About
Our mission is to empower individuals and families develop skills to achieve and maintain independence through supportive services.
Our Story
Our work began in 1920 when Carrie Southwick Plumb donated her Emporia home in service to single women. Over the previous 100 years, thousands of women found safe refuge to build lives of stable, independent achievement.
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Today, Southwick House is transitioning to a new community home and looking to the next 100 years. Working closely with our agency partners, community volunteers, donors, and champions, our new space will be a broad-based shelter serving the homeless community with intensive case management supports. Assisting the most vulnerable among us in building solid foundations on which to thrive.
Meet the Team
Executive Director
Susan Brinkman
A fifth generation Kansan, Susan was born in Kansas City, Kansas to working-class parents. She graduated from Johnson County Community College and moved to Emporia in 1990, completing a B.S. in Psychology; BFA in Photography; and an M.S. in Counseling at Emporia State University.
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Susan chose to call Emporia home after graduation working first in case management for the Mental Health Center of East Central Kansas and then as the director of the Plumb Place Home for Women. In 1999, Susan returned to her alma mater and served Emporia State University for 20 years in roles ranging from the Director of Admissions to instructor in Art and English, Modern Languages, and Journalism and for more than a decade as the assistant director in the Center for Great Plains Studies. In 2016, she opened a small business in downtown Emporia. She served on the city commission for several years, and became mayor of Emporia in 2023. She is proud to be returning to the role of director for Southwick House.
Bookkeeper
Carol Steinel
Carol has a long history working in, and serving as a consultant to, non-profits. She served as director of one of the first congregate housing programs in the U.S. during the 1980s in Portland, Oregon, and has extensive experience in non- and for-profit bookkeeping. A native Emporian, she returned home in 2012 to care for her parents, and since then, has served as a free-lance bookkeeper, tax-preparer, and payroll clerk for many local entities including the Lyon County Historical Society, St. Mark's Lutheran Church, Street Tax Service, Strive Wellness Group, and Integrity Medical, among others.
Board of Directors
Bethany Frank
Vice Chair
Bobbie Sparks
Treasurer
Nancy Gilpin
Campaign Chair
Aaron Larson
Secretary
Nicole Freeland
Board Member
Wendi Soendker
Board Member
Dennis Applegarth
Board Member
Chuck Torres
Board Member
Deone Wilson
Board Member
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