Contributors

Lorri Haden

Community Programs Coordinator, Texas

Since retiring as an attorney for a state agency in Texas in 2017, Lorri Haden has followed her heart to serve people in the immigrant communities in Austin, Texas. She has assisted a local immigration attorney in several asylum cases, and she frequently prepares work authorization applications for a nonprofit organization representing people seeking asylum. More recently, in response to the tremendous economic hardships caused by the pandemic, she helps deliver food and rental assistance to more than a dozen immigrant families.

Lorri is a lifelong Texan. She was born in Austin, Texas, and grew up in a small town about an hour from there. Spanish-speaking immigrant families played significant roles in Lorri’s life at an early age, and Vietnamese families fleeing South Vietnam enriched her life in her teenage years. Throughout her life, Lorri has witnessed first-hand how critically important immigrant families are to our society, our economy, and our culture.

Lorri is married to a wonderful man named Jim Trawicki. She has two grown sons and a granddaughter. She loves learning Spanish, she likes to run, occasionally, and she is trying to remember what she likes about gardening in the increasingly hostile Texas climate.

Lorri
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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