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Committees: Disability Outreach; Grants/AmeriCorps
Angela Diaz-Vidaillet is the Chief Executive Officer of Victim Response, Inc., which operates The Lodge, the first private, not-for-profit certified domestic violence shelter in Miami-Dade County. She has more than 20 years of experience working in the field of domestic violence, mental health, and substance abuse.
She worked as a batterer’s program assessor, facilitator, and supervisor for 17 years. During the course of this work, she served on Governor Chiles’ Commission for Minimum Standards of Batterer’s Programs, and assisted in the development and dissemination of standards statewide. Her work with abusers led her to pursue one of her professional life’s biggest challenges: to serve battered women and their children who seek safety and justice.
Ms. Diaz-Vidaillet was born in Baracoa, Cuba and raised in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. The daughter of a salesman and a schoolteacher, her altruistic values were seen in early adolescence when she started to assist the Sisters of Charity from the local parish with teaching catechism to underserved communities in Aguadilla.
Ms. Diaz-Vidaillet received a Bachelor of Science in Psychology in 1981 and her Master of Science in Developmental Counseling in 1983 from St. Thomas University in Miami, Florida. She is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in the State of Florida; is a member of the Miami-Dade County Fatality Review Team; and the Vice Chair of the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Council of Greater Miami. At the State level, Ms. Diaz-Vidaillet serves on the Board of Directors of the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and is a member of the Statewide Domestic Violence Fatality Review Steering Committee.
In her current job she has led the development and implementation of a volunteer component which assists in service provision to battered women and their children who reside at The Lodge. This includes facilitating camps for children when they are out of school. The operation of The Lodge has been one of her greatest professional and personal challenges and accomplishments.
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