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Contributors

Brandi Kilmer

Community Programs Coordinator - Washington D.C.; Co-founder, Refugee Physicians Advocacy Coalition

Brandi Kilmer began volunteering as an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher and family mentor in 2016 while living in Southern California. Since moving to Northern Virginia in 2018, she continued to teach ESL and mentor newcomers while acting as the Director of Community Programs for Their Story is Our Story (TSOS) until September 2023 when she narrowed her focus within TSOS to the Washington D.C. area while pursuing a Masters in Conflict Management and Resolution degree from George Mason University. Her work in the Washington D.C. area includes co-founding the DMV Refugee Physicians Advocacy (RPA) Coalition where she partners with the Georgetown University School of Medicine and Nova Friends of Refugees and other state and national organizations to support refugee physicians career pathways. Brandi has actively participated with NoVa Coalition for Refugee Wellness and the Virginia Community Capacity Initiative, and is a member of the 2024 SHERR English Language Learning and Career Pathways Support Community of Practice and Action group. As a speaker, Brandi represented TSOS at the 2022 and 2023 Idaho Conference on Refugees, and the 2023 ECDC National Conference presenting to audiences about integration solutions. She has a BA in English from Brigham Young University, is the mother of five children, and enjoys the great outdoors.

Washington, D.C.
Elsewhere
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What would you do if you had to leave everything behind?

By the end of 2025, more than 117.8 million people worldwide had been forcibly displaced by war, persecution, or human rights abuses — and 45 million of them are children.

They arrive in refugee camps and countries seeking safety and carrying little: legal papers, if they're lucky. A backpack. A child's hand in theirs.

What they carry that we can't see is heavier: fractured families, homes they'll never return to, professions they loved, friends and relatives they may never see again.

In a climate where immigrant stories are often ignored or twisted, we believe stories are a form of justice. When someone shares what they survived, they reclaim their voice. When we amplify it through film, photography, and advocacy, the world listens. Hearts soften. Policy begins to shift.

Because when a lawmaker sees a person instead of a statistic, and a neighbor understands instead of fears, rebuilding becomes possible.

Your support helps us share these stories where they matter most.

— Kristen Smith Dayley, Executive Director, Their Story is Our Story

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