52 Cups of Coffee: 417 Edition - Cup 36/52 - Maggie Rollwagen

Here's the weekly boilerplate intro if you've already read anything from past cups of coffee skip ahead to the cup of coffee below the name!

After hearing about the book 52 Cups of Coffee on a Podcast, I thought it sounded like a great opportunity to connect to people in my community. Initially, my plan was to just have coffee once a week with someone I know. I was thinking of friends, family members, or colleagues with whom I could spend some quality time. But the opportunity to engage with my community is always in the back of my mind. So I thought it might be interesting to ask the same set of questions to a diverse cast of influential and interesting people in the 417 area and share them here on my LinkedIn page. At the end of the year, who knows what we'll have... at the very least it's 52 interesting conversations. It's a loose plan. I don't have any real intentions and I think that's the beauty of it. Curiosity. Community. And a chance to learn a little bit from each person. A big thanks to the folks at Travellers House Coffee & Tea for being willing to provide a place to chat and several cups of coffee throughout the year!

**I don't like taking notes while having coffee and conversation so I've trusted Otter to do the transcribing. Any editing issues are my own. I'm not a professional. :) I've included a list of books we discuss throughout the conversation at the bottom.

Maggie Rollwagen - 36/52

Maggie Rollwagen ( Margarett Rollwagen, MSW ) is the President and CEO of Abilities First joined me for her own 52 Cups of Coffee interview after the joint interview with Dr. Matthew Stinson discussing the new partnership between Jordan Valley Community Health Center and Abilities First. It's an exciting partnership fostering the DD Health Homes program that will provide more quality healthcare to members in our community with developmental disabilities. You can scroll to the bottom of Dr. Stinson's 52 Cups to see the full conversation.

Maggie is a longtime friend and a go-to leader for me in the community. We've shared in our love for music and I've been lucky to spend time with her discussing professional issues AND in personal fun settings. She's just one of those great people that I never hear a negative review of. Beyond that she is a person who makes a conscious effort to lead people intentionally. Not only does she truly care about the mission that she works under, but she cares deeply for the people that work toward accomplishing that mission with her.

Abilities First is focused on creating a more inclusive community for people with developmental disabilities in our area. They have a wide range of services that Maggie covers below, ranging from job placement to healthcare access and everything in between. Maggie is a fantastic leader, with a fantastic team, doing fantastic work.

We kick off shortly after Dr. Stinson said his farewells at Traveller's House Coffee across from campus on National. I hope you enjoy getting to know Maggie!

Rhett Roberson 

What's the CliffsNotes version of the story of Maggie? 

Maggie Rollwagen 

I was raised in rural Missouri on a 180-acre property that my parents rented for $200 a month. I remember in seventh grade when it moved up to $250 a month. It was a tight year. So, that's a little bit of perspective on my culture and upbringing. My dad had PTSD, a lot of that, and a lot of love. When I was younger, I started volunteering at the local thrift store for clothes. I didn't want to wear the same clothes or my sister's clothes, so I'd work all day Saturday for a bag of clothes. I've always felt like I belonged in the community, and I think it's because of that early volunteer work. I was a greedy little kid just wanting fresh clothes, but what I was doing was service, and I didn't realize at the same time that it felt so good. I was meeting people that came in that also needed clothes, and connecting with other human beings really gives me great joy.

In my vocational journey, I never intended to work in the community. I was going to be a nurse at one point. I started out wanting to be a gym coach, because I played basketball, and I thought it would be easy. I fell in and out of college several times. Through a whole lot of never-give-up and going back to school, I ended up in a degree completion program that I thought was human resources and it ended up being human services. I was like, "Why is everybody so nice around here?", and then it hit me. It was not human resources and business; it was human services, like social work. I planned on getting my graduate degree anyway. I just looked around and I thought, "Good one, God. Putting me in this degree!" I knew I could get my graduate degree in whatever I wanted. I could do something different, but I just had to finish this bachelor's degree. I wanted to finish it and throughout the course of that study, started really leaning into social work, community work, and understanding it in a different way through my practicums. I was an investigator for the state, behavioral therapist, I've owned businesses, but I never thought I would work with people with disabilities or perpetrators of any kind of crime, and that was where I landed working and I never moved. 

