Though Andrea Boxill calls herself an artist and Shanne Lopez is a fantastic baker who dreams of opening a food truck, their love and commitment to caring for others is a defining pillar of their lives. Andrea, who grew up north of Bexley in Brentnell with a tight knit family of caregivers and the kind of neighbors who “held you accountable for your behavior and your contributions to the betterment of the community,” became a public servant. In her career fighting substance abuse, she has learned that “the human condition is impacted by so many historic, external factors that are often a result of inequity, inequality and systemic barriers. My sincere mission is to educate people on how to avoid being victimized by the presented binary options that are rooted in policies that cause depression, disregard, hopelessness and illness.”

Andrea formerly worked for the Franklin County Alcohol Drug and Mental Health Board, where she helped create special court dockets that, while holding people accountable, “focused on how to improve outcomes by getting to the root causes, that but for the circumstance(s), the crime would not have been committed. Those courts are still in existence including the first court in the country designed for victims of human trafficking.

Now, working at Columbus Public Health as the administrator for Addiction Services, she develops outreach teams that provide mobile medical care while addressing addition services and providing access to harm reduction resources. She also guides a collective impact model “to reduce overdose deaths, overdose incidents and infectious disease. The coalition has over 70 different member agencies, organizations and individuals with lived experience.”

Inspired to do more, Andrea created the Walk In Recovery events that take place at various locations over the summer. Many people who use drugs, she says, feel that “despite wanting to get help for their disease, they felt as though they were being categorized as criminals, problematic or unwilling to seek help.” The Walk In Recovery events remove barriers to treatment and offer services like providing duplicate birth certificates, medical detox, enrollment in insurance, OBGYN services, Fentanyl test strips and Nalaxone for overdoses. But, she says, every visit “starts with a simple question: Do you want something to eat?”

Andrea wishes people knew that addiction is a chronic, progressive disease and that there are genetic, biological and environmental factors involved. She wishes our language—calling people addicts—could change. “We do not call cancer patients, cancerous,” Andrea explains. “Our knowledge, understanding has to evolve in order to treat the disease and to give individuals the dignity and compassion they deserve in their human condition.”

Though Andrea is making a huge impact on the community, she stresses how much she admires her wife, Shanne, an EEG technologist at the OSU Hospitals. “She has done this work for over 25 years and is so committed to helping people who have epilepsy, brain hemorrhaging or traumatic brain injuries, by explaining each step of her process to the patient to ease anxiety and decrease discomfort. I adore and respect her passion for her work and her advocacy for the patient.”

Together Andrea and Shanne are co-parenting Zoe and Mia, along with the girls’ other mother, Lynda, an assistant director at the Huckleberry House. Zoe is a sophomore at Bryn Mawr College who played basketball and volleyball at BHS and continues both in college. Mia will be a senior at BHS this year and has danced and played volleyball and basketball, but will focus on Global Scholars this year. “My daughters are phenomenal young women who are smart, creative, strong and … empathetic and sympathetic to the core. They surround themselves with good people who also hold them accountable for their actions and behaviors and support them through the good, bad and fun times. I am sometimes in awe of how incredibly close my daughters are to their friends and how they have developed their own extended family with peers and some of the friend’s parents, who have been so protective of them and supportive as well.”

Andrea formerly worked for the Franklin County Alcohol Drug and Mental Health Board, where she helped create special court dockets that, while holding people accountable, “focused on how to improve outcomes by getting to the root causes, that but for the circumstance(s), the crime would not have been committed. Those courts are still in existence including the first court in the country designed for victims of human trafficking.”

Now, working at Columbus Public Health as the administrator for Addiction Services, she develops outreach teams that provide mobile medical care while addressing addition services and providing access to harm reduction resources. She also guides a collective impact model “to reduce overdose deaths, overdose incidents and infectious disease. The coalition has over 70 different member agencies, organizations and individuals with lived experience.”

Inspired to do more, Andrea created the Walk In Recovery events that take place at various locations over the summer. Many people who use drugs, she says, feel that “despite wanting to get help for their disease, they felt as though they were being categorized as criminals, problematic or unwilling to seek help.” The Walk In Recovery events remove barriers to treatment and offer services like providing duplicate birth certificates, medical detox, enrollment in insurance, OBGYN services, Fentanyl test strips and Nalaxone for overdoses. But, she says, every visit “starts with a simple question: Do you want something to eat?”

Andrea wishes people knew that addiction is a chronic, progressive disease and that there are genetic, biological and environmental factors involved. She wishes our language—calling people addicts—could change. “We do not call cancer patients, cancerous,” Andrea explains. “Our knowledge, understanding has to evolve in order to treat the disease and to give individuals the dignity and compassion they deserve in their human condition.”

Though Andrea is making a huge impact on the community, she stresses how much she admires her wife, Shanne, an EEG technologist at the OSU Hospitals. “She has done this work for over 25 years and is so committed to helping people who have epilepsy, brain hemorrhaging or traumatic brain injuries, by explaining each step of her process to the patient to ease anxiety and decrease discomfort. I adore and respect her passion for her work and her advocacy for the patient."

Together Andrea and Shanne are co-parenting Zoe and Mia, along with the girls’ other mother, Lynda, an assistant director at the Huckleberry House. Zoe is a sophomore at Bryn Mawr College who played basketball and volleyball at BHS and continues both in college. Mia will be a senior at BHS this year and has danced and played volleyball and basketball, but will focus on Global Scholars this year. “My daughters are phenomenal young women who are smart, creative, strong and … empathetic and sympathetic to the core. They surround themselves with good people who also hold them accountable for their actions and behaviors and support them through the good, bad and fun times. I am sometimes in awe of how incredibly close my daughters are to their friends and how they have developed their own extended family with peers and some of the friend’s parents, who have been so protective of them and supportive as well.”