Women of Denver Magazine: Summer 2018

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INVISIBLE WOUNDS She intentionally set her alarm to wake up to ?Good Day,? a song from the hip-hop band Nappy Roots. Part of the chorus is: ?Ain?t nobody gotta cry to today, cause ain?t nobody gonna die today. Save that drama for another day. Hey! We?re gonna have a good day.? Sherrie Lawson got up, got ready, put on her four-inch Kenneth Cole suede wedges, slung her Michael Kors bag over her shoulder and headed out the door to get to an 8 a.m. meeting her program manager had called. ?It was a beautiful day weather-wise. It was gorgeous. It was probably 80-degrees that day; the sun was out. It was just a really nice day,? Lawson said. She ?was in a really good place? on the morning of September 16, 2015. She loved living in Washington, D.C. and owned her own home in Ward 7. She was finishing up her doctorate degree while working with the Navy and was a contractor for a software engineering company. In addition to all that, she was an elected official as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner and had traveled to over 25 countries. She arrived on base at the Washington, D.C. Navy Yard. Her clearance got her through the front gate, but not without a little flirting from the guard as he checked her I.D. Then she walked hurriedly through the yard to get to Building 197 where the meeting was being held. Determined to get her Pumpkin Spiced Latte and Greek yogurt before the meeting started, Lawson rushed past Mike Ridgell, the security guard, who sat in the hallway everyday. ?I had made it a point a couple months before that I?m going to speak to Mike when I go in. And that particular morning I was rushing so I didn?t speak to him.? She saw him out of the corner of her eye, and didn?t give it a second thought. Little did she know that that was the last time she would ever walk by him. A few minutes after the meeting started, around 8:17 a.m., the program manager heard a strange sound and asked the group, ?Was that gun fire?? The steel, glass and metal building often echoed the sounds of people setting up tables and chairs in the cafeteria and auditoriums nearby. The others didn?t think much of it and went back to the meeting. Then a second round of noise rang out and this time no one thought it was just the clang of moving furniture. The program manager and another one of Lawson?s colleagues went to check it out. She remained in the conference room until the team lead decided this might be something serious. She wanted to go to her office to gather her things. Lawson decided to do the same. ?I got to my desk and right at that time a group of people were running. They were running by us and they were frantic,? Lawson said. Then one of them shouted five words that would change her life forever: ?There?s a shooter. Get out!? They walk among us everyday but you can?t tell who they are just by looking at them. They may be your barista, your mail carrier, your neighbor. They are the survivors of mass tragedy. The Washington Navy Yard shooting occurred on September 16, 2013, when a lone gunman, 34-year-old Aaron Alexis, fatally shot 12 people and injured three others. It was the second-deadliest mass murder on a U.S. military base. Although Lawson made it out of Building 197 safe, she did not make it out unharmed. The shooters in these mass tragedies do not wreak havoc for just one day. They create a tremendous amount of collateral damage. Later that week, Lawson and her coworkers were told to come back to the building to get their laptops. She made an attempt to resume her normal routine and took the bus to the scene where 12 people were killed. ?I couldn?t get off in front of Navy Yard. I couldn?t do it. I got there and I became very emotional and I just stayed on and finally got off in front of the Marine barracks, which was a couple blocks away and just broke down in the middle of the sidewalk. That was the first time I really felt the gravity of what happened,? Lawson said. 32 thewomenofdenver.com
