Lori Mellinger

Lori Mellinger is the Training Manager for the National Recovery Institute Training Team for Faces & Voices of Recovery. 

Her personal transformation began in 2015, when she transitioned into the non-profit world, having spent many years prior as a journalist and newspaper editor.  

Beginning as a volunteer with a faith-based transitional housing program for women reentering society from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, where she was one of the residents, Lori became the Reentry and Program Director and the first paid staff member for the organization.  

She has a heart for building capacity, growing organizations, and for grassroots advocacy, using her training and her lived experience to help break down barriers to living in freedom from substance use disorder and incarceration. 

Lori is certified as a Reentry Peer Specialist and she is a volunteer and member of the steering committee for both the Texas Statewide Leadership Council and Lioness: Justice Impacted Women’s Alliance, a member of Texas Women’s Justice Coalition and the Austin Travis County Reentry Roundtable.  

As a person in long-term recovery: service and advocacy, especially for marginalized communities, are at the heart of everything she does.