Episode 9: “The Counselor Who Changed Everything” Featuring Brandee Izquierdo
A single conversation changed Brandee Izquierdo's life.
While navigating recovery, a counselor quietly revealed she was in recovery too.
For the first time, Brandee could picture a future she had never imagined for herself.
Today, that woman who once lost custody of her children and experienced incarceration helps shape behavioral health policy at the national level.
Her story demonstrates the extraordinary impact of lived experience and what becomes possible when people are invited to lead instead of simply being served.
The most important expert in the room may be the person who has lived it.
Pew Charitable Trusts
Through her work at Pew, Brandee helps advance evidence-based behavioral health policies nationwide. She brings both professional expertise and lived experience into conversations that shape systems affecting millions of Americans.
For more than 75 years, Pew has used data to make a difference—addressing the challenges of a changing world by illuminating issues, creating common ground and advancing ambitious strategies that lead to tangible progress.
About Brave Recovery: The Women Impacted
Twelve women. Twelve stories. One challenge to everything we think we know about addiction, recovery, prevention, grief and hope.
From mothers and advocates to researchers, journalists, counselors, authors and community leaders, each woman featured in Brave Recovery: The Women Impacted reveals a deeper truth: recovery is not simply about individual choices. It is about whether families, communities and systems create the conditions that allow people to heal.
These stories are not only about survival.
They are about what becomes possible when people are seen, supported and given the opportunity to reclaim their futures.