Sanctuary for Families Executive Director Laurel Eisner to Step Down

NEW YORK, June 3, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Sanctuary for Families announced today that Executive Director Laurel W. Eisner will be stepping down after 11 years at the agency to scale back her work life and make room for other interests.  Eisner will continue in her position until the Board has chosen her successor.  She also intends to stay connected to Sanctuary as one of its many lifelong supporters.

"Serving as the Executive Director of Sanctuary for Families for the past 11 years has been deeply rewarding and truly the job of a lifetime," said Eisner. "I have had the opportunity to work with extraordinarily talented staff and board members. It was my great good fortune to lead an agency that is so successful in saving and rebuilding the lives of victims of domestic violence and sex trafficking and their children.  I am particularly proud of Sanctuary's many victories in the past decade changing laws and government policies that impede our clients' progress, using both litigation and legislation to better their chances of success.  With the addition in the past two years of career development and training to our portfolio of shelter, clinical and legal services, our clients are becoming economically independent as well as violence-free.  I am confident that Sanctuary will continue to grow and thrive under new leadership."

Theresa Havell, President of Sanctuary's Board of Directors, stated, "Under Laurel's tenure, Sanctuary has grown in size and stature, built a strong and sophisticated infrastructure, diversified its funding portfolio, and has become the go-to expert on the many facets of gender-based violence and abuse. I am proud to have worked with Laurel and even prouder to count her as a friend."

Sanctuary has engaged the search firm Phillips Oppenheim to lead the search for Eisner's successor.

Prior to becoming Executive Director of Sanctuary for Families, Laurel served as General Counsel to former NYC Public Advocate Mark Green and as an Assistant Attorney General in the New York State Attorney General's Office under Robert Abrams.  A Root-Tilden-Snow Scholar at New York University Law School, Eisner also holds Masters Degrees in Social Work and Public Law & Government, both from Columbia University.

About Sanctuary for Families
Sanctuary for Families is the leading nonprofit agency in New York State dedicated exclusively to the safety, healing and self-determination of victims of domestic violence and related forms of gender violence.  Through comprehensive services for adult victims and their children, outreach, education and advocacy, Sanctuary strives to create a world in which freedom from gender violence is a basic human right.

SOURCE Sanctuary for Families