Myrna Russell

By Nancy Thorne
MC Public Relations Director

“I was 49 when I started school,” said Myrna Russell, a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor. While working in Big Spring with elementary school children as a Title I Reading Specialist, she noticed that some of her students just could not focus on their work. They were struggling in homes afflicted with drug and alcohol addictions and, more than the reading, they needed someone to talk to. Myrna offered a shoulder to these kids, helping them process their pain.

“It was God’s way of telling me I had to do something,” she said. She began researching online and discovered that there was an Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counseling (ADAC) program just down the road in Midland. After she made the decision to go back to school, “the doors just started opening,” she added.

The doors at Midland College opened for Myrna in 2005 when she met ADAC Program Director Chesly Herd. “I absolutely love that program,” Myrna said. “Chesly will help you do anything you need,” she added. Myrna came to the ADAC program at a great time because the new MC Behavioral Health Center had just opened and served as an oncampus site for the ADAC students to get their clinical training. Professional counselorswere available to assist and observe the students. “I felt so lucky to come in on the ground floor of such a wonderful project at the college … at the clinic we got immediate feedback on our counseling techniques and skills. It really built my confidence!” she said.

Myrna graduated from MC in 2007 with her Associate of Applied Science Degree, but that was just the beginning of her professional training. To become a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor (LCDC) she had to complete another 4,000 hours of supervised clinical work. During that time, she was hired as the HOPE Program Coordinator at Palmer Drug Abuse Program (PDAP), helping parents with drug and alcohol problems develop coping skills. In 2008, she was promoted to Student Outreach Recovery Coordinator at PDAP, teaching life skills to children at risk in area high schools.

In March of this year, she became the Outreach and Referral Specialist for the Permian Basin Regional Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse. Myrna makes assessments and referrals to those in need of assistance with drug and alcohol problems. The person that comes into her office may be a teenage boy with an alcoholic parent, or a mother with a drug problem. “I pray that God gives me something to help each person that walks through that door,” she said.

Meanwhile Myrna has maintained a very strong, tightly-knit family with Alvin, her husband of 35 years, her two children, Tevayan, 34 and Alvin, 23. “My husband has been very supportive of everything I’ve done and, together, we have been very involved parents,” Myrna said. She also makes regular visits to Pecos where her mother and two younger siblings live.

Myrna’s dream is to open her own counseling center for adolescents who are in homes afflicted with addictions. “These children are angry and they don’t know why,” she said. “I want to help them work past their anger. I want to show them that they do not have to follow in their parents’ footsteps … that they can make a choice to do something different,” she added.