Jacqueline Lewis

My advocacy work really started when I was working in human resources at a chemical manufacturing plant. During that time, my son was struggling with substance abuse disease for 20 years, which ended up taking his life at the age of 34 when he was poisoned by medication laced with fentanyl. He left behind a little girl, my granddaughter AvaLynn, who was born a NAS baby with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome and spent over a month in the hospital going through withdrawals. At a conference, I listened to a program given by retired undercover narcotic agents from Franklin County who had developed a drug program for the workplace. I was so enthralled because I related to every bit of it so well because of what was going on in my personal life. I partnered with these gentlemen and helped them develop programs geared specifically to our frontline managers and employees. We ended up going to all our plants throughout the company in different states and won some awards. Later, I came upon an article about the One Ohio Foundation being established by our governor, tasked with distribution of funding from the drug manufacturing lawsuit settlement for the state of Ohio. I spent several years fighting for impacted families to have some of that funding go directly to help pay for funeral expenses or help the little orphans who were left without mommy and daddy. I attended meetings, spoke with state senators, state representatives, and met with the governor's office and the foundation board. I was interviewed by different media outlets including the Washington Post and PBS, trying to get the story out there. Every time I went to a meeting, I took a picture of my son and my granddaughter and laid it out in front of the individuals and said, that's what I'm here for, them and all the others like them. I fought the good fight for a lot of years, and even though doors kept shutting, I kept pounding on them, showing up at their offices, sending texts and emails. Now I'm transitioning my work by writing a small children's book about my granddaughter and her journey from the day she lost her daddy until where she is now, how she has coped and learned to deal with her grief.