EMAGES

L eah Theodore-Storman does marketing (digital and guerilla), quality assurance, and scheduling for EMAGES… “Whatever Dr. Wash needs, as far a filing, digital marketing, domestic violence collaborations, and the like.” Leah shares, “I've been doing social work for a very long time!” Leah went to Roosevelt University for secondary education. “I was doing GED and was assigned to the Brass foundation back in the 80s and have stayed on that track of social work.” That’s where she met the director of

She adds with school pride, “ Of course, Loyola is the best!” She shares that AARP Back to Work and Mini Business College is responsible for her reconnecting once again with Dr. Wash. “When I returned to Chicago in 2015, Dr. Wash had her own organization, which is now EMAGES” (Establishing, Managing, And Generating Effective Services).” EMAGES offers many treatment services: psychological assessments and testing; individual and group therapy; sex offender counseling; DUI evaluations and risk education; and COVID-19 crisis counseling. EMAGES also offers training services for MSA (dual diagnosis of mental illness and substance abuse), substance abuse, and sex offender treatment. Leah shares, “ I was with Dr. Wash when she wrote her first book in the ’80s. She rewrote it for her doctorate.” Dr. Wash’s book is titled “Culturally Specific Treatment: A Model for the Treatment of African-American Clients” and is a basis for treatment at EMAGES, whose mission is to provide non-traditional, multi-cultural, and culturally specific treatment to residents of Illinois. Leah describes Dr. Wash as wanting to save the world. She shares that Dr. Wash drives her home after work. As they pass the homeless on the street, Dr. Wash will say, “Leah, those are clients.” Leah describes them: “ They’re dragging in the streets, bottle in hand, stopping traffic.” And Dr. Wash talks to them. “I tell Dr. Wash, ‘You are so good with that.’ I do take our brochures and will hand them to people. I tell them, ‘There is somebody who can and wants to save you.’ That someone is Dr. Wash.”

programming at the time, Dr. Wash, who back then was known simply as Hattie. Leah has been working with Dr. Wash for over thirty years. “I started working with Brass part- time as their adult basic education and GED teacher.” As Dr. Wash extended the youth programs, they asked Leah to work full-time for the Brass foundation’s dual diagnosis program. “ As the Brass foundation grew bigger and bigger, Dr. Wash was asked to go to a regional organization—the Comprand Youth and Women’s Services. She left the Brass foundation and took one

person with her—of course, that one person was me. I eventually left the Youth center and went to work for the state of Illinois, and Hattie left for another organization. Over the years, we talked now and then.” Leah was at Ada McKinley when a state recruiter for DCFS (Department of Children and Family Services) called, asking her to work for them. “ I left McKinley, moved to DCFS, and stayed there for a long time. That’s when I got my master's at the Loyola Water Tower Campus in Chicago, School of Social Work.”

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