By Jonathan Gramling

On March 26, the Wisconsin Women of Color Network will be honoring four women with their Women’s History Month Celebration at the DoubleTree Hotel. (Details can be found in this issue’s Happenings section.) All four women have risen academically and have used their skills and education to raise those around them — and their communities — up. In this issue and next, we will be running profiles of Norma Gallegos, Deepika Rajesh, Nicole Soulier and Martha Stacker. Congratulations to them all.

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One could say that Dr. Martha Stacker, division administrator, Children, Youth and Families Division of Dane County Human Services, is a self-made woman who pulled herself up by her bootstraps. One could easily think that.

“I have lived experience,” Stacker said. “I know what it feels like to be a part of the system because I have been part of the system and know what it is like to have lived under public housing and with supplemental income and being part of the welfare system. I have had family members who have been part of child protective services. I have had family members who have been incarcerated. I also know what it feels like to be on that side of the table because I’ve been on that side of the table many, many times. And not just family, but also friends and having to learn not just to be a part of, but learning to navigate the system. Where do you find resources and how? And I also had to learn about people who can be gatekeepers, who can try to keep people, especially people of color, minimized from resources. I’ve always wanted to be in the position to help, to help them get the resources that are not available.”

And so Stacker set her sights on doing something about her life and to improve the conditions for children and families who still live in the conditions she left behind.

“I started out working in the Milwaukee Public Schools as a teaching assistant and then as a security assistant,” Stacker said. “And then I was there for almost five years. After that, I worked in non-profits for 10 years as St. Charles Youth and Family Service. I went to college during that time as a non-traditional student. I was fortunate enough to complete several degrees. I found that I was a lifetime learner. And at that time, I took a job with the state. I worked for the state for 10 years. During my tenure, I worked for the Dept. of Corrections, the Dept. of Human Services and the Dept. of Children & Families. In corrections, I worked heavily with reentry. I worked at Oakhill Correctional, which is the largest reentry prison in the Wisconsin Correctional Center System, which is the largest reentry system in the state. There are 14 reentry centers throughout the state. I also worked with inmates who have severe mental health and physical disabilities through the Dept. of Health Services. And then I worked with initial assessment for the Dept. of Children & Families.”

During this time, Stacker earned her Ph.D.

“I’m the first person on my dad’s side to have a formal doctorate,” Stacker said. “{Of course, you could say that multiple people in his family probably were doctors in some capacity. I’m the first one to have the doctorate in my family. It was huge. And it’s the second one on my mother’s side of the family. It was huge in my family. I didn’t even realize it. And so trail blazing is really important. And also laying the groundwork and foundation for other people is important.”

It was then that Stacker took on the position as division administrator for DCDHS’ Division of Children & Families five years ago. When the department decided to break her division into two divisions, Stacker decided to stay with the division that worked on youth justice and child protective services while other initiatives went into a prevention and early intervention division. Stacker took on the division that served children and families with the higher needs. She is committed to helping those children and families in similar predicaments that she experienced early in her life.

One could say that Stacker is a self-made woman who pulled herself up by her bootstraps. But Stacker would vehemently disagree.

“It made me fight hard to open doors that weren’t even open for me,” Stacker said. “I had to fight to get positions and jobs and apply and interview multiple times for different jobs that I ended up in. I was fortunate at times that people would say, ‘If you do these certain things, I will give you this opportunity. I’ve had good mentors and most of my mentors have been women of color who have encouraged me by saying, ‘You have this potential to do more and here are the avenues to do it. Here are your tools. Now what are you going to do with them?’ And who can ask for more than that of these opportunities.”

Stacker is on a mission to transform how her department views and works with the children and families it works with. The old stereotypes just won’t do. And she feels and knows that there are plenty of other women with children out there who are ready to move forward in their lives if only they are given the chance.

“A huge mistake that the system makes is that people don’t want to be in the system,” Stacker said. “That is a huge error. That’s is why our system is racially disparate now because it is overly infused with this ideology that people want to be in the system or that people need to be in the system. That is false. That is not true. I might need some help right here and now. That does not mean that I need to be in the system. That’s why we are doing more preventative work and working with chronic neglect. And it is all voluntary. A lot of the stuff that we are doing with youth and families now is voluntarily working with them and it is working. People love it. People are like, ‘Where did you get that service from? Who’s helping you do that? How did you get that done?’ We’re simply asking without you even being in the system. Our numbers of reduction of people coming into the system are pretty low right now. And I am very happy. It’s just saying, ‘We don’t need to be in your life.’ People don’t need to be formally in a family’s life for them to be successful. Help me with tools and resources. And help me navigate or don’t. You don’t even need to help me. Show me what I need. Show me! Or give me a couple of tools.”

And most importantly, Stacker feels that human services personnel shouldn’t feel like they know it all. They need to reach out and find out from the women what they need.

“Often when I sit down and meet with people in the community, I often learn more from them than I give them,” Stacker admitted. “And then I play it forward. If you hear multiple people saying the same problem exists or have the same idea of something that might be a great idea to work in the community, why don’t you utilize that and make it happen for the community. It’s common sense. It’s common sense that often people in organizations and leadership fail to do. It’s talking with the people whom you are helping or talking with the people whom you are supposedly doing the work for. People often in leadership roles make a huge mistake of sitting down at the table and talking about what they think should happen for the people who are not at the table. I feel like I serve people. Every job I’ve ever had, I served people. I want to talk to the people or talk with the people I serve and ask them, ‘What do you need me to do while I am in the position that has the resources and the opportunity? What can I do to help make you and the community stronger and better to sustainability?’”

Stacker stated that she doesn’t get much praise doing her work. It’s a difficult job working with difficult situations. And so when the WWOCN decided to honor her during Women’s History Month, it meant a lot to her.

“It really touches my heart,” Stacker emphasized. “In this job, you don’t get a lot of acknowledgment. It’s kind of a behind-the-scenes job where you keep doing the work. You see the results in the background and you keep the train moving. It means so much to me and especially the Network and what it represents, to be acknowledged by a network of women of color is like I’m being acknowledged by my peers. And for me, that is so significant in so many ways. I feel so honored and humbled. The respect that I have for the Network is beyond words. It also makes me feel energized and recharged to continue to do the work that I am doing and continue to do it well. To receive this award makes me hold my head up with pride. It validates that I am doing something right. And it’s nice to know that sometimes. It’s nice to hear that in this work that is so heavy. It’s nice to hear that I am doing something right. And I have so much respect and admiration for these ladies. I’m just very honored and very humbled.”

While Dr. Martha Stacker is a strong, independent Black woman who has had to work hard for everything she has gotten in life, she is the first to admit that she would not be where she is today if it weren’t for the other women and mentors in her life who have helped guide her and give her the resources that she needs to achieve. And it is just as important to her that she give that same kind of mentoring and resources to those women who are coming up behind her. And isn’t that the WWOCN Way?

Next issue: Dr. Deepika Rajesh