photograph courtesy laurie powell
Editor's Note: Community leaders gathered at Memphis Botanic Garden on May 7th to honor the 2025 CEOs of the Year, honoring five business leaders who are making the best kind of impact on the Mid-South: Boo Mitchell with Royal Studios, Brett Batterson with the Orpheum Theatre Group, Laurie Powell with Alliance Healthcare Services, Dr. Stewart Burgess with the Children’s Museum of Memphis, and Ted Townsend with the Greater Memphis Chamber. Here, we spotlight Laurie Powell and the work she's done with Alliance Healthcare.
When Laurie Powell started working for Alliance Healthcare Services in 1993, it was called the Southeast Mental Health Center. The Virginia native’s father was a scientist, and her family moved to Memphis in 1987. “I’ve always liked helping other people,” she says.
She attended the University of Memphis, earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology. “I thought I wanted to be a sociologist. I did research, statistics, all that,” she says. “Then I fell in love with mental health when I did an internship with a psychologist. So I went back and got a master’s in social work and a license in social work … I really like talking to people. I like helping people. So I was a therapist for the first 10 years.”
Her experiences as a therapist in South Memphis and Orange Mound revealed much need. “Memphis is a traumatized city,” she says. “Just look at the pockets of poverty and the trauma that the kids are experiencing. These kids become adults. If you haven’t addressed that trauma, you don’t know that there is hope, that you can have a career, that you don’t have to be stuck in that cycle of trauma and poverty.”
Along the way, Powell met her husband, Michael Harrison. “He was a big advocate for what I was trying to do,” she says. He supported me when I became CEO. Lots of people don’t have that kind of support in their spouse. When we decided to have kids, he actually changed his whole career to make sure that Ethan and Nicholas were taken care of, and I could focus on my career. It amazes people when I tell them that story.”
“What I liked in the management and administration piece is seeing the big picture, how all of these programs fit together. We have housing, we have crisis outpatient, and we’re trying to build a whole continuum where people can get the help they need in whatever program they need.”
After a decade in the trenches, she was promoted to clinical supervisor, then started grant writing. “What I liked in the management and administration piece is seeing the big picture, how all of these programs fit together. We have housing, we have crisis outpatient, and we’re trying to build a whole continuum where people can get the help they need in whatever program they need.”
One of Powell’s early victories was securing a grant to provide emergency mental healthcare to people who have recently experienced a psychotic break. “The research shows if you’re able to get someone in treatment within the first two years of their psychotic episode, and give them the evidence-based treatment, you can help them get employment, go to school.”
Many people in that situation who don’t get the help they need can end up homeless, or worse. Powell’s program established “an intensive team of ten people, including a psychiatrist, a therapist, and an employment specialist, who go out into the community,” she says. “They’re giving long-acting injectables for psychosis at hotels. They’re going to homeless shelters doing treatment on the spot.
“One of my passions has always been early intervention, so that the school-to-prison pipeline can be diverted,” Powell continues. Alliance has pioneered a program which places mental health liaisons in schools, a program which recently earned the support of Governor Bill Lee. “The goal is to have a therapist in every school to work with that school, work with families, and be a resource, so that the therapist comes to you,” she says. “You don’t have to come to the mental health facility. We do as much community based-work as we can do, and that’s what we’re trying to accomplish. We changed our name from Southeast Mental Health Center to Alliance because of the stigma involved with going into a facility called ‘mental health.’”
In 2018, Powell’s predecessor, Gene Lawrence, retired, and she applied for the position. “I’d done just about every job there is,” she says. “I remember on my strategic plan what I presented was, I want to build this crisis center for Memphis,” she says. “Too many people are incarcerated who have mental illness and not enough access to care.”
Now, six years later, that dream is a reality. The $35 million, 55,000-square-foot facility at 3200 Broad Avenue opened in March. “We’re calling it our ‘wellness campus,’” Powell says.
For Powell, the moment is bittersweet. In 2015, her husband was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. The first round of treatments were successful, but in early 2020, just before the pandemic hit, his cancer returned. Michael died in August 2020. “I was a widow at 53,” she says.
Powell, the expert in mental health, found herself following her own advice. “It’s helpful to talk to other females and support each other. There is life after a spouse’s death. In a way, I can look at it like this: I started working on this building right before he died. It’s been a labor of love for the five years since he died. He knew this was one of my biggest passions, that I’m going to do this, to see it from the beginning designs and then through the final construction. That did give me something to focus on during the grieving process. Freud would call that sublimation.”
She says the new facility represents Alliance’s commitment to bringing mental healthcare to the masses. “We changed the logo to highlight ‘all’ — it’s ALL of us. Alliance. That ALL is highlighted, because it’s going to take all of us, working together as a community.”
When the Alliance team learned that Powell had been awarded CEO of the Year, they surprised her with a banner and a party.
“Thirty-one years in mental health; I obviously didn’t do it to be wealthy, you know? I’m passionate about Memphis, and that’s why I’ve stayed here.”
