Zonta Women of Achievement nominee: Kendra Eads

For nearly two decades Kendra Eads has tirelessly advocated for women and girls through sexual violence prevention and intervention. She received a Bachelor of Science in Social Work degree from Southeast Missouri State University in 2004 and from 2004 to 2013 she worked for the Missouri Network Against Sexual Violence (SEMO-NASV), a child advocacy and rape crisis center, as a Victims’ Advocate, Case Coordinator, Forensic Interviewer, and Child Advocacy Center Director.

In 2013 Eads received a Master of Social Work degree from Saint Louis University. That same year she became Executive Director of Two Rivers Child Advocacy Center in Illinois, where, among other things, she served as a member of the Southern Illinois Child Death Review Team. Eads has provided expert witness testimony in child abuse trials in Missouri and Illinois. In 2016 Eads returned to SEMO-NASV as Executive Director. Since then, the agency has obtained national accreditation and secured two new facilities.

One of the biggest challenges facing women today, according to Eads, is “truly embracing our power as women after so many of us were raised and socialized to defer to and accommodate others.”

Service and mentorship are two subjects Eads knows something about. She currently serves as Public Policy Advisor for Missouri’s Network of Child Advocacy Centers Advisory Council and as Chair of its Administration Workgroup. She is a field instructor for social work students through SEMO and SIU Carbondale and serves on the Board of Directors for both Southeast Missouri Suicide Prevention, Inc. and Cape Girardeau County’s Domestic Violence Authority Board. Eads has served the community in a myriad of ways including serving as a foster parent and an animal rescue transport driver.

The most important person in her life is her partner Andy whom she describes as the love of her life and her best friend for over 20 years.