I met Nell as the late 1990s gave way to the early 2000s. We both had been in recovery from substance use disorders for a few years, although that fact was unknown to us. I rarely spoke of recovery then, nor did I have the right words to bring it up without shame and profuse apologies. Nell and I were just two people who happened to work in the Minnesota Historical Society’s (MNHS) Education Department at the same time. She was across the hall, putting her writing and marketing communications skills to good use in the curriculum and education publishing unit. I was on the museum side, working on History Center programs and exhibits. Our paths crossed often, but we never connected. Neither of us, I imagine, could have defined a recovery-oriented system of care, let alone put those words together in a sentence.
I lost touch with Nell after she left MNHS. I knew she’d had a son and lived in Saint Paul from a few sightings at Kowalski’s Market on Grand Avenue. And then, nearly twenty years later, she appeared on a screen, larger than life, as I sat in Minnesota Recovery Connection’s (MRC) Recovery Coach Academy, taught by Kris Kelly. Kris had pulled up a video about MRC that explained Recovery Community Organizations. And there was Nell, MRC’s founding executive director. I was in the class as a future MRC volunteer, looking for ways to give back to the community in the spring of 2017. The class changed my life. And soon, Nell and I would finally connect.
Nell had moved on from MRC years before I became its Executive Director in 2018. A month into the job and still wondering how anyone in the behavioral health field could take me, someone who had spent the last 30 years working in museums and public history, seriously, I walked into the “Sober Bowl” Super Bowl Weekend event and looked for a corner to hide in. But there was Nell, bedazzled in a furry puffy coat, with her arms outstretched and a huge grin. “Wendy,” she shouted as she ran up and gave me a big hug. “I’m so happy you’re at MRC!”
Nell sought me out with a warm embrace and a guiding hand, as though we had always been walking this path together. In the years that followed, she helped me find my way, shared her abundant knowledge and connections, and made me feel like I wasn’t an imposter. She was that rare person who led with humility and grace, using her mountain of accomplishments to benefit other travelers rather than her own ego. Her laugh put everything in perspective. This is impossible work that chews up and spits out the best of us. And yet we keep trying. You have to laugh, she’d remind us.
Back in 2010, with little fanfare, Nell stepped up to become the founding Executive Director of Minnesota Recovery Connection, the state’s first Recovery Community Organization (RCO). Building a grassroots nonprofit organization from scratch is not for the faint of heart. Building an RCO is the work of giants, especially at a time when peer recovery support services, recovery advocacy and education, and the concept of “all pathways” of recovery were not well understood or accepted. Nell was the original giant.
When I joined Minnesota Recovery Connection, I stepped onto the shoulders of these giants. Extraordinary women, including Kris Kelly, Julia Parnell-Alexander, and Monique Bourgeois, laid the foundation for RCOs to change systems. The broadest shoulders of all, however, belonged to Nell. Under her leadership, MRC launched the first peer recovery specialist training in Minnesota. It established a slew of annual events to raise awareness and model hope, including the Walk for Recovery and Recovery Day on the Hill. And it convened, connected, and collaborated across the continuum of care with a singular focus: break down barriers to recovery for all who seek it.
Nell’s vision, combined with her critical knowledge and skills in nonprofit administration, enabled MRC to flourish. More importantly, she planted the seeds that have blossomed into a network of nearly 30 Recovery Community Organizations throughout Minnesota, including the statewide organization I am proud to lead today, the Minnesota Alliance of Recovery Community Organizations (MARCO). She went on to work for the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, The Phoenix, the Peer Recovery Center of Excellence (now CARS), Augsburg University’s StepUp Program, and elsewhere. Passionate about the benefits of yoga and exercise for a life in recovery, she started Hurley Health, her personal coaching business. Nell nurtured and tended the garden of the recovery movement, in Minnesota and beyond, wherever she went.
A few weeks ago, I spoke with Nell about MARCO’s upcoming Community Recovery Summit and our inaugural Community Recovery Leadership Awards. MARCO’s board of directors had unanimously approved naming our Groundbreaking Leadership Award after Nell, if she agreed, and making her its first recipient. She said she was honored and accepted. She hoped to be at the Awards Dinner on May 4th to accept in person, but she knew she was running out of time. Nell passed away on April 25th, surrounded by her family.
