Gina Franklin

I began my career as an elementary school teacher, specifically teaching kindergarten for 6 years. During parent-teacher conferences, I found myself drawn to helping families who were dealing with crisis situations, including family disputes, homelessness, and substance use issues. While I enjoyed teaching children, I did not like the bureaucracy that came along with being a teacher, so I made the decision to go back to school and earn my Master's in Social Work. For the past 27 years, I have worked in mental health and substance use, with substance use being my primary area of expertise. I work with adults exclusively, as I found that working with adolescents with substance use difficulties was not my niche, especially when I had children of my own at home. Currently, I serve as a community health coordinator for one of North Carolina's MCO LMEs, where I act as a liaison between 46 counties, connecting Medicaid members with necessary services including mental health, substance use, intellectual developmental disabilities, traumatic brain injury, and gambling addiction services. I am a licensed clinical social worker and a licensed substance use counselor, and I also provide part-time EAP services where I see people dealing with grief, goal planning, depression, and anxiety. My most notable professional achievement has been becoming a licensed clinical social worker, as the training and exam process was challenging, but it has allowed me to help more people. I previously had my own private practice but found that billing insurances was too difficult to manage.