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One of Olivia Miller Smith’s most thought-provoking undergraduate courses was called Prison Life. “We toured the Tennessee State Prison, a stark experience. All I could think about was the lost potential for those incarcerated,” she says.��

Decades later, after working as a registered nurse at ������Ƶ hospital and launching a large manufacturing company, she wanted to give back to her community. Smith volunteered at the Tennessee Prison for Women, where she was paired with a resident named Stacy. Hearing her life story was a wake-up call for Smith.��

“I realized that Stacy had made bad choices as a young girl to survive on the street,” Smith says. “She was ready to turn her life around, but how does a young woman leaving prison do that with no income or support network?”��

Smith learned there was a critical need for housing for indigent women in recovery from alcohol or drug addiction, so she formed a small group of women at her church to develop a solution. In 2017, they opened Healing Housing, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in Nashville for women in recovery who cannot afford to pay for a supportive, structured residence.��

“Many residents grew up in dysfunctional families where alcohol and drugs were the norm,” Smith says. “If you invest on the front end, they become productive citizens. Otherwise they just relapse.”

In addition to serving on the Healing Housing board, Smith is the CEO of Write a New Story and provides one-on-one consulting and coaching to CEOs as well as customized leadership training. “We all have a life story, including difficult challenges,” Smith says. “How do we work on our story and move it to a healthier and happier place? Healing is ongoing.”��

Smith’s consulting work compelled her to write the recently published book Dealing with Healing: How Trauma Impacts Your Professional Journey. She highlights stories of nine business leaders who experienced childhood trauma and how that trauma followed them into the business world and affected their career path. One of the stories features Reggie Ford, BA’13, MAcc’14, founder of RoseCrete Wealth Management, motivational speaker and mental health advocate.��

“Business professionals often have experienced the same thread of trauma as the women at Healing Housing,” Smith says. “Executives might look different on the outside, but they can carry burdens that affect their leadership and their health. I encourage them to seek therapy. It’s a path to healing.”��

— Ann Marie Deer Owens, BA’76