Bonnie Stribling

I entered the recovery process with my then 18-month-old son. Now, I manage programs funded by federal grants, helping pregnant and parenting mothers access treatment services where they can take their children with them. I work for the Department of Human Services in Arkansas, in the Office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health.

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A lot of what I do is work with providers and find ways to get more funding. I'm breathing fresh air into contracts and bringing more stakeholders to the table to assist our moms and wrap services around them as best we can.

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We're in a maternal health crisis. Arkansas has one of the leading maternal death rates. Substance use isn't always the leading cause, but one death is too many. For me, getting help for substance use was the first landing spot. Everything I do now with the state is about taking that lived experience and passion to support mothers and families going through similar things. 

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Recently, I met with the Department of Education about Head Start. It was so special because I specifically used Head Start myself. I am the mother I am today because of the services they provided to me and my son.

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I try to bring a lot of heart and passion to this role. I want people to realize that I'm in it with them. We've started monthly meetings where we collaborate with providers, trying to problem-solve, brainstorm, and support each other. It used to be us versus them as a state agency. Now it's about working together.

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My dream job growing up was to be like Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act 2. I wanted to work with at-risk youth, teaching music. I have a bachelor's degree in music.

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When I first got into recovery, I went back to school for a Master of Arts in Teaching. But just because I stopped doing drugs didn't mean I was going to do my homework. I failed out of the program. I still have the exit letter.

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After the masters program, I started working part-time as a paraprofessional for a mental health facility. From there, I went through peer support training and kept meeting the right people. I moved to Little Rock to work with incarcerated young people. That's when I got involved in juvenile justice and started bringing recovery practices into the jails with our kids.

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When COVID hit, I re-enrolled in school to get my master's. Due to the pandemic, my son was sent home for schooling. I'm a single mom, and I was managing a recovery residency for women where I didn't have to pay rent. It was a perfect situation to go back to school.

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At the Clinton School, I expanded my perception. I worked in juvenile justice for about a year, then moved into my current role with women's services. My official title is grant management, but I try to take on tasks as they come. Working with kids in juvenile justice, I was able to do music groups as a tool for healing. I was kind of living the dream at that point.

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Through this experience, I was exposed to diverse backgrounds and learned humility. As a white woman sitting with a young black man from a rural part of the state, I couldn’t say I understood what it was like—I really didn’t. I focused more on listening, became comfortable having hard conversations, and learned more about their experience and what they had gone through.

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That experience helps me a lot in my current role. Maternal health issues have been around for a long time. Now everybody's worried about it, but it's been going on for decades. It's about access to care for a lot of people.

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Public service to me means authentically serving others. It's about service above self.

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I went to an event hosted by the Minority Health Commission in Arkansas. It was a maternal health event where I shared my story as a mom and provided education about substance use and access to treatment. Instead of feeling inadequate, I felt very welcomed. I realized this was a story that connected with people. It doesn't matter what your degrees are or where you come from. Everybody knows somebody this story could touch and relate to.

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My advice to those looking to start in public service is to stay open-minded, honest, and willing. Life is so much bigger than school. Keep showing up, be honest with yourself and others, and stay open-minded. I went into school thinking I was going to open a recovery high school. That was my goal. I haven't done that yet, but where it has led me now, I love it.

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I want to continue working in public service. I love working in this space, and I hope to run some important initiatives someday. I would really like to get more involved in women's services. I want to coordinate across all these silos to work better together, addressing maternal health and women's services in Arkansas. That's a professional goal for me.

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Sometimes we get so used to doing things every day that we don't get the opportunity to think big. But that's what we need to do. We need to keep making connections, keep getting invited to those rooms so we can meet people and actually use those connections to make a difference.

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