Lori Mellinger

Lori Mellinger is the Training Program Manager for Faces & Voices of Recovery. She is a former newspaper reporter and editor who, in the midst of a longtime substance use disorder, became entangled in the Texas criminal legal system.

Now a person in longtime recovery, she’s pivoted professionally spending many years doing direct service for non-profit organizations delivering services to women in and out of incarceration in Texas. Trained as a reentry, mental health and recovery peer specialist, Lori also has extensive non-profit experience, including programs, grant writing, advocacy and strategic planning. A strong believer in servant leadership, she also believes that community solves everything.

An avid volunteer, she spends much of her free time giving back, especially to the intersection of recovery and reentry and the unique barriers faced by women leaving incarceration. Lori serves on the steering committee for the Statewide Leadership Council, a coalition of the Texas Center for Justice and Equity, and is also active with the Austin Reentry Roundtable. In 2023, she co-founded Lioness: Justice Impacted Women’s Alliance, and she is a member of the 2023 Cohort of JLUSA’s Leading with Conviction.

She lives in the Austin, TX, area, with her two cats.