Joyce Fetrow
Project Associate
Michigan Center for Rural Health
Northern Michigan Opiate Response Consortium
NOSORH Member since 2019
What are you working on right now: I am the project associate for the Northern Michigan Opiate Response Consortium (NMORC). Our work spans across 18 Northern Michigan counties and our efforts are focused on Prevention, Treatment, Recovery, and Workforce.
What led you to a career in rural health? As a woman in long-term recovery, I got involved with the MCRH team during the planning process of the RCORP grant to impact the current opiate and substance use crisis. I valued and respected the work that was outlined in the workplan. I left a full-time job in a treatment center to take the position as the project associate. I get to live each day full of gratitude that change is happening for the better.
What was your first job? My first job also became my first career. I worked for a Fortune 500 retail company for 17 years. My last position with that company was a District Manager for Apparel, Shoes, Jewelry and Homelines in Chicago.
Best advice I ever received: The best advice I ever received wasn’t a deep or profound sentence, it was just one word. CONTINUE! Continue to help others. Continue to love others until they learn to love themselves. Continue to strive for excellence. Continue to develop and mentor others.
Where is your favorite place in the world: I have traveled to many other countries, but Canada is my favorite. My love for Canada began as a child, as we would take family fishing trips there.
What I’m currently reading: Diagnosis: Poverty by Marcella Wilson, Ph.D. This book provides guidance to take action to address poverty in our rural areas.
The SORH work that I am most proud of…I am most proud of the respect given to the recovery community. One of my first suggestions implemented and carried into action was to engage with individuals in recovery, allow them to share their recovery stories, and to hear what their barriers to recovery were. If you really want to address issues within our communities, engage with the targeted population that you want to impact.