Laura Safer Espinoza

Laura Safer Espinoza

By age 15, Laura Safer had already set her sights on the law. “I came of age during the civil rights movement, when court battles were fought for human rights. I wanted to be part of that.” She became a Legal Services attorney, representing poor tenants,...
Laurie Ahern

Laurie Ahern

Human rights advocate Laurie Ahern has investigated hundreds of institutions for people with disabilities around the world, but she’ ll never forget a visit to a Serbian orphanage in 2007. Rows of cribs filled a room that was dark and silent. The cribs were...
Joan Conn

Joan Conn

On a sailing trip to Cuba in 2002, my husband and I stopped on an island just outside Haiti and discovered a place of complete chaos. I decided I would never go back. But three years later, my husband decided we should return to see if there might be a way to help. I...
Murelle Harrison

Murelle Harrison

I was reared on a farm in a poor, rural area, but my parents taught me and my seven siblings that family, hard work, education and belief in God were the stepping stones out of poverty. It worked for us, and I believe it will work in Gardere. The Gardere Initiative...