CORE CEO Ann Lee, center, with singer-songwriter Jason Derulo left, during a field visit to the Bahamas last month. Liam Storrings/CORE

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In the immediate aftermath of Haitis catastrophic earthquake in January 2010, Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn mobilized money, people, and medical personnel to the devastated island. Not long after his arrival, he contacted Venezualan President Hugo Chvez whom he had supported for years, despite U.S. opposition to his regimeand secured delivery of a planeload of morphine and other medical supplies.

Those supplies were critical, recalls Ann Lee, today CEO of Penns nonprofit CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort), who was working in Haiti at the time for the U.N.s Organization for Coordination and Humanitarian Affairs. We were watching amputations with zero morphine, zero painkillers, Lee says. There was a huge lack of supplies.

Penns efforts, supported with an initial $1 million donation from the philanthropist Diana Jenkins, turned out to be the early days of CORE, which at the time was called J/P Haitian Relief Organization (for Jenkins/Penn). With many traditional disaster responders also impacted on the ground by the earthquake, the fledgling nonprofit soon took responsibility for a camp serving about 60,000 displaced Haitians.

Initially he was met with a lot of criticism as well as mistrust, and just kind of a lot of eyebrows raised, Lee says. At the time I had been working, I think six years in the sector, and thought, Whos this outsider actor, whos going to run the largest camp in the country?

Penn quickly proved his critics wrong, Lee says, crediting his outsiders attitude of why does it have to be done this way? with Penns ability to move quickly and get things done. That approach turned out to be really needed, and is still really needed in this sector, she says.

An outsider perspective, and the flexibility available to a small organization, remains central to how CORE continues to respond to disasters. About two years ago, the nonprofit began working beyond Haiti, changing its name earlier this year to reflect the broader scope of its work.

COREs latest test was in the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian struck Abaco and Grand Bahama on Sept. 1, flattening much of the islands and leaving thousands homeless. CORE staff landed amid the wreckage soon after the hurricane hit, and in that first week, figured out how to set up a mobile medical unit on Abaco despite the lack of transportation on the island or government support, Lee says, crediting the ingenuity of her team.

What the organization has learned is that theres always a workaround, Lee says. You can always find a solution and the minute you start showing the work on the ground, you lower the barriers of entry for all the other bigger organizations.

Today, the nonprofit is removing debris at a rate of 500 cubic meters a day from the Abaco town of Marsh Harbor, and is more than half way toward a goal of removing 11,400 cubic meters.

CORE is also providing education and psychosocial support on Abaco, related to how individuals are coping with their now devastated surroundings. The group is identifying further needs in the community by working with local leaders, healthcare professionals, and by speaking directly with residents living in the islands temporary shelters.

Responding to hurricanes and earthquakes remains central to COREs work, but the group has also come to understand that a lot of the disasters we keep responding to in Haiti [and elsewhere] are a function of climate change, Lee says. That understanding has led to proactive efforts to strengthen vulnerable communities from North Carolina to the Caribbean through such efforts as watershed management and restoration, as well as education.

In Haiti, CORE is focusing on reforestationsupported by $22 million in World Bank aidbut it is doing so with an eye toward ensuring local, small-scale farmers can make a living. Farmers on the island typically cut down trees to clear land for agriculture, so CORE is providing fruit-bearing trees that can be interspersed among other annual crops and harvested for cash, as well as fast-growing moringa trees, which produce highly nutritious seed pods that can also be ground into a powder thats used in pricey cosmetics.

Its something that we see a huge potential in, Lee says. We want to be able to produce enough moringa oil and powder to be able to sell on the U.S. market.

Penn remains involved in the organization as its founder and chairman of the board, drawing on his network for support and to raise funds. He also continues to serve as a sounding board for Lee, and is in touch throughout the disaster response process, asking questions like, Have we thought about this, or have we looked at that? Can we contact this person? Lee says. Having that perspective is super important to us.

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Sean Penns CORE Expands Beyond Haiti to the Bahamas - Barron's