Gena Stier

I attribute my success to hard work, determination, and perseverance. I don't take no for an answer - I just keep plugging on, and if something doesn't work, I move on, because it's not always my plan. It'll come to pass if it's supposed to, but I believe that hard work is key to anything that you're trying to achieve. I've learned that you have to keep pushing forward and not give up, even when things get difficult.

The best career advice I've received is to just do something - to go out of your fear station. We get really afraid of stuff and we stand back from it, but if we face our fears and we just walk through the fire, when we get to the other side, it's never as bad as we thought it was gonna be. And we have such success to come from that. I think that the people who helped me step up the ladder showed me I could do something I never thought I could, because they planted a seed, and it grew, because I believed in it.

My advice to young women is to set goals and know how to solve problems through healthy ways, whether that's taking a run, getting out and running, or having a hobby that you enjoy that takes your mind off of whatever stresses you're going through. The advice is to focus on yourself to be of use to others. If you're not whole and healthy, nobody else is going to get anything out of what you're trying to show them. Stay strong, advocate for yourself. Know your worth and know how important you fit in, and don't compare yourself to everybody. Be happy and be original - there's only one of you, and that was for a reason. My advice to young women is just to empower who they are.

I think because it's a nonprofit, funding is always an issue, especially when you want to do so much and you're limited. That is definitely a barrier, especially when things are cut - it's usually always our field that seems to get the brunt of it. It's very frustrating because our cause is great and it really encompasses a person to be their whole self, and we can't reach that when we don't have the funding to do it. We can't implement different environmental strategies when there's no funding to do it. You can have the ideas, but without the funding, you're just stuck. I also think that parental acceptance of some drug use is a challenge - like the attitude of 'I would rather my kid do it at home than be on the streets,' and I'm like, well, your kid's getting addicted in his room. And if you think that child's not doing it outside your walls, you're mistaken. Parents being aware and educated is a barrier. The lack of communication skills in our youth is huge - they don't want to talk, they don't have the skills to go up and pump their own gas and pay for it. They would rather walk away. They want to do everything off of their phones and their computers. I always tell them, somewhere throughout your life, you're gonna have to communicate, and it's better to start doing it and getting used to it before you get in the real world. Mental health and substance use are very well connected - if you have one, you usually have the other.

I think my values stay pretty consistent, so I combine them for both work and personal life. Family is just at the core of who I am. God - I'm a very faithful person. I am a Christian, I believe in the Word, and that is important, and I think that shows over into my work. Even though at times you can't broadcast it, people can still sense it. I value being honest and doing the very best that you can, and taking your failures in stride, because the only way we're ever gonna learn, or I've ever learned anything, is if I make a mistake first. I've learned to not over-expect things for myself when I can't get there and do what I want to do, and that comes from those barriers at work. I can only do what I can do, and I have to be okay with that.