Her Story
About Esther
Esther Hofknecht serves as Director of Development and Marketing for the Mental Health Association in Delaware, where she has worked since 2024. In this position, she focuses on raising funds and building community connections to ensure the organization's long-term sustainability as it approaches its 100th anniversary. Her career path includes a winding journey through advocacy spaces in healthcare, informed by her own mental health recovery and lived experience, which she uses to demonstrate that recovery is possible even for those with advanced degrees. Hofknecht holds a post-master's certificate from the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business Academy for Women in Leadership program, which she completed in 2025. She specializes in nonprofit health and human services, mental health advocacy, domestic violence, and intimate partner violence. She attributes her success to a strong support system including her husband of 15 years and close community relationships, along with a deep curiosity about trauma and its effects on the body and soul. Hofknecht advises following one's passion and, for young women in the field, maintaining integrity by under-promising and over-delivering. She emphasizes values of integrity, transparency, and compassion, and highlights the challenge of stigma that prevents people from seeking help in mental health, substance use, and domestic violence situations.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Esther
01What do you attribute your success to?
I have a fantastic support system. Over the years I built very strong relationships with people in my community including neighbors, friends, colleagues, and especially the women in my state. Number one was the support of my family, my husband of 15 years, my best friend Liz who I call my bonus mom. These people were going through everything with me and never once believed that I could fail. There was also this element of curiosity that I've had about myself and the inner workings of my brain and how trauma impacts the body and soul, just continuing forward and allowing your curiosity to lead you.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Follow your passion. I found a little clip-on pin that said follow your passion right when I was leaving a job I loved, and it felt like a sign that I was going the right way, and it turned out I really was.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Hold yourself to a standard. When you're working in nonprofit work, integrity means everything. People trust you, they trust your word, so never overpromise. Always under-promise and over-deliver and you will be successful in your field.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Stigma. We talk about this a lot in mental health and in substance use, and especially in domestic violence. People are afraid to step forward and say this is happening to me. But if they do that they may be making a path for someone else. It's okay to get help, it really is. You have to find the right help and the right practitioner.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Integrity number one. Transparency. Bringing compassion to everything that you do makes it more meaningful for everyone involved. I really believe in the power of the human spirit. We can overcome awful things if we just focus on the goal. Healing is important but you have to find the right way for yourself.
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