Suzanne Yeomans Program Coordinator Suzanne has always held strongly to the belief that "we can do no great things in this life, we can only do small things with great love." It is with that awareness, passion and commitment that Suzanne walked through the doors of Community Matters and into the role as a Program Coordinator for our Safe School Ambassadors Program.  She has spent years volunteering with youth both in her community and in the classroom setting, and has helped implement and coordinate programs in schools. She has lived all over the world including Australia and Switzerland, and has traveled to Argentina, Mexico, and throughout much of Europe and the United States. After graduating from California Polytechnic State University as an English major she took a year-long solo backpacking journey to explore the South Pacific. She is currently pursuing her Human Services Advocacy Career Certificate at Santa Rosa Junior College. Suzanne credits her strong commitment to community advocacy, youth involvement and volunteerism to her broad exposure of the many different communities and people of the world at an early age, and to the family she grew up in, who made it their highest priority to “show” rather than to “tell”, to “do” rather than to just “watch”. Suzanne’s greatest joys are her two sons, Tyler and Rylind, who attend a local high school and middle school respectively. They have helped her recognize the deepest values of friendship and how to best treat each other from day to day. While living in San Francisco, Suzanne worked for Wells Fargo Bank in their Human Resource Department and in their Corporate Community Development Group. In the Volunteer Network Department she helped organize volunteer projects and facilitated community-based awareness activities and fundraising events statewide. Through that work she became passionately drawn to and deeply rooted in the non-profit sector, both as a volunteer for numerous agencies and then as a Field Director for the American Heart Association in Santa Rosa, California. She also worked as a Patient Relations Coordinator for a holistic medical clinic and healing center where she found herself continually inspired by the power of community as she watched patient after patient step up and be there for each other to create a healing atmosphere for everyone. Suzanne says she’s drawn to people who show courage and resiliency and notes that more often than not she sees those traits in children. It is with that same admiration for youth, and for those adults who step forward and help them accomplish the core mission of the SSA program, that Suzanne is proud to help provide clear and encouraging support to schools and their program advisors.