We had the opportunity to sit down with Gene Rugala last month to talk about school shootings, workplace violence, intimate partner violence, stalking and much more. Since retiring from the FBI and moving from Virginia, Gene has lived in Beaufort with his wife Edie for 15 years and has been involved in the community in a variety of ways from being a past Board President of CODA (before CODA merged with Hope Haven to become Hopeful Horizons) to being member of the board of the

We had the opportunity to sit down with Gene Rugala last month to talk about school shootings, workplace violence, intimate partner violence, stalking and much more. Since retiring from the FBI and moving from Virginia, Gene has lived in Beaufort with his wife Edie for 15 years and has been involved in the community in a variety of ways from being a past Board President of CODA (before CODA merged with Hope Haven to become Hopeful Horizons) to being member of the board of the

Statistics say that, on average, it takes a woman seven times to leave her abusive partner. We live in a society that constantly questions women on why they stay in abusive relationships and puts little, if any, spotlight on the abuser himself. As a domestic violence therapist, my clients constantly share their feelings of guilt with me – guilt as to why they stayed and guilt as to the length of time it took them to leave. Yet, if we truly dive a little deeper, then we, as a