This year, we’re continuing to celebrate the people who make #OurResilience possible and telling the stories of some of our incredible clients, staff, volunteers, and supporters. It is more important now more than ever to embrace and celebrate what connects us: our resilience. This month, we’re proudly shining a spotlight on Lauren Pesa. Lauren is President of Resilience’s Board of Directors and was recently named Audit & Assurance Partner at Deloitte’s Accounting Advisory & Transformation Services practice. Resilience sends our best wishes and congratulations on this achievement!
Continue to read our interview with Lauren.
What inspired or motivated you to get involved with Resilience?
After the Women’s March, I felt I had a moral obligation to try to give back to my community. I saw the Resilience team at the Women’s March in Chicago and sought to see what ways I could potentially contribute as a Board member.
This year you became president of Resilience’s board of directors. What do you hope to accomplish as board president during your term?
My primary goal is to ensure that we can enable Resilience employees and volunteers to serve survivors of sexual violence. To that end, as Board President, my responsibility is to be a champion of our mission.
What is your biggest hope for the future of Resilience in the next year or so?
To be able to serve survivors in our post-COVID environment is going to be critical. I think many individuals in our community have either not had time to sort of cope with their prior traumas or, worse yet, experienced traumas during this shut down. I want to be responsive to whatever is going to come to the surface as we enter our new world.
What one fun fact about yourself?
I’m a big Phish fan, so I travel all over the country to see my favorite band.
You joined Resilience’s Board of Directors three years ago. What is one memory, or experience as a board member that you’re most proud of?
I really enjoyed seeing Tarana Burke during the Me Too movement at our Evening of Impact in 2019. I thought her remarks and her story as well the collective participation that we all had, wearing Me Too buttons during that night, was incredibly impactful. In addition, every time I come to a board meeting and hear a mission moment that highlights how Resilience serves the community and survivors, it’s like, okay, this is why I’m here.
You recently became Partner at Deloitte, which is an incredible accomplishment. How does your career connect with or overlap with the work you do as Resilience’s Board President?
As a leader in my community, I think I have a fundamental responsibility- a mandate – to make sure that I am bringing the networks that I’ve gained in my professional career to serve our community. As a certified public accountant, I understand that our ability to continue to serve our community is tied to our ability to maintain strong financial stewardship. Whether I’m serving a Fortune 500 company in my professional life or Resilience as a board member, I believe the same principles of transparency and sober leadership applies.
Is there something about you or your role as board president that I have not asked you about that you’d like to talk about?
I’m really excited to interact with all the folks that work at Resilience and to feel like I can do my small part, and it does feel like a small part relative to the tremendous amount of work that folks at Resilience do, but to give back in a small way to my community and to survivors. Knowing that they have another person that’s in their corner, and they are believed. I’m excited about the future of Resilience and ways that we can continue to tactically implement our mission and strategy to be in service of survivors and prevention education.