Former director cries foul against shelter
The CASA Women’s Shelter got rid of its longtime former director, and while the chairman of the board, Dr. Simmie Armstrong, said he couldn’t discuss the matter because of the sensitive nature of the issue, the person fired, one-time director Karen Palmer, didn’t hold back.
“We had some serious issues develop and we had to make some changes for the benefit of the shelter,” Armstrong said from his Pine Bluff office.
Asked for more details, Armstrong said he couldn’t say.
“This is a personnel matter, and not something I can shed more light on at this time,” he said.
Palmer, who had served as director for more than 30 years, no longer works for the shelter, according to a person who answered the phone on Thursday. Armstrong confirmed the information, saying the change had taken place within the past two to three months. Also gone are two other individuals who were in executive positions, Armstrong said, declining to give their names, again, because the situation involved a personnel matter that he could not discuss.
CASA helps battered women with a variety of services including counseling, support groups, legal assistance and referrals, job skills and housing, both at the shelter itself and after the women leave the shelter.
Armstrong said the CASA board has had several meetings “beyond the norm” over the past couple of months in order to put the shelter’s affairs in order.
“There are some state-level issues that are very problematic,” he said. “These are internal issues that we’ve got to resolve.”
The new director at CASA, he said, is Theresa Lindsey, who was promoted about two to three weeks ago. Two other people have also been hired, he said, and are serving as client advocates.
Palmer, on her LinkedIn page, stated that she was the executive director of CASA from June 1991 until August 2022 and has served as a “trauma informed care specialist” at the shelter from July 2022 until present. Peggy Tillman was installed as executive director after Palmer stepped away from the top spot, according to an interview Tillman did toward the end of 2022. Palmer, when reached by phone on Thursday, said Tillman no longer works at the shelter.
Palmer developed an eye con
dition about a year ago. Because of that, she said she decided to leave the executive director position and take a new agency position that she funded through a grant.
“I could still work,” she said. “I just couldn't sit at a computer eight hours a day.”
The next 12 months were rocky at the shelter, from a personnel standpoint, Palmer said, causing her to file a whistleblower complaint that included a dozen items – a complaint that she said was never addressed.
“It became a toxic work environment,” she said. “I was yelled at for being blind, which I'm not, and told to go home and collect disability.”
In March 2023, Palmer gave the board a letter from her doctor stating that, because of her medical conditions, Palmer needed rigidly scheduled treatments. The letter was necessary because she said it became difficult to get the approval she needed to see the doctor.
“The board stopped talking to me immediately,” she said.
In April, Palmer said she asked for accommodations for her eye problem under the Americans With Disabilities Act. Then on June 5, about 60 days after she asked for the assistance, she worked a full day and went home to find a notice that she had a certified letter at the post office.
“I knew what it was,” she said. “I went to the post office early the next morning. The letter said my services were no longer needed and that Arkansas is an at-will state. Sincerely, Dr. Armstrong and Santrice Kearney, another board member. As soon as I got sick, they took my job away from me. I assisted 9,833 clients to escape their abusive homes. I had planned to hit 10,000 but was axed instead.”
Palmer said that in all her years at the nonprofit's helm and throughout the past year, she had only been praised for her work.
“I never once got into trouble,” she said. “My personnel file is full of training I've been through and certificates I've earned. I've never been late for work, never took a two-hour lunch. I tripled the program and the staff over the years. We really set the example for a shelter in the state. And now they won't even let me go in and get my personal belongings.”
Asked what financial condition the shelter was in, Palmer said the agency has a treasurer and an auditor.
“We are very transparent,” she said. “We don't deal with cash. We use a system of reimbursements, which is a well-thought-out system that nonprofits have been using for years and years. There's not a dime missing.”
At the time of her departure from the executive director position last year, Palmer wrote on her Facebook page that serving in the position “was the greatest honor of my life.”
“It has been a privilege working with the victims of domestic violence, the staff, the board of directors and leading the agency to provide safety, shelter and support to those fleeing domestic violence,” she wrote. “It has been the capstone of my long career at CASA.”
“When I stepped down, all was good,” she said Thursday, adding that things had changed over the past year.
Palmer said she had been in discussions with attorneys and would likely seek legal action in the matter.
"I'm not out to sue them," she said. "That's not how a nonprofit's money should be spent. I just want them to quit slandering my name and talk to me like I'm a human being."