Rhett Roberson 

How long have you been with Abilities First? 

Maggie Rollwagen 

13 years, I started out as a support coordinator. I worked in an employment program, I worked in training, developed some positions, developed departments, and I never lost my joy for the mission. That mission is to include others that have not been included and deserve to be included and to make sure that those who have not been heard are heard. How do we get people to the table where there has not been a path for them to get there? 

Rhett Roberson 

You've mentioned joy twice already, which is a good lead to the second question. Both times, it was about other people in some regard. So, the question is, what brings you joy? 

Maggie Rollwagen 

I love to see other people succeed. I love my family, my husband, and I love music. All these things bring me great joy. Laughter brings me joy. Life, in general. I'm a very joyful person. Where I'm employed, some days are hard, the transition has been hard, the work is a challenge, but it still brings me joy. That's why I'm there. The work and the mission of Abilities First brings me great joy. There's just so many things about what we do that bring me joy. 

Rhett Roberson 

With it being the nature of the work that it is, and despite bringing you joy, I'm sure it also brings you quite a bit of stress. You and I have known each other for quite a while, and I was telling Dr. Stinson before you got here that our career trajectories have kind of followed the same path. So, I've had the opportunity to talk to you about leadership and growth, specifically in the last couple years. I recently called to talk about this, and then ended up talking for 45 minutes just about what we're doing currently. So, I know that there's some stress involved with what you do, because we've talked about it. What do you do when you need to recharge? 

Maggie Rollwagen 

Well, acutely, I keep 25s under my desk. If I'm feeling stressed, I'll grab my dumbbells and turn around and do a couple sets. Which is quite a conversation starter when people notice them! (Laughs) In my personal time, I love to be outside when I'm feeling stress and anxiety. I like to get away. This work is extremely peopley, extremely personal. We really care about the folks that we serve and the families. They are real relationships. A lot of areas of social work, you can't have those trusting, caring relationships. In a lot of other areas I've worked in, if I ran into someone I served, I couldn't even act like I knew them. This is a little different. I think that making sure I write songs. I like to play guitar. I'm a closet performer. I play music and sing in my own home and write songs to express my feelings or to release trauma, because we have a lot of trauma in the work that we do. Everyone that's employed with Abilities First, whether they're at the front desk or in leadership, across, sideways, and everywhere in between, we are navigating some extremely traumatic stuff with the families we serve. The stress release of being able to let that out and not hold it tight is so important. So, a lot of music, lots of music.

Rhett Roberson 

How would your colleagues describe you?

Maggie Rollwagen 

High octane. (Laughs) I have high expectations, but I give a high level of support to them. Does dog and a squirrel count for anything? (Both laugh) A bit of that sometimes. A big part, I'd say.

Rhett Roberson 

Can you describe the work that you do now, in the position that you're in?

Maggie Rollwagen 

I'm the President and CEO of Abilities First. Abilities First is a county board here in Greene County. I oversee two boards, the Friends of Abilities First board and Abilities First levy board. I oversee processes for levy funding for nonprofits in the area of employment, independent living, education, etcetera, for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I also oversee contracts with vocational rehabilitation and the Department of Mental Health, a couple of community programs, community education, and oversee a staff of three vice-presidents and an executive administrative assistant. We manage those agreements and those funds, and we provide services through those programs. First step is our early intervention program with our contract with DESE. The Next Step is our targeted case management program, with a contract with the Department of Mental Health to provide targeted case management services, and our newest contract with the DD Health Homes with the state of Missouri, which is what we were talking about prior to this. 

Rhett Roberson 

How did you get into your line of work? We know a little bit about how you got interested in social work and how you accidentally studied it in college. How specifically did you get hooked up with Abilities First? How do you go from being Support Coordinator to a CEO?

