Today we’d like to introduce you to Laurie Stillman.
Laurie, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
As a college graduate of Clark University, I knew that I wanted to work in the field of public health. Promoting the wellbeing of communities has always been a passion of mine, especially working for the most vulnerable. My first job out of college was as Assistant Director of the Joseph Smith Community Health Center, and when I left, I served on their Board of Directors as their youngest member.
Having worked with a number of other non-profits, it became clear to me that many of them were led by well-intentioned inspirational leaders, but who lacked the management skills needed to effectively and efficiently deliver on their missions. So I decided to pursue a graduate degree that focused on public administration at the Heller Graduate School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University.
My first job after graduate school was as Executive Director (E.D.) of the Whitman Counseling Center at age 27 years old. I then moved to a larger mental health center as Chief Business Officer at the Somerville Mental Health Center, where I was then promoted to E.D. I have held a succession of executive positions in the non-profit health center for nearly forty years, including at the AIDS Action Committee, the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (MassCOSH), the Massachusetts Public Health Association, and at the New England Asthma Regional Council.
Before moving to a public health consulting career, my last position was as Chief Strategy Officer and Policy Director at Health Resources in Action in Boston, one of the largest public health institutes in the country. As a public health consultant, I have focused my career mostly to address the opioid and substance abuse epidemic in this country. I am currently the Founding Director of the Milton Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, I have been hired by the Milton Public School System as their first District Social Emotional Learning Facilitator, and I have a number of other clients including the Massachusetts Association of Public Health Nurses and a number of health foundation executives in New Hampshire.
I have led a gratifying career in public health, and wouldn’t change any of it!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The most challenging aspect of my career has always been to find enough funding to keep my organizations running and my people employed. Chasing after grants and donations, and constantly having to justify an organization’s goals and accomplishments to funders by writing endless progress reports and applications, consumes a great deal of a public administrator’s time, taking away from our core day to day management and program implementation roles.
Thankfully, I have never had to lay off anyone because of financial difficulties. Writing grants has become an important and successful skill set of mine. But philanthropists don’t want to pay for administrative and fundraising time, yet they rightly demand that our agencies run well. Well, it costs money to hire administrators, and they have to be underwritten somehow. So being in public management means often working insane hours, over and above what amount of your time is being paid for.
Which brings me to my second challenge, and that is, balancing the responsibilities of being a non-profit executive director and raising children. I found that it was ungratifying trying to do both jobs well at the same time. Thus, I would take long breaks after being burned out from my jobs to be at home with my children. I have been fortunate, though. I don’t believe that these breaks in employment have negatively impacted my ability to get back into the workforce and pursue desirable jobs whenever I was ready to do so.
I never regretted taking these interludes to spend more time with my family. I have always also been active in my community of Milton, especially when I took the employment breaks. I served two terms on my school board, have been elected as a Town Meeting Member for over two decades, and often work hard on tax override campaigns to support our schools, library and other essential town services.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I am a Consultant to the town of Milton. I am employed as the Founding Director of the Milton Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition (MSAPC) and as the Milton school district’s first Social Emotional Learning Facilitator. Our country, our state and our town are in the middle of a substance abuse epidemic, especially with opioids. My role has been to build a coalition of town leaders, students, and stakeholders who are learning together and working together to reduce substance abuse in our town.
A coalition survey discovered that one in five Milton households has someone struggling with addiction. This silent epidemic affects a wealthy Boston suburb like Milton just as it does urban and rural environments. My role as Director is to change the attitudes, behaviors and beliefs of residents about addiction so that it is less stigmatized as a moral failing and understood as the chronic brain disease that it is.
By reducing the shame of addiction, and understanding the drivers of this crisis, there is a great deal that we can do in our community to prevent the disease and to help people get into treatment.
I am most proud of a program that we are going to be launching this September during National Recovery Month. On September 5, 2018, I am putting together a press conference at the Milton Police Station to launch a new program called “Milton Cares!”. Our coalition has worked hard with our law enforcement partners to better understand that we can’t arrest our way out of the drug and alcohol dependency epidemic. We need to provide education, support and compassion to our residents struggling with these brain disorders.
As a result, I was hired by the Police Chief to launch Milton Cares!, which sends out a team comprised of a substance use prevention counselor and Recovery Coach to Milton families requesting help or who recently experienced a drug overdose. The team members, supported by a plain-clothed Milton Police Officer, will provide the family with access to treatment services and/or support services and will be trained on how to use Narcan—a life saving nasal spray that can revive someone when they have overdosed.
I conducted research on similar programs, identified local partners who could help deliver the program, developed an Operations Guide for the team, and will help to promote the program throughout the community.
What sets us apart from others is that we have become an aligned community, dedicated to working together to have an impact. Our Core Stakeholder Group, the policy and decision makers, are made up of a powerful group of community influencers. They include the Milton Police Chief, the Director of Health Education for the Milton Public Schools, the Chair of the Milton Interfaith Clergy Association, students, public health academics, the Milton Public Health Director, business leaders, health care providers and many others.
Our Town Administrator Michael Dennehy and our town’s Board of Selectmen are very supportive of our efforts, as is our School Superintendent Mary C. Gormley. Ms. Gormley and the Milton School Committee have become so invested in preventing our youth from drug and alcohol addiction that they created a new position in the schools called Social Emotional Learning Facilitator to help the district promote responsible decision making in our student body and address the growing mental health issues which contribute to youth substance abuse.
In addition, we advocated with our Board of Selectmen about the need to create pro-social out of school activities for youth in town. As a result, they just created a Youth Commission to study and address the problem. Our coalition is a mover and shaker, and while we might lack sufficient funding to keep our coalition going, we are rich in community partners.
What were you like growing up?
I usually bucked the status quo. I grew up in an upper-middle-class community, and I liked to show that I had different values, whether it was the way I dressed, in the music I listened to, or the issues I got involved with. I was always passionate about social justice, as a teenager, as a young adult and I continue to be an activist as an older adult. My profession aligns with my values.
Public health works to improve opportunities for health, especially for the most vulnerable among us. Whether it’s to ensure that low-income communities have access to healthy foods and safe work, or that children of color live in healthy homes that don’t trigger asthma, or that people who are addicted to drugs get the care they need, I have been lucky to work in a field that aligns with my values.
And while my work is very serious, I also love clever humor. I’m obsessed with making puns with my family and friends and love to howl at good comedians like Paula Poundstone, Steven Colbert or Jimmy Tingle.
Contact Info:
- Address: 525 Canton Ave Milton, MA 02186
- Website: www.milton-coalition.org
- Phone: 617-721-1662
- Email: info@milton-coalition.org
Image Credit:
Steve Nelson at FayFoto
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