Special Leigh Shealy

My mama and daddy. They truly did "give up their old years" to raise me and prepare me for the world. My mama was born in 1948 and had an 11th-grade education. She valued obtaining a high school diploma so greatly, and she truly made it her goal to ensure I graduated from high school. When she died my senior year in October 2012, she had prepared me for it daily since her breast cancer diagnosis in 2007. Her mother also died when she was 17, it heavily disrupted her life, and she spent endless hours telling me anecdotes about her life and people that she knew so that I would avoid similar trouble and learn from the mistakes of others rather than making them myself.

My daddy was so incredibly supportive during my educational journey and career changes and he is excited about this new, uncharted phase of my life - business ownership. My birth mother and youngest sister are very involved in my daily life, and that also is a huge factor in my drive and need to continue improving each day to make my entire family proud.

The best career advice I have ever received is that "the more you know, the more you grow." Continuous learning and personal development so many open doors to new opportunities and help you evolve professionally. I have also learned that it is okay to pivot, change direction, and explore new paths in order to discover where your true passion lies. Growth often comes from being open to change and embracing new possibilities.

Prioritize networking. Create a LinkedIn profile, attend as many trainings as you can, and have a resume and contact cards ready, regardless of your current employment status. You never know when an opportunity will already align with your skills or when someone will give you the chance to prove yourself!

One of the most significant challenges and greatest opportunities in disaster recovery and federal grant consulting today is navigating a rapidly shifting policy landscape. Recent administrative updates, including the rollout of FEMA’s Public Assistance Program and Policy Guide (PAPPG) Version 5 and ongoing discussions regarding transitions toward direct-funding models, are fundamentally changing how communities approach recovery.

A central driver of this shifting landscape is the broader movement toward FEMA Public Assistance reform. Historically, the Public Assistance process has relied on a rigid, reimbursement-driven model. Under traditional procedures, applicants must incur eligible costs upfront, produce exhaustive documentation, and submit detailed packages for review before federal funds are disbursed. While designed to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse, this heavy administrative burden often creates severe cash-flow bottlenecks for smaller, rural, or under-resourced local governments that lack the working capital to float multi-million-dollar recovery projects while awaiting reimbursement.

In both my work and personal life, the core values that drive me are resilience, accountability, and a deep commitment to family. My professional philosophy is built on persistence and I have followed "The Secret", & "The Power" by Ronda Byrne for over a decade and most recently, "The Quantum Code of Success" by Christi Civalier. I also am working to capture and publish my mother's stories that she spent her last years on this Earth telling me. I am currently working on a flip book of quotes (as I remember them), or tales she shared during her years of "raising" me as a millennial after raising 6 Gen X children, which is my way of preserving her voice and lessons for my nieces and nephews.

Today, I carry her legacy into everything I do, anchored by an incredible partnership at home. My husband, Travis, whom I met while we were both working at SCDHEC, shares these core values and is my greatest source of support. We live amongst 70 river-adjacent rural acres with his amazing family and many cute brown and black dogs, as well as 2 Maine Coon cats.