Women In Business, September 2022

Faces of Nonprofits and What They Face

Everyday our fierce non-profit leaders have new challenges and needs they are facing. Please join the Augusta Metro Chamber for a Women In Business panel of female non-profit leaders to discuss the greatest needs that arose during the pandemic, what needs are arising now because of the current financial uncertainty, what will be forecasted as their greatest needs in the next 5 years and how can the community lend a helping hand. 

Kari Viola-Brooke, Executive Director

Child Enrichment, Inc. 

Kari has been with Child Enrichment since August 2011 and has interviewed over 1400 children that have experienced abuse, neglect or child sex trafficking.  Kari has her bachelors in Psychology from the College of the Holy Cross and her Masters in Counselor Education from Augusta State University. She is on the faculty for Georgia Child First and trains new interviewers around the state on how to conduct forensic interviews.

Brittany Burnett, CEO and President

United Way of the CSRA 

Brittany joined United Way of the CSRA in July 2018 and has more than 20 years of non-profit experience. She is a Cum Laude graduate of Furman University with a BA in Business Administration and Communication Studies and earned her MBA from Georgia State University. While at Furman, she was the recipient of the Winston Babb Memorial Award, which is given to the woman in each class who has demonstrated the most outstanding qualities of leadership, scholarship, and service to the university.

Prior to her non-profit experience, Brittany worked in sales and support for Cyrolife and Xerox. She joined United Way of Greater Atlanta in 2003, and during her 11 years there, she managed the workplace giving campaigns and helped raised more than $926 million for the greater Atlanta area. She was the recipient of the President’s Award in 2011. She then worked for a United Way partner agency, CHRIS 180, in Atlanta for 3 years and served as the Vice President of Development. While there, she led a full rebranding of the organization and also completed a $15 million capital campaign which will allow the mental health organization to double the number of those served. Since joining United Way of the CSRA, she led the organization in launching Leading Families Forward the organization's initiative to focus on the most critical needs in the community as well as FOCUS45, focused on young professionals.

Outside the office, she is heavily involved with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and is also a member of the Rotary Club of Augusta. Brittany and her husband, Jeff, have two children.

Susan Everitt, Executive Director

American Red Cross - Augusta Chapter

Originally from East Tennessee, and a graduate of Sewanee – The University of the South, Susan Everitt has lived up and down the East Coast, but is proud to call the Central Savannah River Area home for the past 22 years.

A servant leader, Susan realized early in life that her true passion was helping others, leading her to take on client focused management roles at Episcopal Day School, Goodwill Industries, and Augusta University before finding her dream job in 1997 as the Executive Director of The American Red Cross of East Central GA.

The East Central GA chapter of the American Red Cross serves our neighbors in 23 counties and has a highly engaged 32-member Board of Directors and over 250 volunteers. Their mission is to help alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies. In the past four years, Susan has deployed seven times to assist with major natural disasters.

Active in the Augusta community, Susan has served on the boards of Westobou Festival, North Augusta Chamber of Commerce, Alzheimer’s Association, Augusta Ballet, and Friends of the Augusta Library. She is a member of the Augusta Rotary Club and a Leadership Augusta 2017 graduate.

In any spare time, Susan and her husband Rich are restoring their 170-year-old farmhouse in Edgefield SC. Susan and Rich are the proud parents of Ellen, who also works in the non- profit world, and Beau, their chocolate lab who has never met a ball he couldn’t destroy.