Meet Stacey Lundquist

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Stacey Lundquist. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Stacey below.

Stacey, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

Everything bad that has happened in my life has added to my resilience. Let me explain… over the years I have been directly impacted by the bad decisions of a boss or a group of bosses, and, at the time, it was impossible to see what good could come of it. But putting one foot in front of the other was the only way to survive when the betrayal of others came about. Imagine this (because my counselor at the time could not) I was called into HR and asked if my boss had threatened to kill an employee. I answered truthfully because the week before he had said that he would kill one person in the room and drag their body up and down the hall as an example. He said it in front of all of the management at the time, so I thought we were having a discussion about how not to treat employees. Turns out that they were looking for evidence to fire him and that they did. With me as the whistleblower, never a label I wanted, they removed him from his position until they didn’t.

40 days later they said that he had been in the desert for long enough and they were going to rehire him after firing him for hostile work environment. Hostile in that he often threatened to hurt or kill another employee. I guess the fact that he never acted on it was enough for them. It took him about 30 days to enact complete revenge on me and remove me from my position. Remember, I was answering their questions and they were all still employed, including him. So, my resilience comes from my faith and from putting one foot in front of the other to new and better heights. Oh, and I guess from having a boss that never actually killed me.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I remember my fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Alexander, who made learning come to life. Our entire class sewed a quilt because it was the Bicentennial of the United States, we sang every day, and we learned every required lesson that year because of her kindness and caring. If you are doing the math, I was in her class 50 years ago and still remember each experience like it was yesterday. As a teacher, I want to be a living example of a lifelong learning tapestry, much like the quilt that we sewed in fifth grade. If you looked closely, you may have seen some stitches that were not exactly right, but when we flipped it over, the quilt was beautiful. Each piece sewn into the tapestry of me is someone who spoke into my life or simply lived theirs and let me watch. They took the time to build up the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generations after them and today we can see their impact on the world. As a counselor, I want a legacy like Mrs. Alexander’s.

Having ended a 33-year radio broadcasting career in 2025 to apply myself to counseling, I can look back and see how each of my experiences has impacted my life philosophy. I am available as a counselor at Safe Harbor Behavioral Care in Maryland and have extensive mentoring experience and apply reverse mentorship to every encounter with younger generations. I believe in a one-on-one, creative, hands-on approach to topics that cherish the client’s past experiences and I tell my counseling clients that I am walking on a path beside them, but it is their path. I have a keen sense of fairness, and all assessments will be run through the lenses of cultural and socioeconomic fairness, and I enjoy teaching about implicit bias.

In conclusion, I wish to walk in the footsteps of Etta Budd, George Washington Carver’s art teacher, and know my clients so well that I can help guide them to a better future. Mr. Carver’s agricultural science discoveries may never have happened if she had not suggested a career change from art. That led to each of us eating better food and living better lives. My philosophy of life is based in affecting future generations and providing a path to healing for my counseling clients.
 

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The advice that I give to each person that I come across in a younger generation than mine is to cherish every moment. There is a Kenny Chesney song called “Don’t Blink” and having lived it I can tell you it is true. Whatever you are experiencing now is just a season and you will miss it when it is over.

I collect people (in a good way) and I enjoy getting to know more about them with each interaction.

My mother would call me a professional student because I am currently working on my Ph. D. at the age of 59.

And my reliance on my faith is the most important quality that I carry. Without it, I am no one.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

The most impactful thing my parents did for me, after giving me my faith, was to tell me that I could do anything that I set my mind to. When my father was on his death bed, he told one of the nurses that I would be President of the United States someday. That is not even relatively true, but he believed it and I knew that he believed in me.

They also paid for my entire college education and graduate school. I had no idea at the time what that meant but my mother’s entire paycheck when straight to the university and I will be forever grateful for their sacrifice.

And they loved my brother and I unconditionally. That may not sound possible, but it is true. Never was there a time when we thought the other was loved more or favored and that is amazing!

Contact Info:

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