Her Story
About Anita
I was a teenage runaway, and many people helped me along my life path. When I was a struggling single mother trying to figure out how I was going to buy the next pair of shoes or the next set of underwear and trying to just figure out how to make ends meet, there was always somebody that would do something to help me. I started thinking the only way to do this, to be able to make ends meet, was to get an education. I started looking into descriptions of jobs that I thought would make me happy and still provide for both of us. I read descriptions but didn't actually read what they were for, and I applied to 3 schools. The funny thing is, every one of them was for social work. I got into 2, and I started with sociology first. I loved it, but unfortunately, I had a professor tell me that's wonderful, but Reagan's not in office anymore, and you're not going to get a job, you need to go to graduate school. I did the same thing again - I read the descriptions and applied to 3 more schools, and everyone was for social work. I got into SUNY Albany and discovered that this is exactly where I belonged. I loved social work. It was wonderful. I had a wonderful career, and I was exactly where I needed to be. My very first job was in a shelter for homeless, runaway, throwaway youth. Then I went into prevention, and then into foster care, and I worked in adult day health care. I did some for-profit work too, which does pay a lot better, but I always enjoyed the not-for-profit work more, and I did that most in my career. I worked with a program called Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care, working with youth designated by the courts as juvenile delinquents or persons in need of supervision. We were able to place them in specially trained foster homes instead of residential programs. I was the director of that program, on call 24-7-365. I did it twice, most times for a year at a time. It's pretty draining, so after a while, you kind of need to take a step back. I did it for a little over a year the first time, and then I left to go do other things. Then I went back to get it certified for the agency, and once I accomplished that and knew the paperwork was good and that it was going to be certified, I left again. I have a PhD - I am Dr. Anita Taboh. I was 60 when I got it. I got my master's degree at SUNY Albany, and I got my PhD at Walden University. They were very supportive. I think that's a wonderful university, and I did it while I was working full-time. I'm very proud of that. I never thought when I went into it, I thought, oh dear, a research study, I can do one and be done. And I'd be honest with you, I would love to go back and do some more. That turned out to be one of the things that I have done in my lifetime that I discovered I really enjoyed. Research studies are fascinating. I've been retired for about 6 and a half years. I thought I would like retirement, and I did for a while, but I'm bored, and my brain is stagnating. This brain needs something to stimulate it. I'm looking to get back into some type of job where I'm working with people again, not necessarily social work, but something kind of on the fringes where I'm offering my skill sets to be able to help and just do something with my time.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Anita
01What do you attribute your success to?
I'd have to say helping people. The greatest joy in my life is helping people. I've actually been able to help people to get their lives back. They've had so many providers involved in so many facets of their lives that they really didn't know which end was up. And to be able to bring it down to either a few service providers or maybe none sometimes, and get their personalized life back on their own, has been such an accomplishment for so many of them. That was something I took a lot of joy in. You have to get your satisfaction from what you're doing, not from what's coming in the bank every payday. It was worth whatever sacrifice I made financially. I could get the most satisfaction out of what I was doing, and that's the way I always looked at it.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would tell them to try different types. I didn't stick with just one. I started out in a shelter for homeless, runaway, throwaway youth, and then I went into prevention, and then into foster care, and I worked in adult day health care. I did some for-profit work too, which does pay a lot better, but I always enjoyed the not-for-profit work more. You have to move around. You have to try different kinds before you find the one that speaks the loudest to you. For me, it was working with youth, and I never would have expected that, ever. But that was where I was the happiest. And let's face it, social work does not exactly pay the most money of anything. It's gotta be where you're the happiest at what you're doing. It was worth whatever sacrifice I made financially. I could get the most satisfaction out of what I was doing, and that's the way I always looked at it. And find a mentor. Find a mentor, do it, because it will be so valuable to you in the long run. For young people, I really suggest they try different kinds. A lot of people will go to an agency and either come, do two years, and move on because it was there for education, really, or they come and they stay forever. It's not something I suggest. I really say, get out there and try different things and find that passion.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The thing about working with people is that you cannot hold up a product to the lovely people in our government and say, here, look at what I made, we can sell it now, because we don't have a product to sell. Therefore, they don't see it as something that's going to make the country money. They don't actually see the value of what they're going to be able to derive from it. They don't turn around and put back into it what they really should, because we are doing something that's going to help people become much more functional in the economy. Unfortunately, the people that are doing the work do not get the money that they should for what they're doing, at least in my perspective.
Keep Exploring
More Influential Women · Oklahoma
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.