By Brionna McCall, Intern
A good deal of people are born to be leaders, and Alabama State University alumna Dr. Joanna W. Abram is one of many. She has been doing much for her community in Lee County.
Abram served as the former president of the Auburn Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta. Inc. and is currently serving on the southern regional leadership team. She is on the board of the Boys and Girls Club of East Alabama, serves as the assistant coach for the City of Auburn’s Dream Team, is a member of the NAACP in Lee County, and is the committee chair for economic development.
She is a psychologist and transition coach for Opelika City Schools, where she serves a caseload of elementary, middle, and high school students regarding their needs and how to assist them and their families.
“Oftentimes people assume that those individuals who need clinical services are low income and get into a lot of trouble at school, and that is not completely accurate,” she said. “Sometimes, it also includes those students who have extremely high GPAs, but they also have different types of diagnoses as well. It’s not all about the grades, it’s not all about the behavior issues either, so it just depends on what the family needs and what the student needs so they can be successful.”
Coming from a military background, Abram has a heart for giving back to military families. She is the CEO of “Heroes @ Home,” a military family resource center located in Auburn, Alabama.
“I work with military families, service members, and veterans. What that entails, I supervise military instructors at Fort Benning, and we teach Active Duty, National Guard, and Reserve personal finance,” she said. “For example, we teach them things such as preparing to retire, how to budget, and how to purchase a home. We guide them because they do receive quite a bit of finance, and it’s very lucrative. We want to assist them in making the best decisions possible for their family and be successful in all of their endeavors.”
Abram’s family has served in the military since the 1940s. One of her uncles was among the first to serve in the Marine Corps. When her father was in the military, she complained about services that were not fully provided for military families.
“At the age of 16, my mother told me I had to do something about it or shut up talking about it, so I decided to do something about it,” she said. “Many people assume that our citizens in this county understand the military, which is not accurate at all. I find myself teaching military culture quite a bit. Educating oneself when it comes to the military is huge.”
For the next three to five years, Abram wants to create an app for her non-profit organization, because she and her team have done many workshops and training. They have trained over half a million soldiers face-to-face, but the COVID-19 pandemic opened their eyes to see that the training can be done virtually, and they can reach more people by using an app.
Abram is proud of being the first female drum major and the first head drum major at Loachapoka High School.
“I was truly persuaded that they were not going to vote for me, being a female in a man’s world. It taught me at a very early age that once God opens doors for you, just walk through them, you don’t have to understand,” she said. “A lot of times people are afraid to walk through doors because they do not have all the answers, but my philosophy is you can always put the car in reverse, bag back, and regroup. There is nothing wrong with change, change is inevitable, but you try.”
Growing up, Abram’s best friend was her father, and he passed away when she was 19 years old. She remembers him as being the best teacher she ever had.
According to Abram, people think that in order to make an impact in a child’s life you have to be there 100 percent of the time.
“It’s not about being there 100 percent of the time, it’s not even about spending a lot of money all the time. My dad would just simply say ‘hey, you want to ride?’ and that could have meant anything. Sometimes we would just go to the gas station, sometimes he would go pay bills, sometimes we would go get ice cream,” she said. “Spending time with him was a priceless experience, and the wisdom and guidance that he would give had prepared me. He clearly said, ‘I have been the best father to you that I could have been, but the Father, God almighty, would be a better father to you than I could have ever been your entire life,’ and he was not wrong.”
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