Michelle Girtman

Waycross Area Resilient Georgia Partnership

Supporting: Bacon, Brantley, Charlton, Coffee, Pierce, Ware

Michelle Girtman has been executive director of Magnolia House Domestic Violence Shelter in Waycross, Ga. for 25 years and the executive director for The Haven Domestic Violence Shelter and Sexual Assault Center in Valdosta, Georgia for 14 years. Girtman currently serves as a committee member on Georgia’s Child Abuse Services Board and Panel, which partners with Georgia’s child welfare system ensure efforts are made to preserve, support and strengthen families. In 2010, Governor Sonny Perdue appointed Girtman to the board of directors of the Governor’s Office for Children and Families, where she served for six years. In 2010, she was also appointed to the Georgia Commission on Family Violence by Governor Perdue and reappointed to the Commission in 2012 by Governor Nathan Deal. In 2012, Mrs. Girtman worked with the Lowndes County Board of Commissioner to build a new domestic violence shelter in Valdosta, Ga. and in 2014 worked with the city of Remerton, Ga. to build a sexual assault center. In 2020, Magnolia House was only one of three programs in Georgia to receive a grant from The Criminal Justice Coordinating Council to create a family justice center for the Waycross Judicial Circuit. The center will partner with victim service agencies to provide an array of services to victims and their children needing services in domestic violence, sexual assault and victims of crime. Girtman attended Brunswick College and has a background in criminal justice which she uses to advocate for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.