Her Story
About Alison
I grew up as a child of violent crime - my mother went missing 45 years ago when I was young, and I spent my childhood in and out of foster care, dealing with an abusive and neglectful father. I was born an advocate because both of my parents were deaf, so from day one I was advocating for them, hearing for them, telling them when a horn was honking or someone was at the door. I've been a special education teacher for 26 years in an inner-city setting, where I advocate for my students every single day. On the 40th anniversary of my mother's disappearance, I decided to write a book to share her story and to inspire others who have faced trauma not to give power to the negative in their lives. In November 2025, my father finally confessed to her murder after I applied tremendous pressure by infiltrating the deaf community, writing my book, and working with a private investigator granted through the nonprofit Private Investigations for the Missing. I've done more than 30 podcasts, appeared on NewsNation multiple times, and I'm currently working on my second book with an agent. There's a long-form podcast in production with episodes releasing every Tuesday, and a documentary set to begin in 2027 with Partners in True Crime as producers. I do speaking engagements on the power of resilience, including at women's prisons and at AdvocacyCon in New Mexico. I'm also working on legislation called Lonnie's Law to grant families of missing persons access to case files after 20 years. My ultimate goal is to start a nonprofit called Lonnie's Light to support people dealing with trauma in the meantime between tragedy and resolution, offering life coaches, support groups, and retreats.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Alison
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to finding stability and structure when I got married and created my own family with my husband - the white picket fence and family dinners I always dreamed of but never had. That stability, combined with counseling, allowed me to become a stronger person and face my demons. I was able to overcome the trauma of my childhood and put those experiences in their place. The healing that came from creating my own family for the first time ever gave me the courage and inner strength to speak out, write my book, and do this advocacy work. I made a conscious decision not to give power to the negative that happened in my life - I can't change the fact that I was born into a story of violent crime, but I can give that experience purpose. I want to help people who lived a life like me understand that they don't have to give ownership of their lives to the tragedies that happened to them - they own those experiences and get to decide what to do with them.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice I received came from people believing in me and reflecting back to me what a strong person I am - that I have the strength, courage, and resilience to make a difference in this world. Once I was able to heal myself and my own wounds and look beyond that, my own driving words became: I'm rewriting my story, and I want to inspire other people to rewrite their story and turn that pain into purpose. That right there is my driving force among all of these efforts I'm doing, in addition to wanting justice for my mother. Receiving positive encouragement and reflection from others about the kind of person I am and the inner strength I have made me want to reflect that and inspire that same strength in others, in the same way that I discovered it in myself.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say the power of resilience is in every single one of us. How much we tap into that is our choice. And if you want more of it, you dig deeper to get it. But every one of us has it. Believe in it. Trust in yourself to get you through. Don't give power to the negative in your life - give power to the purpose and to the positive. You get to choose. As a child, you don't have that choice, but I want people to see the successes I have fought for in my life and be inspired to make the same choices for themselves.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge is law enforcement, plain and simple. Law enforcement is a very different type of world that is very governed by rules, and there's no gray area. When different cases are presented, these are the rules, period. And sometimes that's not reality. As a special education teacher, I'm always geared towards individualized instruction - what does a child need to learn? But with law enforcement, it's not like that. These are the rules, period, no matter what. It's very challenging to move forward at times because they won't look at it any other way. They won't try anything different - the rules are the rules. This applies to my case, but I am friends with many people connected through missing persons, and there are thousands of stories similar to mine. I talk to more people who have struggles with law enforcement than not in the area of missing and murdered, because of these rules that are set in stone and will not be compromised or looked at in any different way. They're very strict and non-bending. There needs to be more teamwork and more willingness to work with families to find loved ones.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
My family is absolutely number one. I am who I am, and I have this gift of speaking and the courage to do this work because of the healing that took place when I created my own family. I was not a child who was a product of a loving family - I bounced around, was in foster care, and people cared for me, but I was never preferred. I always felt like a burden, no matter where I was, until I created my own family. For the first time ever, I created that sense of family within myself - I didn't have to find it somewhere else. Everything I do comes from that foundation of family and the stability it gave me to become the person I am today.
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