Class of 2026: From prison, Elizabeth Childress found a calling to social work

By Sian Wilkerson

In 2006, Elizabeth Childress was a self-described country girl who'd never once been in trouble. But six months after graduating at the top of her high school class, she fell in with an older crowd, started using substances - and soon found herself sitting in maximum security prison, convicted of conspiracy to commit robbery.

At the time, it felt as though every hope and dream she'd had for herself had been wiped out.

"I really believed that one mistake defined my entire future," Childress said. "But that experience ended up changing my perspective completely."

It was during those 16 months of incarceration that Childress found her calling. As she got to know fellow inmates, she realized "they weren't horrible, mean people - they were abused, addicted and undiagnosed," she said. "And that's when I started to realize that people weren't just defined by their actions, and that there was a need for access to care and opportunities."

Filled with twists and turns, Childress' journey reaches a milestone this spring as she receives her master's degree from Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Social Work.

"I didn't take a traditional path - and honestly, that's what shapes everything I do today," she said.

After her release from prison, Childress enrolled at the University of Virginia's College at Wise, earning her bachelor's degree in psychology in 2013. She formed a successful caregiving business, but following a shock cancer diagnosis and a breakup with her then-fiancé, the pain medication she was prescribed triggered a relapse, throwing her future into question once again.

It wasn't until 2016, when she learned she was pregnant with her son, Jameson, that Childress swiftly got back on track. She entered recovery, and she received her qualified mental health professional license and her certified peer support specialist certificate, which allowed her to begin using her lived experience to support others in recovery.

Childress continued pursuing her career goals even as she supported Jameson through his own cancer diagnosis and an 18-month stay at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Tennessee. (Both she and her son show no current evidence of cancer following treatment.)

Coming to VCU to pursue her master's, Childress wanted to broaden her expertise. She arrived with plenty of lived experience and her gut instincts, but it was in the classroom that she learned the standards and framework that she will bring to her career as a practitioner.

"Many doors are open because of … schooling and internships through VCU and the connections I've made," she said. "I have a lot of options to do what I want to make a difference in this world. With my master's in social work, that is going to help me tremendously."

Living in Bristol, Childress - who, in addition to being a single mother, is a caregiver for her elderly parents - is grateful for the support and flexibility offered by VCU both as a student and as a peer recovery specialist with the university's Virginia Partnership for Gaming and Health.

Balancing her responsibilities wasn't easy, but Childress benefited from VCU's Rams in Recovery program, which allowed her each week to hear from, and share with, others who have faced addiction.

"For instance, when you're in your last semester and your internship and you're almost like, 'Oh, I want to quit' - to know that there are other people who have those same feelings from time to time, we're just going to push through it and that's what we do," she said.

Childress' goal is to continue working at the intersection of recovery research and systems change, with a particular interest in expanding access to care to make sure people with lived experience are recognized as a valuable part of the solution.

"The schooling has all been very personal for me," she said. "And it's bigger than me - [it's] making sure that people have real access to recovery and second chances."

And if there's one thing Childress hopes others can learn from her story, it's the power of hope.

"If I can enter into recovery and not only pursue but achieve my master's - and do so with a 4.0 GPA - they can do it," she said, emphasizing that a person's past, whether marked by a criminal record or a history of addiction, doesn't mean they can't achieve dreams but is instead "a reason to push forward."

This spring, Childress was thrilled to have Jameson, who turns 9 at the end of May, at her VCU graduation. "He has seen me work hard, that's for sure," she said. "So for him to see the result of that means the absolute world to me, so that I can be an example for him to pursue his dreams."

Jameson has goals, too: He wants to be a paleontologist - and Childress knows exactly where she hopes he pursues them: "For him to go to VCU, I can't think of any other place I'd rather him be."