The Springfield News-Sun is highlighting a small portion of the extraordinary women leaders in our community this week. The series of profiles began Sunday.

The pandemic brought to light the prevalence of homelessness in Clark County as economic strain caused more families and individuals to seek shelter. The non-profit began using hotel and motel rooms throughout the community as a primary source of emergency shelter in response to COVID-19, but the organization works to bring their two congregant shelters back online and build more permanent housing solutions.

Bradley began her human services career years back, working with incarcerated women six months prior to their release from Ohio prisons. Her work with women fueled her passion for helping “overlooked and underserved” people, leading her to focus on homelessness and affordable housing.

She became a housing coordinator in 2009, collaborating as a partner with Sheltered, Inc. at the time. She operated both the permanent housing supportive service project and transitional housing for the organization, and she also worked to renovate the community’s emergency shelters and expand programming to include codeveloping permanent supportive housing to help families.

After becoming the nonprofit’s executive director in 2011, she led the efforts and codeveloped a 36-unit permanent supportive housing project in Springfield to serve people at-risk of or currently experiencing homelessness.

Bradley graduated from Clark State College in 2007 with an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Social Services Technology, and she continued her education by obtaining her Bachelor’s degree in the Art of Science with a focus on Human Service Management in July of 2009 and a Master’s degree in public administration in 2015. She serves on multiple boards related to housing and is the president of Mulberry Housing Partners.

About our series

This series highlights how leaders and and community members are making an impact in the city. Sunday’s story featured three women, and the Springfield News-Sun will feature another woman — Laura Baxter of Project Woman, Betty Grimes of Springfield, and Dr. Jo Alice Blondin of Clark State College — each day through Thursday, Sept. 15.