The Aftermath of Surviving a Mass Shooting Written by Angela Jackson Angela, former Vice President of the Colorado Association of Black Journalists and Executive Board member of the Denver Press Club. There are no physical scars to mark the internal war she wages since then. ?I was having nightmares every night, when I was able to sleep. And they were very dark nightmares.? She often cried on the way to work, had panic attacks, was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, severe anxiety, and depression, and has spent lots of money on the six therapists she?s had since the shooting. Life as she knew it vanished and thoughts of suicide crept in. She thought to herself, ?If I have to live like this the rest of my life, I don?t want to do it,? Lawson said. San Bernardino, CA Alicia Cuello also knows the effects of surviving a mass tragedy. The Women of Denver member was 70 yards from the San Bernardino, CA shooting on December 2, 2015. At the time of the attack, it was recorded as the second deadliest terrorist attack on American soil. Cuello was a senior business partner with her company. She was in the city with her senior vice president of human resources. Ironically, they were there to investigate ?an employee who had dressed up in fatigues and shot his coworker in the face with a Nerf gun? at the time the shooting started. Although she was not in direct line of fire, or even in the same building as the attack, she was significantly impacted. ?When we got out of lockdown, we were escorted to our cars with bomb-sniffing dogs; there were bombs in our parking lot. We were put in our cars and we were told to drive home. And they made us drive past the conference room where the bodies were,? Cuello said. At that point her company called and basically said ?Get on a flight. We need you to come back in to the office tomorrow. You?ve got deadlines to meet.? Once the dust settled she started thinking about how companies could handle situations like this better. She asked herself: Where were the mishaps that happened with me and what can an organization do better? What can be done to protect employees? She sat down with a business coach and an HR professional and they encouraged her to share her insights on how to better manage employee relations during these times of trauma. All of her notes and research evolved into a presentation she has shared at Human Resources conferences around the country. They walk among us everyday but you can?t tell who they are just by looking at them. They may be your barista, your mail carrier, your neighbor. They are the survivors of mass tragedy. The Red Cross became aware of the work Cuello was doing and decided to partner with her to take her program and develop it to become more leader focused. It will soon be presented all over Denver. Lawson has also figured out a way to take an unfortunate situation and turn her life toward positive things. Although the pain and trauma will never go away, Lawson made a choice to press on. She had to ask herself: ??Are you going to stay in your apartment closed off or are you going to live??I made a choice for myself and I said, I have to live.? She is now the Director of Development at The Rebels Project (TRP). TRP is a nonprofit founded by survivors of the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, COto provide support for those who experience similar trauma to that which she experienced in the Navy Yard on that fateful day. Lawson is currently a lecturer at University of Colorado, Denver and lives with her cat Jax. When Cuello returned to Denver, her insurance company and her employer didn?t believe she had PTSD because she wasn?t in the room with the shooters. She got stuck in a workman?s compensation gray area. ?I didn?t work for 10 months. A lot of it had to do with just decompressing and figuring out what to do,? Cuello said. If you are interested in getting more information about The Rebel Project, please go to: therebelsproject.org. To learn more about Alicia Cuello visit UnderlyingCommunications.com. thewomenofdenver.com 33
Page 1 and 2: CONNECTING & INSPIRING WOMEN Featur
Page 3 and 4: 2018 SUMMER QUARTERLY Editorial Con
Page 5 and 6: The whirlwind starts. There are fam
Page 7 and 8: THE HEALING POWER Written by Heathe
Page 9 and 10: ENERGIZE YOUR LIFE! 3 Simple Ways t
Page 11 and 12: Your beginnings started with an acc
Page 13 and 14: Five Rings Financial has been helpi
Page 15 and 16: Work with Your Manager Focus on Val
Page 17 and 18: Being an introvert (INTJ for the MB
Page 19 and 20: The road ahead. Although I feel lik
Page 21 and 22: While this is progress, substantial
Page 23 and 24: TEDDI ANN BARRY, ESQ. FAMILY LAW AT
Page 25 and 26: HOW TO MANAGE YOUR MONEY in 2 Hours
Page 27 and 28: REGISTER FOR UPCOMING EVENTS WODEVE
Page 29 and 30: I had never baked before, so I had
Page 31: HOW I SUPPORT Her Career Life for a
Page 35 and 36: Play regularly. Allowing yourself t
Page 37 and 38: MANAGING PERCEPTIONS an interactive
Page 39 and 40: MARKET RESEARCH Knowing your indust

Women of Denver Magazine: Summer 2018

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