Stories of Strength at ShelterBox’s Annual Panel

Montecito understands what it means to rebuild. That lived experience makes ShelterBox’s International Women’s Day panel especially resonant here, where recovery is part of the community’s recent history.

In a time marked by conflict, climate disasters, and widening inequities, the United Nations’ 2026 theme for International Women’s Day feels immediate: “Rights, Justice, Action. For ALL Women and Girls.” 

On Tuesday, March 3, from 5-7 pm, ShelterBox USA will host its annual event at the Music Academy of the West, gathering a panel of women whose lives trace arcs of courage, recovery, and transformation. 

Now in its 10^th year, one of the most notable themes of the panel is the incredible breadth of stories and inspiration that each panelist brings. For ShelterBox USA President Kerri Murray, “It may be one of my favorite days of the whole year.”

This year’s panel spans Olympic tracks and conflict zones, Hollywood sets and humanitarian front lines. It moves between intimate testimony and global perspective with deliberate range.

ShelterBox works in the world’s most challenging disaster and conflict zones, providing emergency shelter and life-saving aid to families uprooted by crisis. In those settings, Murray says, women and girls are often disproportionately affected. Yet they are also “the absolute backbone of every recovery.” This panel honors that spirit while widening the lens. It reminds us that strength takes many forms, and that progress begins with honest conversation.

In Audience and Advocacy

In Montecito, Kim Cantin’s story needs little introduction. The 2018 debris flow remains etched into the town’s collective memory, and with it, the devastating loss of her husband and son – and the miraculous survival of her daughter. In the years since, Cantin has transformed private grief into public purpose, authoring the award-winning memoir Where Yellow Flowers Bloom and stepping into a role as a resilience advocate whose message now reaches audiences far beyond the area.

Last year, she attended ShelterBox’s International Women’s Day panel as an audience member. She sat among neighbors and strangers, listening as women shared the harder edges of their journeys. The candor moved her. The intimacy of the format, thoughtful questions, and honest answers left her inspired.

Now, she returns not as a listener, but as a voice on the stage.

Cantin often speaks about life’s pivots – how swiftly and unexpectedly a path can change. What steadied her, she says, was community. 

She recalls a moment early in her recovery, still on a walker, standing at the local CVS pharmacy. A stranger who had lost her husband on 9/11 recognized her from the local media coverage. She approached Cantin and offered her card, saying: “If you need anything at all, even if you need me to pick up your dry cleaning, I’ll do it for you.”

That small, unsolicited gesture became emblematic of what carried Cantin forward.

Safeguarding Through Prevention

Karen Rasmussen brings an international framework to the conversation.

A global safeguarding specialist, Rasmussen has spent more than two decades in international development, with the last 14 years focused on preventing sexual exploitation and abuse within humanitarian systems.

She has worked in places like Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, Mozambique, Thailand, Afghanistan, and most recently in Washington, D.C. 

Her work centers on a deceptively simple principle: prevention is possible.

Safeguarding, as she defines it, is not a reactive lawsuit after harm has occurred. It is the creation of codes of conduct, mandatory reporting structures, confidential complaint mechanisms, and survivor-centered investigations designed to ensure that aid workers do not exploit their positions of power 

“Safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility,” she says.

Rasmussen mentioned that there is often cultural discomfort that surrounds these conversations in the United States. While countries like the U.K. and Australia have conducted national inquiries into institutional abuse, she argues that the U.S. still leans heavily on post-facto litigation rather than proactive systems.

The cost of that hesitance, she notes, is borne disproportionately by women and children.

Her presence on the panel extends the lens beyond Montecito’s borders. She brings the macro perspective – the structural inequities and systemic blind spots that shape global vulnerability. Yet her message returns to the individual: prevention begins with awareness, courage, and the willingness to speak.

Excellence and the Invisible Battle

Olympic medalist and two-time Diamond League Champion Brittany Brown represents resilience in motion. A Southern California native and elite American sprinter, she balances world-class athletic performance with advocacy for women’s health, particularly for those living with endometriosis.

Brown’s career dismantles assumptions. She is the embodiment of strength – an Olympian whose body propels her across global tracks – while simultaneously managing a condition that can be life-altering and debilitating. Her advocacy challenges the notion that excellence must look effortless. It insists that women’s pain, even when unseen, is real.

While Brown was at a Nike event and unavailable for an interview, Murray reflected on her own struggles early in life with endometriosis and spoke about how invisible the condition can be. In a culture that oscillates between glorifying female achievement and minimizing female suffering, Brown’s story bridges both. She stands as proof that vulnerability and velocity can coexist.

Global Identity, Local Purpose

Actress Jordana Brewster, best known for her role in the Fast & Furious franchise, brings both public visibility and personal candor to the stage. Born in Panama, raised in Rio, and educated at Yale, she carries a global perspective shaped by Hollywood’s spotlight – and a growing commitment to hands-on community work here at home.

She believes women serve each other best by sharing what she calls “the underbelly” of their journeys – the insecurities, the hurdles, the internal negotiations that accompany success. Vulnerability, she says, creates connection. If even one woman in the audience hears something that resonates, the conversation has done its work.

That openness extends beyond personal storytelling into service. Since moving to Santa Barbara, Brewster has intentionally immersed herself in local advocacy, often bringing her two sons along to model engagement and gratitude. She has worked with DignityMoves, supporting innovative interim housing solutions for individuals experiencing homelessness. She has joined beach cleanups through the Paul Walker Foundation, reinforcing environmental stewardship as both responsibility and legacy. She has volunteered with the Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade and assembled essential supplies for families through Baby2Baby, and she continues to support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. For Brewster, these efforts reflect a belief that community is built through participation.

Courage, On and Off the Front Lines

The evening will culminate in the presentation of the 2026 Warrior Award to CNN anchor and international correspondent Sara Sidner – who will be accepting the award remotely from her NYC locale. 

Honored for her fearless reporting from conflict and disaster zones, including during a battle with Stage III breast cancer, Sidner embodies both professional bravery and personal fortitude.

Sidner has reported from some of the world’s most dangerous regions. Yet in conversation, she shifts the focus inward. Cancer, she explains, reoriented her relationship to her own body. After months of chemotherapy, radiation, and multiple surgeries, she began speaking to her body as a separate, precious vessel – one that required care, rest, and protection.

What does she hope the audience takes away? “A great deal of hope,” she says. And a reminder that caring for oneself is not indulgence, but necessity. “Make time to find joy in your life,” she adds. “It’s the little drops of joy throughout your day and week that make up a good life.” 

In both natural and humanitarian disasters, she has witnessed devastation beyond measure. But she has also seen what she calls the “equal and opposite light” – the strangers who show up, the communities that coalesce.

She covered the Montecito mudslide and saw firsthand how tragedy binds people together.

Her award recognizes reporting from the world’s front lines and the willingness to speak openly about illness, fear, and recovery. She models courage through transparency.

In a time marked by division and hyperbole, each panelist seems to bring a grounding quality, reinforced by their strength and commitment to the communities that support them. Stories shape culture and when women share the full arc of their journeys, they widen the path forward for everyone.