Expect Respect: New faces and fond farewells
Written by SAFEWe are thrilled to welcome Shannon Sandrea and Claire K. Redfield to SAFE’s Expect Respect team! Meet the program’s new director and Educational Theatre Manager below! And if you’d like to learn more about Expect Respect’s Educational Theatre group, the Changing Lives Youth Theatre Ensemble (a collaboration of Expect Respect and Creative Action), click here for information and how to book a performance.
Introducing Shannon, Expect Respect’s new director
Shannon Sandrea, Director of SAFE’s Expect Respect program. Image description: A photo of a white woman with blond hair. She is smiling and facing the camera while wearing a black blouse. A green plant is in the foreground and a closed parasol is in the background.
Shannon is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) with over 20 years of experience working with students, families, and schools. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Master’s of Science in Counseling Psychology with additional specializations in school-based counseling and family counseling.
In addition to working in school-based counselor roles for many years, Shannon opened up new counseling centers in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts public schools, co-created National Teen Dating Violence and Awareness Month, and co-founded the small youth-led nonprofit organization The Cipher-Austin’s Hip Hop Project. She has served as a member of Austin’s Youth Initiative for Undoing Racism (created by Angelica Benton-Molina and with participation from The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond), the Austin/Travis County Family Violence Task Force and Youth Issues Committee, and the Travis County Adolescent Health Collaborative.
Shannon has also partnered with A CALL TO MEN, Futures Without Violence and worked at the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Her expertise lies with issues relating to interpersonal violence, youth leadership, community organizing, school-based counseling, and arts/activism work. Shannon believes that youth can not only heal from abuse but also need opportunities to lead.
We are incredibly excited to have Shannon on our team!
Meet Claire K. Redfield, Expect Respects new Educational Theatre Manager
Claire K. Redfield, Expect Respect Educational Theatre Manager. Image description: A photo of a woman with brown hair smiling at the camera. She is wearing a colorful top. A stucco wall is behind her.
Claire is a director, educator, and community-engaged artist who believes that groups of people can make lasting change in their communities. Claire recently completed her MFA in Theatre for Youth and Community at Arizona State University where she wrote her thesis on trauma-responsive rehearsal practice.
Claire’s background as an artist/educator spans 10 years of work including: teaching undergraduate courses in Acting at ASU and serving as a core teaching artist for six years at the Tony Award-winning Lookingglass Theatre in Chicago. Claire has also worked as a director and dramaturg at numerous Chicago theaters. Claire is currently co-artistic director and co-founder of Sleeveless Acts, a community-based theater company in Phoenix, Arizona. You can learn more about her past work at clairekredfield.com.
Saying farewell
Two longtime members of the Expect Respect team, Barri Rosenbluth and Meg Greene, recently left the org. We’d like to wish them farewell and say thank you for all their work and dedication making Expect Respect what it is today.
Meg Greene was SAFE’s Educational Theatre Manager for six years. During her time at SAFE, Meg significantly expanded our educational theater programs, enriching the lives of thousands of youth and adults in Austin and beyond. We wish Meg all the best in the future!
Bari Rosenbluth recently retired from SAFE after 31 years. In an Expect Respect newsletter, Barri reflected on her time as the program’s director: “When I began my position as a counselor I learned that many of our clients had experienced not only horrific domestic violence, but also abuse as children and as teens in dating relationships.
A photo of Barri Rosenbluth, former director of SAFE’s Expect Respect program. Image description: A photo of a white woman with lovely grey hair smiling at the camera. She is wearing a navy blue blouse. Green tree leaves are in the background.
“Some had married men who previously abused them resulting in further harm toward themselves and their children. I reflected on my own experience as a teen, completely unaware of warning signs and too independent to confide in adults. Like many young people today, I was unprepared to choose a dating partner, communicate assertively, set limits, or help a friend in an abusive relationship. Not long into my tenure, SAFE gave me the opportunity to focus on prevention and to build a team of counselors and educators.
“We established school-based support groups for vulnerable youth and developed new ways to engage teens as artists and activists. We partnered with researchers to evaluate and develop materials to replicate the program in other communities. More recently, we supported young people and our community partners by utilizing virtual platforms.
“These efforts are needed now more than ever as women’s and minority rights lose ground and rates of violence increase. Today’s challenges demand new tools, new ideas and new energy. I’m confident that SAFE and the Expect Respect team will persist and succeed. I am grateful for having had the opportunity to serve and for all of my co-conspirators who dare every day to create a world free of violence and abuse.”
You’ll be missed, Barri! Thanks for everything.
