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“I do everything!” Lora jokes.

We found Lora when we reached out to our partner congregations with information about the position, and Lora has been going strong in the position for nine years!

Lora, of course, loves the friendly, beautiful staff at Friends In Deed; but she especially likes the freedom she has to look at requests for assistance on a case-by-case basis.

Lora has a “wonderful husband, three kids and one crazy dog.”

Laurie came to Friends In Deed in 2013, after working on the Help Line for several years. While Laurie’s background is in law and journalism, she finds she utilizes both skills in persuasive grant writing and writing client profiles. She also likes the variety of people she works with on a day-to-day basis, as well as the variety of tasks that make up her job.

Laurie likes that Friends In Deed focuses on helping people overcome those obstacles that would otherwise result in catastrophe: an unexpected car repair, falling short on a DTE payment, etc.

“It continually amazes me how little assistance it takes to keep people on track.”

Laurie has a husband, three kids, and two dogs.

Amtheyst Floyd is our Development Associate, working directly under Laurie Sternberg, the Director of Communications/Development.

Amtheyst found Friends In Deed when she was working on her college Capstone project, returned as an AmeriCorps VISTA in 2018, and became an official employee in 2019. So far, she says that “this has been an amazing experience!”

Jane Slider is our office manager.

Joye is Friends In Deed’s caseworker, which means she completes intakes with clients in person and over the telephone. She also collaborates with other agencies and advocates on her clients’ behalf.

Joye’s ability to empathize with her clients is reflected in her work history. Aside from a brief stint as a paralegal, Joye has always been attracted to the human services field. Her first job was as a daycare preschool teacher. She also spent 10 years rehabbing people suffering from traumatic brain injury.

She also worked on a helpline through her prior job as a Housing Resource Specialist at Housing Access of Washtenaw County (HAWC). While Joye already knew the difficulties families faced finding housing after a setback like eviction, her experience with the FID Helpline gave her insight into all of the other struggles faced by low-income families in our community.

Joye is married and lives with her husband, her 8-year-old stepson, 12-year-old daughter and new puppy in Ypsilanti.

Suzanne has a Master’s in English from the University of Illinois and has over 20 years of teaching, communications, and program development.

From Yooper to Ypsi: Suzanne is not only new to Friends In Deed, she’s new to the area. She hails from Houghton in the U.P., where she was very active implementing her community’s first AmeriCorps program and the first county-wide recycling program.

Friends In Deed and Circles: Suzanne loves the idea of helping people directly. While she appreciates Friends In Deed’s programs that provide emergency assistance and keep people on their feet, she is glad to have the opportunity through the new Circles program to empower them in the long term.

“Everyone wants to be independent, whether it be financially or emotionally.”

Personal: Suzanne has two adult daughters living in the area. One of her daughters is attending U-M law school, while the other is working for FoodCorps in Detroit. She also has a pooch named Freida.

Background: Bonita originally hails from Grand Rapids. After completing her Bachelor’s degree at University of Michigan, she returned to Grand Rapids to teach for 10 years. After going back to U-M to obtain her Master’s in Urban Planning, she worked for Genesee County, where she developed her interest in community development.

That interest helped guide her in her career choices thereafter. For instance, she worked as a fidelity manager for the Carrera Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program, where she gave support to its programs in Michigan and Ohio. The Carrera Program is a long-term youth development program and views youth at-promise rather than at-risk. In addition to preventing pregnancy, the program included components in education, job skills, creative expression, lifetime sports, family life, mental health and medical & dental.

Friends In Deed and Circles: One of the reasons Friends In Deed’s Circles program appealed to Bonita was because it “connects the dots for people to enhance their quality of life.”

Personal: “I like to dabble in a lot of stuff,” Bonita says of her personal hobbies. That being said, she really likes family genealogy research.

While Bonita is obviously interested in her family’s past, she’s managed to make a big contribution to its future. Her four children have given her 12 grandchildren and four great grandchildren!

Andrew Green. It he.

Megan Rochlitz, the newest member of the Friends In Deed family, comes to us from St. Ignace, where she served a year as an AmeriCorps VISTA with the Mackinac Economic Alliance. Majoring in religion, with a minor in English, she was drawn to the field for its interdisciplinarity. Branching into matters of history, philosophy, sociology, and more, what she found most interesting in her studies was the role religious movements have played as both drivers for and bulwarks against social change.

After graduating, Megan joined the workforce but found herself unsatisfied. “I needed something that would be different. Something that would help people rather than just improve the company’s bottom line,” she explained. So Megan committed to a year of service as an AmeriCorps VISTA, a program she so enjoyed that she’s decided to do it all over again with Friends In Deed.