Kathleen Sager is the Founder and Principal Business Owner of EssenShea. Kathleen Sager is a long time Florida resident, residing in Southwest Florida since 1986 and in Fort Myers area since 1994. Kathleen and her husband Bob, have three children and three granddaughters. Kathleen has served Lee County with over 14 years of advocacy for those struggling with homelessness and mental health, along with her combined board experience of 16 years on nonprofit boards and her HOA community board. A true community leader.
Most recent employment has been with Child Care of SWFL., Inc., trained in USDA Government Standards of Nutrition for infants and children. Previous, she was employed at NAMI (National Alliance for Mental Illness). Some of Kathleen’s accomplishments and job titles included, Lee County Program Director coordinating NAMI’s evidence-based Family to Family classes, Peer to Peer and weekly NAMI Connections, and ending as NAMI Lee County Interim Executive Director. Kathleen implemented logistics and was a host for CIT (Crisis Intervention Training). Kathleen is proud to have been on the team effort for the first CIT for SRO’s (School Resource Officers) and Lee County Core Jail Correction Officer training. Accumulating three hundred and fifty (350) hours of continued education in mental health and de-escalating intense situations through CIT. Previous to that, Kathleen was a Corporate New Store Restaurant Trainer and Executive Director at R.H Sager Financial Planning alongside her husband.
Kathleen is a Founding Board Chair of Lee County Homeless Coalition, Inc., Serving as Chairperson from 2006 through 2012. Kathleen is known for her leadership and expertise and was very active and successful in fundraising as Chairperson for their Annual Dinner and Silent Auction and serving on LCHC three task force committees; Community Awareness and Education, Demographics and Prevention Taskforce. Her accomplishments as Chair included the Annual Homeless Service Day and Veterans Stand Down and organizing the Annual Homeless Count on Fort Myers Beach, FL.
Kathleen is proud to be a graduate of Just Faith Ministries in Catholic Social Justice, Climate Change, and Legislative Advocacy. Rounding out her continued education in the field of mental health, Kathleen is a Graduate of the NAMI Family to Family Education Program.
Kathleen will continue helping those less fortunate with her empathy and compassion in erasing stigma by advocating and educating her community on mental illness through Hope Clubhouse of Southwest FL, Inc.