Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Elmore.
Hi Laura, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I moved to Austin on my 18th birthday, the day after high school graduation, because that’s what you have to do if you are only provisionally admitted to the University of Texas. A provisional admission means my grades and my SAT scores didn’t quite make the cut, but if I showed up in Austin, took a full load of summer school and made a 3.0 I would be admitted. 80% of my cohort failed. It was the hardest transition of my life. I am willing to bet I am the only one of the 20% that admitted that now has a master’s degree from UT Austin. I entered graduate school wanting to be a therapist in private practice and exited wanting to reform the criminal justice system in Texas. I’m still working on that latter bit. When I was a social work student, my mom married a man with two sons in prison who were both suffering from a significant drug addiction. My family began to ask me about resources and tools for individuals who were incarcerated due to the symptoms of a behavioral health disorder, and I had never stepped foot in a jail or prison in my life, so I set out to get to know the issues, took classes, wrote papers, wrote letters to my stepbrothers, and ended my master’s degree with an internship in the federal prison in Bastrop. I fell in love then with the work of finding light in dark places, I spent the next 20 years working first in direct service roles as a social worker in jails and prisons, but quickly found myself in leadership positions coordinating volunteers, managing programs and grants, and had my first Executive Director position at the not so seasoned age of 28. Since then I have discovered that I am happiest when I can see my influence, and that is typically either at the top of an organization where I can impact the culture, policies, and morale or at the bedside of someone withdrawing from heroin or behind the glass talking to someone convicted of a serious crime. My current role is as Executive Director of the Sobering Center, where I am fortunate to use my multi-faceted social work skills and systems thinking training to provide individuals with a safe place to sober up as an alternative to jail or the hospital, a public health rather than punitive approach to those with significant behavioral health issues.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
A smooth road in non-profit management focused on populations the rest of the world seems to find expendable? Ha! No. It has not been smooth. But as the saying goes smooth seas never made a good sailor. The landscape of adequate funding for behavioral health treatment services is abysmal in Texas, and that has made it nearly impossible to keep some of these services alive and well, resulting in more than one significant loss. Crime Prevention Institute, a small re-entry focused non-profit went out of business after the economic downturn of 2009 and Austin Recovery closed all its treatment programs during COVID. Trying to advocate for resources to be directed at a community of individuals we want to punish as a society, rather than treat, is and always has been an uphill battle and I’ve experienced a lot of loss as a result.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I have always worked in non-profit or government organizations. My training is in social work, and while I started out doing direct services with individuals who were incarcerated or their families, I quickly moved into leadership positions and currently hold my 3rd Executive role in 20 years. I specialize in thinking outside the box when it comes to treatment over incarceration and looking at the whole person when it comes to providing behavioral health services. I specialize in servant leadership, transparent and ethical business dealings and communications, and stabilizing struggling or turnaround organizations. I am known for my fierce and persistent advocacy, my protection of staff and clients, and my willingness to see everyone and everything from a strengths-based and potential-driven lens.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
Rolling down the grassy hills of my grandparent’s golf course and riding around in the golf cart with my grandfather.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.soberingcenter.org
- Other: lauraelmore.me
Image Credits
Headshot by John Cuba Lewis
