Dr. Bethany Lackey ’11 was named to The Roanoker’s “40 Under 40” Class of 2023, a group of Roanoke Valley professionals nominated by the magazine’s readers and chosen by the magazine’s editorial team for their outstanding leadership, career achievements, and community involvement.
Lackey was included in the “40 Under 40” Class of 2023 for her work to make mental health care more accessible to historically marginalized clients, as well as her work to provide equitable access to support resources to refugees in the Roanoke Valley.
Lackey co-founded A Tree Planted Counseling—a collaborative mental health practice with a mission to address mental health barriers in the community through inclusive partnership—when she realized that there are so many barriers in place for people who need access to mental healthcare.
In addition to her mental health practice, Lackey is the director of the Roanoke Refugee Partnership, an organization she helped found that connects the dozens of refugee resources in Roanoke with hundreds of volunteers who work together to support the people who have resettled in the Roanoke Valley under refugee status.
Lackey, who is active with numerous community organizations, has contributed to a variety of panel discussions highlighting refugee and immigrant rights and helped organize fundraisers to serve hundreds of displaced individuals in the Roanoke Valley. She is also an adjunct professor in the Counselor Education Department at Virginia Tech.
“I work within systems alongside those who face unjust barriers to push for change so those systems work better for all,” Lackey said. “I want to always be a driver in difference-making, whether that happens through counseling, teaching, community building, volunteering or pulling up a chair at the table for someone who can do it better than me.”
Read more about Lackey in her “40 Under 40” feature here: https://theroanoker.com/magazine/features/40-under-40-dr-bethany-lackey/
