When I decided to expand the #YouGotThis mini blog series and bring on more women, Anisa Palmer’s name was brought to my attention by one of the other participants in the project. I quickly googled her name and came across her non-profit organization. I realized how successful and self-made this woman was and despite the difficulties life had handed her from a young age, she moved onward and upward.
Anisa was born and raised in St. Croix, Virgin Islands where her parents had fallen in love and gotten married. Her mother was a teacher and talented poet, who was in a group with the great poet Audre Lorde. Her father was an entrepreneur who owned a laboratory. Together they had four daughters, but Anisa has nine siblings altogether from her father’s other marriages as well. When Anisa was five years old, she lost her mother to Stage IV invasive breast cancer who was only 38 years old at the time of her passing. Anisa recalled “I was very close to my mother. No one could touch me. I looked like her.” Her father had put her in counseling as Anisa exhibited some rebellious behaviors and often felt like the black sheep. Growing up she got along with everyone, “but that could’ve been a mask” said Anisa. She remembered “I had a lot of hate for God taking her away from me. I don’t think I ever grieved until I served in the military.”
After her mother’s death, Anisa and her sisters were taken care of with the help of her mother’s friends. Her father eventually remarried and then her stepmother became a caretaker. Anisa’s father moved to the United States first as opportunities arose for him here and she and her siblings stayed back. Anisa came to the States in her teenage years.
Anisa enrolled in a merit based program to start college at the age of 17, but she experienced difficulties navigating through school. “I was going through a merit program. If anything happened I have nothing to fall back on” she said. Unfortunately, something did happen and she had to make a decision to drop out of college early after being assaulted by multiple students from her school in a single incident. She recalled the day when she was grabbed and forced into a van. She went to the hospital afterwards and reported the incident, but didn’t appear in court. “It took authorities two weeks to find the one guy and because I never showed up he was set free” she recalled. She had a great attorney who even took the case on pro bono. “They said it would’ve been an easy win” Anisa stated. She emphasized to me how important reporting is. “No matter the age, you have to go through the process. It’s going to be long and painful. It helps get them off the street and preventing someone else from getting hurt” she communicated.
She found herself feeling uncomfortable, fearful for her safety and possibility of becoming a victim again. After she dropped out of college, she moved south to where her brother was living. Anisa secured her first job at a daycare where she was getting paid under the table. It was one of her more rewarding experiences to work with children. She had no car at the time and rode the local bus to get around. She also took on babysitting jobs on the side. Anisa was able to save enough money to buy herself a car and go back home to St. Croix and see her class graduate. Eventually, the daycare was shut down and Anisa found herself working multiple jobs and studying for her GED. She enrolled in college again, but a new crisis arose. Anisa had no stable housing and survived a car accident totaling her car. Healing time allowed her to re-evaluate goals and find a new desire to join the Peace Corp. One morning, after relocating to Florida, she ran into an Army recruiter while she was running for the first time again since the car accident.
Anisa then made a decision to serve in the Armed Forces. She was enlisted for four years and was deployed twice to Iraq during “Operation Iraq Freedom.” She recalled the weather being so hot it felt like “Vegas on steroids” and the troops had to wear heavy weight uniforms. In 2010, during her second deployment, Anisa saw a mirage of her mother. She remembered thinking, “Lord what’s going on? Why am I seeing my mom? I didn’t know if I was going to die. But I realized it was my mom’s way of telling me to watch out.” After this experience Anisa began journaling and took an honorable discharge from the military. She made a decision to serve on another platform and later that year “I Will Survive, Inc” was brought to life. Anisa founded this non-profit organization in honor of her mother, which provides prevention education, support and health/wellness services to individuals and families who are being affected by breast cancer.
Anisa started the organization before graduating from Georgia State University with her BA in Speech Communication and was beginning to reach milestones in her career. While she was still a student her professor had asked her to sit in on the advisory board and did a spotlight on her. Shortly after graduating, Anisa decided to return to school to obtain her Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Central Florida. Her organization was in Georgia, but she committed herself to traveling back and forth and accomplish the goals she set out to reach.
In the past eight years, Anisa and I Will Survive have directly helped 300 people and indirectly approximately 20, 000 people internationally. They’ve aided with providing food assistance, working directly with food pantries, helping cancer patients pay rent, being a stress reliever and helping in uplifting them. “Sometimes we are the only support” Anisa stated. She recalled having a woman reach out from the Philippines, “but we didn’t have the manpower to fly out there and she passed away.” The organization is looking to set up international help centers, but haven’t determined locations. It is another objective to help reduce the generation of poverty that exists. “It’s a long term goal she said.” Currently, Anisa has 63 individuals working in various roles internally and externally with the organization.
Anisa was also asked to sit on Forbes non-profit leadership council as an advisor. The Forbes group reached out to her on LinkedIn and thought she would be a great asset their team. The council allows her to write on various topics. She also does non-profit consulting on the side and in 2014, Anisa was presented with the Phoenix Award by the mayor for the city of Atlanta.
She stands as a pillar of hope for so many people who may not be able to advocate for themselves or have lost direction in their lives. Today, Anisa Palmer has accomplished so much at a young age and she is recognized as a non-profit leader, public speaker, consultant, Forbes contributor, certified grant writer and certified life coach. Anisa stated, “I don’t define success on how much money I make. Success is how you give back. It’s so important. Not necessarily how you share your knowledge.” She has mentored many interns and also had one individual from France. “The platform I have is to give back in a different way. To help the non-profit grow.” Anisa isn’t done yet. She wants to continue to find different ways to share and educated individuals. “I’d like to go back to school again and become a professor” she said. Anisa strongly believes in mentoring, something she didn’t have when she was younger.
“At the end of the day, the obstacles that I dealt with is to not give up and keep pushing forward” she declared. This organization started as a vision to honor her mother and turned into something so phenomenal that has helped so many individuals with hope, opportunity and life. It has also created different paths for Anisa. There was a time when she couldn’t get through college and now she’s looking to go back. She kept getting back up and finding a way when life tried to take her down. She found her passion and purpose along the way. Follow this incredible woman’s journey and work @iwillsurviveinc and @officialanisapalmer.
Best,
Tanvi Mathew, MS, LPC
EMERGE- The Counseling & Coaching Center
