Meet Stacia Bissell | Coach, Author, Speaker, Educator, Advocate

We had the good fortune of connecting with Stacia Bissell and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Stacia, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
I grew up in a small town called Dalton, in Western Massachusetts, and moved to a neighboring city called Pittsfield as an adult. I’ve lived in the Berkshires most of my adult life. Both of my parents were born and raised in Pittsfield. My mother’s family had deep roots here: her father was a banker, her grandfather and great-grandfather were brewery owners & farmers that grew the hay that fed the horses that pulled the brewery wagons. My father’s family were migrants from Greece, and had a rich ethnic background and deep work ethic. My Greek grandfather started his own fruit pedaling business, and then he and his five sons bought and started a small variety store. They sold their ice skates, bicycle, mowed lawns and collected bottles to get the $250 downpayment together to buy the $5,000 business, and eventually the loan for the rest of the purchase was granted by my father’s future father-in-law, the banker. That variety store led to a larger store, and then that led to a larger wholesale business that eventually grew to annual sales of $20 million. The conversations around my dinner table growing up were of the highs and lows of being family business owners, and I definitely felt groomed for being my own boss someday, which I have become, although I didn’t know in what capacity it would be back then. While I inherited my mother’s New England grace, I have a good amount of Greek tenacity and determination. I also know that my work ethic comes from watching my father put in long hours and paying himself last after his employees were taken care of. They were our other family after all. I have always been proud of my family names around town, and recognize that their contributions to the history of this geographic area run deep.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I graduated from college with a degree in mathematics, and years later, earned a master’s degree in education. After my three children were born, I started teaching business math, communications, and other courses at night at a local business school to bring in extra money, while running a daycare in my home during the day. When my youngest went off to kindergarten, I stopped my daycare and switched to teaching business classes at the local high school. Five years later, I jumped to teaching math at the local middle school. At each of these schools I created new programs and developed rich curriculum materials and practices, and was recognized for the achievements of my students and for my professionalism. In less than a decade, I was asked to take on administrative roles at the school and district levels. What set me apart from other educators was my work ethic along with high standards and expectations for my students and colleagues to offer the best of themselves, too. Some of my colleagues (and I’m sure some of my students) didn’t always appreciate that, but I kept the course.

The year I had become a licensed middle and high school principal, I was in a bicycle accident that left me out of work for almost a year. I was a new version of myself who didn’t operate at all the way I used to, and when I went back to work, I struggled in that job for 2 years before my doctors pulled me permanently and deemed me ready for early disability retirement. You can imagine the blow that the loss of my beloved career had on me.

It would be a few years of flailing terribly before I did a small speaking engagement for the Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts, which led to being invited to do more and more work in the field of brain injury: delivering keynotes and workshops, writing articles for various publications, starting a support group for survivors and caregivers, and serving on the Brain Injury Advisory Council for the Brain Injury Association of America.

One of my most notable achievements is that I have written a condensed version of my brain injury story that was published earlier this year (January 2024) in a best-selling anthology: Deserts to Mountaintops: Choosing Our Healing Through Radical Self-Acceptance.

While my speaking and writing projects are wonderful and exciting, coaching and helping other survivors is at the heart of what I do. This work is so different than the work I did when I was teaching math; when and problems came with concrete answers. I keep learning as much as I can about what it takes to help a survivor that I’m coaching; to meet their unique challenges with a combination of empathy, validation and practical suggestions and resources. I have learned that maybe I wasn’t as great in the old days as I thought I was, and that while Version 2.0 is more likable, grieving over the loss of Version 1.0 and her life is like uncontrollable tides of an ocean. The grief comes and goes on its own schedule. Survivors need to welcome the new world and remember that their goodness and intellect are still there, even when their processes for doing things have changed dramatically. I hope to continue to make a difference for those who have experienced loss and change to the degree that brain injury brings about.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I live in a geographically beautiful area in western MA. We have 4 iconic seasons – cold, snowy winters, muddy springs bursting with new life, warm, lush summers and golden autumns. I love having people over in the summertime when my own pool and deck are open for floating and visiting. Tanglewood music center is a must to take in a James Taylor or Boston Symphony Orchestra concert. I love kayaking on Richmond Pond or down the Housatonic River and hiking any trail in Berkshire County including the ones that climb Mount Greylock, the tallest mountain in Massachusetts. Visitors would be treated to live music and a glass of wine at Balderdash Winery after kayaking, which has views overlooking Richmond Pond. Not to be missed are a number of restaurants in Lenox like Alta or Frankie’s, live music at the Apple Tree Inn or the Lion’s Den in Stockbridge, and visiting High Lawn Farm for fresh ice cream would certainly be on the agenda, too.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
When starting my hard work trying to heal from a traumatic brain injury, I was assigned a cognitive rehab clinician named Katya Bowen (MS, CCC-SLP, CBIS). Katya really helped me to understand the scope of my injury and how hard I would need to work to swing the outcome of my healing as far as I could take it. Many years later, when I was still using Katya’s strategies on a daily basis to help manage ongoing symptoms, I decided to stretch myself and put a proposal together to teach a brain injury workshop at a statewide brain injury conference. I reached back out to see if Katya would do this with me and she agreed. We were invited to be the keynotes instead, they liked our proposal so much! We began working together on a different level – no longer patient and clinician – and I have continued to reap the benefits of her knowledge and friendship. She is one of my cheerleaders who has always had a lot of faith in me, and I treasure that.

I also have a group of three women – Eileen, Candace, and Julie – that I meet with regularly who are all survivors of brain injury like I am. We provide a safe, supportive environment for one another to talk about the challenges – and the humor – of living life with a chronic, invisible condition. These deep friendships are treasures of hope, support and camaraderie.

Website: https://www.TBImentor.com

Image Credits
Susan Sabino.