Lauren Taylor Wilkie

Lauren Wilkie is a Licensed Independent and Clinical Social Worker uniquely qualified with Advanced Licensure in both advanced nonprofit business practice and clinical practice. She has been a key player for education and advocacy by directing and developing programs in nonprofits these past two decades. She specializes in community and organizational change through program revitalization maximizing potential through her “4E Program” for ethics, empathy, efficiency, and effectiveness.

She uses data analytics for program evaluation to grow agencies in ways that are both innovative and better serve the community. Lauren is a visionary with the ability to get others on board. She approaches life and work with drive, optimism, and consistent good humor. She is a practical optimist who understands hard work and perseverance to get things done right. Lauren has worked in various roles and settings directing and developing programs with different size nonprofit and government agencies.

Lauren has been serving as the Executive Director of Safelight in Hendersonville, NC since August 2021. Safelight’s mission is “Creating Hope, Healing Lives, Changing Community,” serving Henderson County since 1984, striving to work with the community to remove barriers and allow access to quality assistance for anyone affected by interpersonal violence or abuse meaning domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, elder abuse, and child abuse. In year two, she ensured the purchase, renovation and move in for a new facility to house four of Safelight’s six programs in nine months. In her tenure, she has helped Safelight doubled individual giving and more than doubled grant gifts. Safelight’s annual budget has diversified and increased over 40% in her less than three-year tenure.

Lauren has helped hundreds of staff and student interns join the field of social work from teaching from her time as an adjunct instructor with the University of South Carolina and having interns gain the training onsite required for their higher education at her agencies.

Lauren has received recognition by University of South Carolina as a field instructor of the year awardee, an inaugural top ten Capital Young Leaders in Columbia, SC, a Live United Award recipient through United Way and has received the Paul Harris Fellow Award from Rotary International. In 2020, she was recognized by National Association of Social Workers (SC) as the social worker of the year. She was recognized with a scholarship in her name by Women United of the Midlands in Columbia, SC for her over ten years of service on the executive committee.  She currently serves on diverse boards in our community to include NC Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Henderson County Partnership for Health, Rotary International, and Women United with United Way.