About our Women

Even before she came to NOSW, Barb Harvey was an advocate—for women, rural people, and those who struggled with mental health and addiction. She lobbied in Frankfort, convincing legislators to fund peer support for people with addiction. “I ... [Continue reading]

Jennifer West arrived for the fall 2019 residential program after having just completed drug rehab. During those two weeks in Berea, the barriers and chains that had held her seemed to fall away, she explains. She learned it was okay to ask for help ... [Continue reading]

Tami Gentry is a native of Winchester, Kentucky. After breaking her shoulder in an accident, she developed an addiction to prescribed pain pills. For years, she was a functioning addict who managed to balance work and family in the throes of her ... [Continue reading]

Sheila Brown attended our three-day non-residential program in Winchester, Kentucky, in the summer of 2018 after hearing about it through a friend and fellow drug court alum. Determined to make her recovery from opiate addiction last, Sheila was ... [Continue reading]

Nora McClain attended one of the first community-based workshops the New Opportunity School hosted in the summer of 2017. A resident of Laurel County, Kentucky, Nora had been recently widowed and was in depression from that loss. Hoping to coax her ... [Continue reading]

When Fran LeMaster applied to attend NOSW’s residential program, she was at her lowest point in life. A native of Flat Gap in Johnson County, Kentucky, she was nearing retirement age when she was unexpectedly let go from the nursing home where she ... [Continue reading]

As a young woman with high anxiety, Bri Fox was unsure where to begin when it came to meeting the goals she wanted to achieve for herself. She worked with her mentor to figure out her passion and create an action plan for building a career in ... [Continue reading]

Living in Madison County for most of her life, Amanda Gadd had heard about NOSW. But it took her twenty years and three tries to get here. Born in Rockcastle County, Amanda married young and moved to Madison County. She became a teen mom and ... [Continue reading]