
What this is building toward
Right now, Mary’s Mission is trauma-informed education and advocacy resources. It is not therapy. It is not crisis support. It is understanding — and the belief that understanding is the first step toward everything else. The long-term vision is larger: formal advocacy services, a nonprofit arm, and eventually legal advocacy for children and families who have no representation. This site is the foundation. The mission is already in motion. If you’ve been failed by a system, silenced by an institution, or simply need a place that takes your experience seriously, you are the reason this exists.
Crisis Intervention
Trained in TCI (Therapeutic Crisis Intervention) and CPI (Crisis Prevention Intervention).
TCI Trained · CPI Trained · ABA Residential · IEP Review · 1:1 Para
Direct Care Background
Years of hands-on work with children and vulnerable adults in residential, educational, and community settings.
Residential Youth · Special Education · Disability Rights · School Compliance · Community Outreach · Disaster Relief