Meet the Staff

Lissa Sutton, Executive Director

 

Lissa has been active in the Omaha non-profit community for over thirty years. Born and raised in Omaha, she began her community volunteer work in college and was active on many non-profit guild boards, as well as, planning and chairing many special events over the years.

 

Prior to coming to Take Flight Farms, Lissa was involved with Methodist Richard Young as a member of their guild board and when the opportunity arose, she became the Volunteer Coordinator at the hospital in 1999. After Richard Young closed in 2003, Lissa joined Goodwill Industries as their Development Director.

 

In her ten years at Goodwill, she raised over $12,000,000 in capital and programmatic funds. Lissa was also responsible for all direct mail campaigns, many special events and worked closely with the marketing department.

 

Alexandria Wilson-Willett, Development Director 

 

Alexandria was born and raised in the Omaha area and has been involved in the horse community since she was seven years old. She has worked with and in many local barns and has a passion for the industry. 

 

With a Bachelor’s degree in Communications from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Alexandria is excited to put her skills to use at Take Flight Farms, and to draw on her experience as the previous Social Media Manager for a local retailer. 

 

When not working with Take Flight, Alexandria can be found riding her own horse Captain, sometimes she can even be found at a barrel race. Alexandria knows the importance of the bond humans and horses can have and is passionate about the work Take Flight does. 

 

Barb Cotten, Licensed Mental Health Practitioner

 

During Barb’s career she has been very fortunate to have had many diverse experiences. She taught Elementary K-6 at low-income schools which enabled her to learn a great deal about numerous cultures.

 After receiving her Master’s in counseling Barb worked at a rehab center dealing with numerous conditions such as: head injuries, spinal cord injuries, stroke patients, cardiac rehab and cancer patients. After leaving there she started at an elementary school as a school counselor. During her time as a school counselor, she was also working part time with the City of Omaha as an EAP counselor. She worked with police and firefighters doing personal and family counseling. Barb was also on the Critical Incident Stress Debriefing team.

 After her time in elementary she worked at an Alternative High School as the school counselor and then moved to a regular high school. During her time as a high school counselor she worked part time for the Dept. of Defense doing on demand activities for the Military. These activities included: briefings on deployment or reintegration after deployment. She has also served as a resource for active-duty soldiers and their families.

 

 

Jennifer Leverett, Licensed Health Practitioner

 

Jennifer Leverett is a native of South Dakota.  Jennifer has been a practicing Licensed Independent Mental Health Therapist/Licensed Mental Health Counselor for over seventeen years. She has lived in the Omaha/Council Bluffs area for many years. She received her Bachelors of Science from the University of South Dakota in Criminal Justice 1998 and her Masters in Community Counseling from University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2004. Jennifer became interested in the power of equine work from her time in Montana with the National Health Service Corps.  She is currently is on the team with Take Flight Farms of Omaha, certified using the EAGALA approach since 2015. Equine work is a powerful medium for therapeutic work in uses an Existential approach for positive personal growth and healing.   

Jennifer is in private practice in Council Bluffs, Iowa.  She is on the Southwest Iowa Coalition on Human Trafficking.  Jennifer is a member of Daughters of the American Revolution and Centennial Rotary Club of Council Bluffs.

 

Steve McWilliams, EAGALA Certified Equine Specialist

 

 

Karman De Luca, EAGALA Certified Equine Specialist

At the age of twelve, Karman De Luca, was able to convince her parents to include horses into their lifestyle. Over the course of the next 40 + years, they had anywhere from 4 to 8 horses, and one donkey, on their property that they cared for. Horses provided many hours of family bonding time in learning to care for, train, and ride that shaped their work ethic and strengthened their family values. Karman’s greatest love, that she continually returns to, is the English riding discipline of Hunters and Jumpers.  In working with Take Flight Farms she is honored to be able to assist in providing experiences that give others the opportunity to learn their own life lessons from horses.