Who we are
When women with compassion and resolve come together, anything is possible.
Elaine, Tricia, Meredith and Laurene are a driven team based in Morristown, NJ.
Elaine Needham
President - Founder
Elaine has devoted herself to her boys, navigating the world of raising a handicapped child. She is intimately familiar with the struggles and challenges of life outside of the mainstream. She carries her compassion and resolve forward in her work at Hestia’s Hearth.
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Elaine is a graduate of Trinity College, Hartford, CT. She began a career in corporate sales where she remained for ten years until she started a family, welcoming two sons in two years.
When her eldest was diagnosed with cerebral palsy shortly after his first birthday, Elaine left the workforce to focus on her children. She was her son’s primary caregiver, returning to work after a twenty-three-year hiatus. Elaine spent seven years as the vice president of sales for a start-up e-commerce home décor company before retiring to focus on nonprofit work.
After his passing in 2019, Elaine started From Beyond The Garden in memory of her eldest son. This accumulation of personal and business experience provides an invaluable inventory to draw on to address the challenges of establishing Hestia’s Hearth.
Meredith Liddy
Treasurer - Founder
Meredith is a chemical engineer who brings extensive strategic planning experience to Hestia’s Hearth. After life-changing encounters with women survivors of human trafficking, she is dedicated to creating a sanctuary for survivors in New Jersey.
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Meredith holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and has extensive experience in strategic planning. She has over thirty years of experience as a chemical engineer leading technical teams and large capital engineering programs in multiple different countries.
Meredith brings to Hestia’s Hearth a passion for upholding and restoring human dignity through compassionate love. She began her journey through participation in the JustFaith Ministries program that fostered understanding and deepened sensitivity to social justice issues. Part of that program involved life-changing encounters with women survivors of human trafficking at Bloom for Women in Bethlehem, PA, and Thistle Farms in Nashville, TN. She is now dedicated to creating a similar sanctuary for women in Morristown, NJ.
Tricia O’Reilly
Secretary - Founder
Tricia has practiced law for 30 years and is a founding partner of a majority women-owned law firm. Her encounters with remarkable women survivors of human trafficking, coupled with her life experience, have prepared her to make Hestia’s Hearth’s mission a reality.
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Tricia received her undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame and her Juris Doctor degree from St. John’s University School of Law. She has practiced law for the past 30 years including being a founding partner of a majority women-owned law firm.
Inspired by her work on the Board of Trustees for the Newark, New Jersey-based non-profit Volunteers Lawyers for Justice and as a Trustee of the Morristown-based Loyola Jesuit Center, Tricia was led to the JustFaith Ministries program. Through the JustFaith experience, she encountered several remarkable women survivors of human trafficking whose stories confirmed to her, not only the need for the services that Hestia’s Hearth aspires to offer but also that her life experiences have prepared her to make Hestia’s Hearth’s mission a reality.
Dr. Laurene Clossey
Trustee
Laurene is a clinical social worker and a social work professor. She has thirty years of clinical experience and is dedicated to social justice. Her clinical experience working with those in the sex industry and those who endured the trauma of sexual abuse has prepared her to assist with establishing a sanctuary for survivors of sex trafficking.
Through a shared Just Faith experience, Elaine, Tricia, Meredith and Laurene had the opportunity to meet and hear the stories of several extraordinary survivors of sex trafficking and prostitution when they visited them in their home at Bloom in Pennsylvania. These beautiful, powerful, and inspiring women bravely told their stories of exploitation and how the program at Bloom enabled them to heal and recover.
We learned of the challenges of exploitation and manipulation, and how love, support, and sisterhood enabled survivors to reconnect to their purpose and strength to rebuild their lives.
From homelessness, addiction, prostitution, and dependence, these women transformed their lives and are participating in new careers, lighting the way for other survivors and reestablishing loving, healthy relationships with their children and families.
Our team’s determination and conviction were further cemented during a two-day conference at Thistle Farms, the organization in Nashville, TN where the program was born. Again and again, we met women survivors who were reaching their full potential, employed in many capacities throughout the organization and beyond, and describing their new roles and life experiences with “pride, integrity, hope, success.”
Every woman we meet inspires us to address the challenge of building Hestia’s Hearth into a safe and supportive sanctuary that has proven its power to profoundly transform lives.
With nothing comparable in New Jersey, we were determined to create the same sisterhood, support, and opportunity for healing, and so began our journey to build the sanctuary we call Hestia’s Hearth.
“Hestia, The Goddess of Sanctuary. She represents the warmth, protection, and sanctuary we feel when we know we are home. Hestia is the Greek goddess of the hearth. She is the fire that grounds us, the hearth we can gather around to stop our wandering. Hestia in an emblem of the warmth, safety, and nourishment of being in community. She wants you to light a small fire in the center of yourself and feel safe in calling your body home. Hestia is the call to become the calm harbor for your beautiful soul to thrive.” Meggan Watterson
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Laurene has an undergraduate degree from Western Connecticut State University. She has a master's degree in social work from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College. Laurene has been an academic for about 20 years and has practiced clinically for over thirty years in social services and private practice. She is passionate about inspiring young people to enter the social work profession. Her research interests focus on the Mental Health Recovery Model, and she has several publications in this area, along with some book chapters on engaging students in service learning.
The integration of spirituality into psychotherapy is an area of particular interest. Because of this, Laurene has been attracted to retreat experiences and spiritual encounters related to social justice. Through her participation in a Just Faith program, she became concerned about the injustices suffered by the victims of sexual trafficking. The Just Faith experience left her with a resolve to assist in helping to make Hestia's Hearth a reality.