From Loss to Purpose
EPECARE was born from a deeply personal experience—one that forever changed the way I understood preparedness, service, and the power of community.
In January 2010, a devastating earthquake struck Haiti. I lost six members of my family in that disaster, including two whose remains were never recovered. Returning home after experiencing that level of loss left me with a difficult question: What could I do with this experience that might help someone else be better prepared when the unthinkable happens?
That question became a calling.
I was later selected for the Durant Fellowship, becoming the first non-clinician to participate in the fellowship. That opportunity helped open the door to humanitarian service and deeper learning in disaster response, healthcare, and community preparedness. I spent approximately two months working with the American Refugee Committee and later about four months in Haiti with Partners In Health.
Those experiences taught me something that continues to guide EPECARE today: during an emergency, professional responders and outside resources may not always be immediately available. The people already within a community—neighbors, teachers, parents, coworkers, students, and local leaders—can become an extraordinary resource when they have the knowledge, skills, and confidence to act.
Turning Experience Into Action
In 2012, those lessons and experiences helped give rise to EPECARE—Emergency Preparedness Engaging Community Action through Resources & Education.
What began with a desire to give meaning to personal loss grew into a mission centered on lifesaving education, emergency preparedness, and community capacity. Over time, EPECARE’s work expanded beyond Haiti and into communities in Massachusetts and other locations, with experiences and initiatives connected to the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, and beyond.
But EPECARE’s greatest evolution has been the realization that sustainable impact cannot depend on one person teaching one class at a time.
Building the Next Generation
Today, EPECARE is focused not only on teaching lifesaving skills such as CPR, AED use, First Aid, Basic Life Support, and Stop the Bleed, but also on developing the people who will carry those skills forward.
Through instructor development, we help prepare educators who can return to their workplaces and communities and teach others. Through Junior Responders, we introduce young people to preparedness, lifesaving skills, leadership, teamwork, and service. Through partnerships and organizational training, we work to make preparedness part of the culture of the communities we serve.
That is the EPECARE ripple effect.
One person becomes prepared. That person prepares others. Those individuals strengthen their families, workplaces, schools, and communities.
The Promise Continues
EPECARE began because of a tragedy, but tragedy is not where our story ends.
The story is about what can grow from it: purpose, education, service, leadership, and communities that are better prepared to help one another when every second counts.
What began as a personal promise has become a shared mission—to prepare people, strengthen communities, and give more ordinary people the confidence to do extraordinary things when they are needed most.
