Meet the team here at Grace Recovery TX
Leah M.
CEO / Founder
Leah was raised in an Irish subset of South Chicago, Illinois. Leah and her sisters were raised in an environment where drug and alcohol abuse was the norm. The impact the environment had on Leah and her sisters was profound. Drinking and drug use were also prevalent in Leah’s neighborhood, and while she tried to steer her life in a better direction, Leah began drinking at the age of 12.
Leah began to watch her sister Becca, and “brother” Matt, fall into hard core drugs. Due to the severity of Becca and Matt’s addictions, Leah was able to fly under the radar with her party lifestyle. Becca and Matt were both shuffled through several state-funded treatment programs, and it was through this sequence of experiences, God sparked a desire in Leah to dedicate her life to helping support families battle and break free from all addiction.
In 2013, Matt lost his battle with addiction and was laid to rest. In 2015, Becca found her way to sobriety and moved to Austin, TX for aftercare. As Becca and Leah rebuilt their sisterhood Leah began to learn how individuals obtained sobriety. As her understanding of substance abuse increased, her passion to support and help families began to grow. In 2017, Leah founded Grace Recovery TX and immersed herself in assisting women and their families in the process of reclaiming their lives from the disease of addiction.
After experiencing a series of adverse events as an adult and mother of four, Leah found herself in treatment for her own addiction. Going through the process of achieving sobriety enabled her to recognize the need for God, a Higher Power working in and through her, and that the God of her understanding will gift her with ways to make meaningful connections with others and share unconditional love.
Leah is the Founder of Grace Recovery TX, Austin’s premier transitional living for women, and Co-founder of Emerge Recovery TX. She is a visionary for women’s treatment. She is able to strategically place individuals in programs based on their individual needs in order to maximize their treatment experience. Leah is an LCDC and brings clinical experience to the Business Development arena.
Laurel T.
Owner/ Director of Operations
Laurel joined Grace Recovery as a co-owner in 2020 in their mission to support women in achieving long-term sobriety. Laurel was born and raised in Houston, Texas, and attended the United States Air Force Academy and St. Edward’s University.
After injuries and surgeries that ended her college soccer career, Laurel spiraled into her addiction, which led to years of drinking and drug use. In 2012, she entered treatment in Austin, Texas. Laurel has 7+ years of working in the recovery industry and has dedicated her career to helping individuals to regain peace and find purpose in their lives.
Laurel is an experienced operations manager who specializes in project management, administration, and customer service initiatives aligned with performance objectives. She is known for her analytical approach in streamlining and optimizing efficiencies within an organization. She provides a resourceful approach while collaborating with cross-functional teams to develop client-centric solutions. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and will complete her Master’s of Business Administration in 2021.
Bella
Recovery Coach
My sobriety date is October 21st, 2018, and for that I am incredibly grateful. It is amazing how much a life can change in 3 short years. When I was first entering recovery, I struggled with self-worth, connection with others, motivation, perspective, hopelessness, purpose and many other aspects that blocked my ability to enjoy my life. I was unable to cope with or process difficult events and emotions, so I turned to substances that would distract me or help me to entirely ignore what was happening around me.
In this fellowship and in this path of recovery, I have found freedom. Not external freedom that is defined by my outward surroundings, but an internal freedom that is more substantial and sustainable. This kind of freedom gave me the ability to enjoy the life I’ve been given. A freedom that produces optimism, gratitude, determination and a newfound sense of others-centeredness. A freedom that never runs out, a freedom that never does more harm than good, a freedom that showed me exactly what my purpose in this world is meant to be and provided me with the ability to work towards my goals. In this journey I discovered that my passion is helping women who have struggled with the same issues that have held me back and providing any support I can to the cause of recovery. My life is beautiful today and so is the journey of each woman to recovery.
Together, we can heal. Together, we can reach our full potential which we spent so long avoiding out of fear. Together, we create a community of women that is a force of compassion, kindness, and love to be reckoned with.
Amy T
House Manager Grace 4, Recovery Coach
Amy was born and raised north of Austin, Texas. She joined the Grace Recovery team in May, 2020 as a House Manager at our Westlake location. Currently, she is a house manager at our Hyde Park, Grace 4 location and is a Recovery Coach. Amy ‘s sobriety date is October1, 2020. Amy’s career has been in Insurance- claims management, quality assurance, and sales.
She has lived in Austin, Houston, Seattle and Denver. Austin is home again where her extended family all reside. Her hobbies include anything outdoors- camping, hiking, kayaking, gardening and travel. She also loves her city of Austin and enjoys trying new restaurants and seeing live music! Amy is passionate about people and making true connections with others as this is what feeds her soul and helps her to grow as a human every day!
Amy is passionate about working with other women in addiction and helping them achieve the goals that she once could not accomplish due to her disease of alcoholism. Giving back what was so freely given to her, being of service, and staying connected to her Higher Power has been the life she had been looking for! Today she is happy, joyous and free.
She sponsors women in recovery, outside of Grace through a 12 step program and is grateful for her family and close friends who have stood beside her through all the joy and pain. She lives her life ONE DAY AT A TIME with the help of a 12 step program and her Higher Power.
Kris C
Grace 2 House Manager & Recovery Coach
Kris was born and raised in Iowa. In her late 20s she moved to Colorado where she lived for 34 years and raised her three children. She moved to Austin in the summer of 2020. She is grateful for a new beginning and fresh start in recovery, and believes that her Higher Power led her to Grace, where she is a house manager and recovery coach.
She is honored to work for an agency owned by women, for the purpose of helping women. Kris embraces AA and the 12 steps, and knows they are both life-saving and life-changing. Living with a house full of young women keeps her young at heart, and has renewed her passion for sobriety. Kris is happy to be living in the same city as her son, daughter-in-law, and grandson. She enjoys spending free time exploring and getting to know Austin.
Ally
Recovery Coach
Ally was raised in Dallas, Texas. Ally’s parents got divorced when she was six years old. Ally grew up in two homes with one older brother and three step siblings. Ally’s home life was very loving and her parents were very supportive. Alcohol was the norm in her family and she was exposed at a young age. She went to a very competitive high school which put a lot of pressure on her to act a certain way in order to maintain a certain social status. She drank heavily in high school. She went to her first treatment center when she was seventeen. She was not ready to get sober yet, went back to her same environment, and continued to abuse drugs and alcohol. She went to Texas Tech to pursue a college degree, where she had to drop out two years later due to her substance abuse getting significantly worse. Ally had developed depression and anxiety and checked herself into a treatment center at twenty years old in California in 2019.
She has been sober ever since. She was introduced to the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, spent six months in sober living, and developed new meaningful relationships with other women. She learned how to love herself again and gained respect for herself. She went back to Texas Tech to complete her Bachelor’s degree in Communications, which she obtained in 2021. She was a member of the Center for Collegiate Recovery at Texas Tech. She moved to Austin in 2021 and is now pursuing her Master’s in Counseling at St Edward’s University. She has a passion for helping others in recovery and feels very blessed to be able to work at a Women’s facility to be able to give back what was given to her.