Lauren Wilkie has spent much of her life volunteering in her community and she was recently presented the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award for her service.

The certificate, signed by former President Joe Biden, was awarded to Wilkie, who has served as CEO of Safelight in Hendersonville since August 2020, in 2024 but wasn’t presented to her until a recent Safelight fundraising event.

Safelight has served survivors of violence, abuse, and exploitation in Henderson County since 1984. In her tenure she has helped diversify and double Safelight’s annual operating budget to over $3.5 million.

Wilkie was nominated for the award because of her 23 years of working and volunteering with nonprofits, which includes a long list of boards, commissions, councils, and groups.

The President's Lifetime Achievement Award is a U.S. presidential-level award to recognize individuals for significant volunteer service and is part of the President's Volunteer Service Award (PVSA) program, established to honor lifelong commitment to community service. The award requires a minimum of 4,000 hours of volunteer service and includes a certificate and a congratulatory letter signed by the President.  

During her time with Safelight, Wilkie has led the creation and implementation of many new programs to help survivors, including onsite kennels in shelter, community engagement meeting space and career center, adult forensics county run team Lethality Assessment Program, Rapid Rehousing, Outreach in all schools in the county, rapid rehousing for survivors, our first Canine Companion onsite, Impact Health/Healthy Opportunities Pilot started, National Model Camp Hope/Pathways created, Resale store expansion and renovation, Dandelion Café renovation and product line creation, Onsite Acute Forensics Program, among others.