Ann DuPre Rogers, LCSW

Executive Director, Resources for Resilience

Backstory

By Sue Coyle

As early as high school, Ann DuPre Rogers, LCSW, knew she wanted to be a helping professional. She studied psychology as an undergraduate and was, at that time, leaning toward becoming a counselor. After earning her bachelor’s degree, she spent two years working different jobs in varying parts of the country while also taking the time to learn more about possible career paths.

“I knew I would go back to school,” said Rogers, executive director of Resources for Resilience in Asheville, N.C. “I met with a few different people in a few different fields, and I got really good advice from a couple of social workers. If you get your MSW, [they said] you can do lots of different things including being a therapist. In those years, I pictured myself being a therapist, but I liked the idea that I didn’t have to be.”

Rogers opted to pursue a master’s in social work, and attended the University of Georgia. While there, an internship at a psychiatric hospital cemented her career choice. She walked away from the experience saying, “I think I’m up for this.”

In the years after earning her degree, Rogers worked in school and community mental health, as well as at a hospital.

Then, around 2012, she hit a turning point as she started learning more about trauma and, specifically, the ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) Study. “All these lightbulbs went off,” Rogers remembers. “I started learning everything I could about being trauma-informed.”

As it turns out, she wasn’t alone. The same lightbulbs were going off for each of the team members who would soon form Resources for Resilience. “This fire started, and we were all really passionate,” she says. Together, Rogers and six others created workshops around trauma and resilience from a public health perspective—all while continuing to work their other, full-time jobs.

“We honed [the curriculum] and tried it out with different groups. We made it better and better,” she says.

In 2016, the decision was made to form a nonprofit and by 2019, Rogers became the full-time executive director. Today, she leads the organization as they offer workshops and trainings to “anybody with a nervous system and anybody who ever has stress,” she says. “We let people have access to usable information about how our brain embodies work in response to stress and trauma.”

It is a passion project that has become a career.