Maggie Rollwagen 

I actually started out after I was an investigator for the state of Missouri for the children's division. I had a couple kiddos of my own and it was getting very close to home to investigate the child abuse and neglect with children that were mirroring my children's age and development. I got to a point where I was going to be numb to it, or I had to stop doing it. I needed to stop doing it for that point in my life. My sister worked at the Arc of The Ozarks, and they had just started a behavioral program. I had finished my bachelor's degree, I may have even been a year or two into graduate school, and I took a job as a behavioral therapist at the Arc of The Ozarks because I was so desperate to get out of investigations. It was at a point in my career where I was just kind of searching, figuring out what am I passionate about, what am I good at.

I've got this human services degree, and I knew I was going to go into mental health as a clinician. I had gotten accepted into a counseling program for my master's in counseling as well as a social work program, and I remember having a push and pull there. I took this job with the Arc of The Ozarks, just because I needed a job. It was in social work, my sister worked there, and it was way outside of my comfort zone. I remember on my way to work on my first day, I was driving a little Chevy Aveo on I-44. I lived in Marshfield, and I was headed into work, and it broke down on the side of the road. I remember thinking, "On my first day of work?!" I called my new supervisor, her name is Amy Reese, and I'm sure she thought I was just fibbing and calling in. She came and got me off the side of the road, and we drove all the way to Branson, where I proceeded to work with one of the most challenging clients I've served. He was very physically aggressive. I was terrified, but throughout the day, something happened to me. It was almost like I was solving a puzzle with this other human being, because this was a non-verbal human being. I had to get on a whole different level of communication to understand what he was trying to tell me.

I learned that day that behavior is communication, whether we're communicating verbally or not. That is not the only way to communicate. He knew just how to communicate with me. The whole point of working with him that day was trying to learn how to communicate that he needed to do something, when really, we needed to listen to what he was trying to communicate. I remember sitting on the floor just exhausted with him sitting beside me after, what felt like, we had wrestled all day long and he just leaned his little his head on my shoulder. It was not little, he was 16. We had this bond, and I was able to communicate with him. I knew that I would never work in another field outside of this community of people ever again. That was it for me. There was this key that I had that could unlock understanding another human being that not everybody could unlock. I wanted others to know there's a key and we can communicate in a different way. We can't always just try to get others to do what we need them to do, we have to listen to them. Then everybody will get what they need.

Rhett Roberson 

That's really cool, and it must be extremely fulfilling to have, what I assume is probably a long list of stories like that at this point.

Maggie Rollwagen 

It's not just the people we serve, the families teach us so much. It's so weird, there's oftentimes a response when you tell people you work with people with disabilities like, "Oh, good for you!" Sometimes it feels so gross because really, it's what people with different lived experiences can teach us, right? 

Rhett Roberson 

Yeah, I'm sure it is. And even beyond being able to really provide people access to things they might not have on their own, I would assume they get a ton out of just having someone treat them like a person. 

Maggie Rollwagen 

Absolutely. 

Rhett Roberson 

For someone who's non-verbal like you described, who people probably write off a non-verbal person in that particular situation. And physically aggressive as well. I'm sure people just feel written off. 

Maggie Rollwagen 

Yeah, and even from an employment perspective, I have a professional that works for our organization that applied for 30 jobs before we hired this person to work for us. This person has a degree. This person is highly organized. This person is an excellent communicator. This person produces more output than many folks that would not have the lived experience of a disability, but over half of the jobs she applied for her wheelchair wouldn't roll into the interview. She's had jobs that put her on answering phones. Well, she can't use her hands! Just to have an opportunity to educate the community on what people with the lived experience of a disability can do, instead of focusing on everything that they can't do, is so important. Which is kind of back to that DD Health Home model. Oftentimes they're so focused on the disability and what they can't do, that they miss high blood pressure, they miss the little things that are preventative. 

Rhett Roberson 

Yeah, I think you kind of hinted at it earlier, that there's more to it than just, "Awww, you do such good work." I'm sure there is internal perspective for you as well, constantly. I think that is something that we all need. Different ways to be in touch with a different perspective and being able to see things from that different perspective through that lived experience. 

