Taffy Reid

Founder / President

Taffy Reid started Project Lilac to help women meet their unspoken need.
 
When Taffy lost her job as a single mom with two young daughters, she became aware of a hidden struggle: women desperately needed feminine products they couldn't afford.  Once Taffy was re-employed, she was determined to meet that need.   Taffy volunteered at homeless shelters, the Rockford Rescue Mission in IL and domestic violence homes.   Everywhere women quietly stressed about the shame of not having feminine products.  Taffy has applied her administration and networking skills to open three Project Lilac  distribution centers for products servicing about 300 women each month.  She is currently expanding services into the St. Petersburg area.

Bill Kirchner

Vice President

William “Bill” Kirchner graduated from the University of Illinois with a Bachelors in general engineering and business administration. He is the current President of Barnes International with over 40 years of senior executive management experience that includes  all aspects of capital equipment manufacturing business units. He has extensive knowledge in domestic and international sales, financial and operational decision-making and developing performance improvement processes to re-engineer product lines and reduce costs.

When Taffy came to Bill with her idea to start a nonprofit organized around helping women; he was more than happy to use his business knowledge to help her realize this goal. Since the founding of Project Lilac Bill has sat on the board and overseas the financial standing of the organization ensuring that they are meeting operational targets to continue to help women in crisis across the country.

Alexis Karner

Development Director

Alexis Karner graduated from Illinois State University with a Bachelors  in International Business and Finance. She is currently a Physician Recruiter for Mercyhealth, is working on her MBA in healthcare management, and raising three amazing kids.

Alexis joined Project Lilac in 2016. Upon hearing Taffy’s story and her passion for wanting helping women; she decided to partner with Taffy in growing their reach to serve women across the Stateline. She now overseas Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin distribution and continues to promote and engage people in Project Lilac’s goals and mission.

Amy Woodson

Secretary

Amy Woodson is Founder and President of The Pacis Group, a nonprofit think tank focused on conflict resolution in the social and civic arenas.  Her focus is developing peace as a civic value especially as it pertains to culture, race and gender. She is also CEO of AW.Solutions, a firm focused on business development for small to midsize minority owned businesses. Amy possesses a BA in Government from Harvard University and is pursuant of her MA in Psychology at Harvard University. For almost two decades, Amy has served as a diplomat, humanitarian, worked in refugee relief and advocated for the cause of human rights across the world with great focus in the Middle East and Africa.  Amy's focus on peace is unique and encompasses a value based approach that is refreshing and needed spanning personal, relational and community engagement from local to domestic and international. As a speaker, blogger, author and vlogger, Amy uses every platform to help bring her audience and clients into a greater perspective of peace and cultural competence. Her strength is mediating often difficult conversations in a myriad of arenas and forums is an earmark of her leadership and career. 

Dennis Steeves

Board Member

Attorney Dennis Steeves was born in Bremerhaven, Germany, the son of an Army Major.  He learned early the military values such as honor, integrity and love of Country.  As part of Army life extensive travel gave him a unique perspective regarding different cultures and learning to bridge the gap between differences.  This skill serves him well in negotiations for his clients. In his efforts to continue to serve others, Dennis joined Project Lilac to lend his  powerful and unique set of skills to help further our mission in helping the women in our communities. Through his extensive legal knowledge Dennis ensures that as an organization we are upholding a high ethical standard of excellence and ensures we are serving the women we help with the utmost integrity.