Maggie Rollwagen 

Yeah. 

Rhett Roberson 

Who is the best boss or leader you've had the opportunity to work with and what made them so good?

Maggie Rollwagen 

I think I would have to go way back to high school sports, to my high school basketball coach. Now, he was not perfect. He had a different kind of style, but leadership, he knew about that. He knew how to build a team and I think that leaders have to know how to build a team. I've loved building teams. I couldn't write a book on how to build a team, but because of the experience of being part of a team that was really built well, and coached well, and supported well, I think I lean towards having good teams. Teams with that trusting, caring relationship and that vulnerable transparency. My coach didn't have that part, but he had the relying on one another, together we can do more, holding the rope for one another, knowing that everyone around you has your back, and being authentically loyal and honest with one another. Knowing that we can't do anything that we're trying to do without one another. I think that leadership was the best I've experienced, and what I've held on to really tight, which has been quite interesting in social work. 

Rhett Roberson 

You've had the opportunity to kind of build a team as you went along, especially as the organization has grown. How many of the people on your team did you get to hire?

Maggie Rollwagen 

Interestingly, I was hired at the same time as the VP of compliance and the VP of operations. What I will say about that is I would have hired both of them in a heartbeat. I was able to hire the VP of administration on my team. I'm very lucky that our board understood our organization so well, because our board hired me and those other professionals at the same time back in November. To have a board that understands your organization enough to know what it needs, to put the right people in the right spots, is a beautiful thing. So, although I was not the one that hired them, I'm the one that gets to benefit from their hire and build them as a team. I am so incredibly lucky for who was slotted in those positions, and I'm very lucky to have gotten to hire our VP of administration. 

Rhett Roberson 

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Maggie Rollwagen 

Well, I wanted to be a ballerina, and I can't dance, and I'm six foot tall and... 

Rhett Roberson 

Slightly over height requirements!

Maggie Rollwagen 

(Laughs) Slightly over height requirements. It's funny you mentioned that because it kind of brings us back to the beginning. I was raised in such poverty. I just wanted to have a job all through high school. I can remember, I just wanted a car that starts, and I want a job. It took me forever to pick my major because of that trauma from childhood. Not that I wasn't loved. I used the word "trauma" for a different reason than that. I really struggled to narrow it down, so I was constantly changing my major. PE, nursing, I could not my brain could not focus in on what I want to do. I had to experience jobs, I had to experience life, and I had to experience different fields of practice to see where I could land. I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for being able to have that experience. I've owned a business. I loved owning a business, and I think that's a unique thing I can do in the role I have. A lot of CEOs in the quasi-government or nonprofit arena do not have business experience, so it's something that I can bring to the table. Particularly in the area of relations in the community with employers and administration. But because of my lived experience and where I was at, it was very, very, very challenging for me to have any goal past wanting a job. I know that sounds really bizarre! 

Rhett Roberson 

I was having a similar conversation at lunch today. I grew up similarly. We didn't have a lot. All I wanted to do was get out of college and go make money. I didn't have a lot of regard for the self-actualization part of the hierarchy of needs, as far as Maslow was concerned. It was security, security, security. 

Maggie Rollwagen 

I was so tired of struggling. I hated to watch my family struggle. That made me feel so bad. I had that empathy from a young age. I saw very clearly that there was a struggle. 

Rhett Roberson 

What book has had the most significant impact on your life? 

Maggie Rollwagen 

This was the question I was afraid of, because I don't read books very often. I'm such a such a manuals, policy, phone book type person. I don't read a lot of books. I read a lot, though. So, I want to just omit this question. (Both laugh) I did remember reading this question and I'm like, "I don't even know how I'm going to answer that, because I don't read a lot of books at this season in my life." I think if I give you one, it's going to be very dated and weird. 

Rhett Roberson 

Now I'm really interested in the weird dated book. 

Maggie Rollwagen 

The Red Tent. (https://a.co/d/b1633V1) How about that?

Rhett Roberson 

I don't think you're the first person to say that! 

Maggie Rollwagen 

(Laughs) It was a long time ago when I read it, but I really loved it. It was biblical fiction.

Rhett Roberson 

I think Dr. Lathan said The Red Tent (She did.) 

Maggie Rollwagen 

Well, that's not a bad one then! Go Dr. Lathan! That's great.

Rhett Roberson 

Alright, well, I'm not omitting it. 

Maggie Rollwagen 

Oh God! (Laughs) 

Rhett Roberson 

I'm going to put it in there for continuity. (Laughs) What's the most important lesson you've learned so far in life? 

Maggie Rollwagen 

Hurry up and slow down. I think you can't go wrong moving slower, but sure footed. I have a tendency to move really fast when I need to do something. So, just learning to harness when to do that and when to take a little more time. I'm learning those lessons through times I've gone too fast or pushed too far too fast. I'm learning to back up and look at how that perspective may feel to others outside of myself. 

Rhett Roberson 

What advice would you offer young professional professionals entering the workforce? 

Maggie Rollwagen 

Learn how to be coachable and take care of yourself. I think we're missing a lot of opportunities to be coached. If you don't know how to do something, that's good! Don't act like you know how to do it. Just be vulnerable and honest with yourself and others. If you don't know how to do something, it is not a negative trait. It's a negative trait to pretend you know, and then not take the coaching. Be coachable. 

Rhett Roberson 

I wish I would have internalized that as a young, right out of college, professional. I think the problem is you're conditioned from childhood to the end of college that you have to have all the answers. That's how we test. Not having the answer, up to that point, has always been bad. So, you go into your first job, and to be honest, there are times where I am just kind of pretending to know something and thinking, "Hopefully I can figure this out on the back end." 

Maggie Rollwagen 

Ask for help! 

Rhett Roberson 

Right! The problem is, if you don't ask for help at the beginning when you should be learning something, it becomes harder to ask over time. I remember distinctly having times in my career where it's like, "I don't know this, but it's been so long at this point that it'd be weird if I asked." That's my two cents. (Laughs) I wish I had done that sooner and not had the ego behind it. Learn it and learn it right! 

Maggie Rollwagen 

It's a thing that we're charged with as leaders, to figure out how to facilitate an environment and a culture in our organizations where people feel safe to not know how to do something. That is so important. There are consequences later of pushing it to the side and pretending I can fake it 'til I make it. It's just so unnecessary. 

Rhett Roberson 

Because people generally will help you. 

Maggie Rollwagen 

They want to help you. We're helpers, especially in my field of practice. Everyone's a helper. 

Rhett Roberson 

What are you most proud of? 

Maggie Rollwagen 

My family. My marriage. I have a really, really great children. They're not so young anymore. They're all teenagers. I have a really, really awesome relationship. I got to marry my best friend. I'm really proud of my family. I'm proud I was able to put five kids through braces. I'm proud that my kids don't know the struggle in the same way that I knew the struggle, but I'm also proud that they know it takes hard work and how to be a good person.

Rhett Roberson 

How do you hope the world is better for having you? 

Maggie Rollwagen 

Maybe if I could bring a little joy or happiness or help folks to have a place where they feel welcome. Belonging and inclusion and all of that are such buzz words, but they also have very deep meaning to me. I feel like it's important in my life to be a person that made the world a little better in some way and as often as possible for others. I think working in the mission of inclusion of all kinds of people, people with and without disability, doesn't matter who they love, what the color of their skin. Inclusion is so much a part of who I want to be as a person. I want to make the world a better place by just being a person that includes others as often as I can, personally and professionally. It wouldn't matter what field I worked in, I would love to have an impact in that area, just be a welcoming human being. 

Rhett Roberson 

Well, from a person-to-person perspective, you do a damn fine job of it. Is there anything I didn't ask you that I should have? 

Maggie Rollwagen 

I don't think so. 

Rhett Roberson 

Well, you're free to go. (Laughs) 

Maggie Rollwagen 

Very cool. I enjoyed it. I'm glad I didn't read all the questions! 

Books:

The Red Tent – Anita Diamant