Carlos Texidor Maldonado started helping people recover from addiction while he was still in prison. In 1997, he was several months into a prison sentence for drug possession and robbery at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution. He met Ricardo Olalde, who was visiting with a workshop on drug and alcohol recovery for Latino inmates.  Texidor Maldonado and other inmates were looking for something to give them a break from their prison’s routine, so they attended. “He didn’t have anything to gain from helping me,” he said of Olalde. With Olalde’s mentorship, Texidor Maldonado said, he rediscovered himself and freed himself from the pain he felt before and during prison.  He said we went from “victim to victor.” At 24, he became to his knowledge the third incarcerated person in the U.S. to become a certified drug and alcohol counselor. After being released, he started working in Salem at Bridgeway Community Health in 2004, when it was still known as Cascadia Health. In his first years at Bridgeway, he worked with adolescents and adults in drug court. He wanted to bring the understanding Olalde had shown him in prison to other people struggling with addiction. Twenty years later, Texidor Maldonado is Bridgeway’s next CEO.  Last week, the organization announced his selection on Facebook. He will begin the job in January after current CEO Tim Murphy retires. “I’m floored,” he said. Since learning of the decision almost two weeks ago, he said, he’s been in shock and reality hasn’t yet sunk in. He described the decision as “flattering and unbelievable.” Texidor Maldonado was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico. Early in his childhood, his family moved to the Bronx in New York City.  He started taking English classes with children from other Spanish-speaking countries, including Colombia, Chile and the Dominican Republic.  “Even though we had our own distinct accents, we had a common language and culture,” Texidor Maldonado said. “So I did not feel the need to learn English at that time, because everybody spoke Spanish.” When he moved to Salem in 1989, Texidor Maldonado found a different environment in his English classes. Instead of other Spanish-speaking students, he found himself among children from Russia, Cambodia and Vietnam.  In a region less diverse than the Bronx and his hometown in Puerto Rico, he said, he felt his racial identity being questioned.  “I identify as Black, but for some of the African American community, I wasn’t Black enough,” he said. “Then for some of the other cultures, sometimes the Chicano culture … I was Black, so I was not part of their culture either. So I did not fit in over here.” After attending Waldo Middle School, Texidor Maldonado went to McKay High School. He struggled in class and was eventually expelled. Within three years, several family members died from health issues. The trauma of those losses led him to become involved with gangs and to sell and use drugs, he said.  He went to two other Salem high schools before attending the Marion County Juvenile Department’s education program.  In 1994, he got his GED from Chemeketa Community College, but continued to struggle with selling and using drugs.  “It was just a lot of hurt and pain during that time,” Texidor Maldonado said. Eventually, in 1996, he was arrested for stealing marijuana and meth from a drug dealer. “I just felt numb.” At the time, he said, he was frustrated with the justice system for giving him what he believed was an unfair punishment for robbing a dealer.  The arrest led to nine charges related to the robbery. Texidor Maldonado, 19 at the time, potentially faced a 42-year sentence. Instead, he served seven and a half years, split between Eastern Oregon and Oregon State Correctional Institutions.  There, he met Olalde and worked as a translator for his drug and alcohol workshops.  Before Texidor Maldonado, the only inmates who’d become certified recovery mentors were older men. Olalde wanted to prove that a younger generation could put in the same work to change their life’s direction, he said.  “He (Olalde) believed that giving the individuals an opportunity to change and those tools … people can make a change and a difference,” Texidor Maldonado said. “So it was kind of like a social experiment within the institution.” After being released in 2003, he went back to Chemeketa Community College to finish his associate’s degree, which he completed in 2015.  “It took me 21 years to complete a two year degree, just a little slow start, but from then, I just did not stop,” Texidor Maldonado said.  After his associate’s degree, he went to Corban University and got his bachelor’s degree in psychology and family studies. He continued at Corban to earn two master’s degrees in clinical mental health and business administration.  Less than 30 days after he finished his master’s in business administration, Texidor Maldonado started his doctoral program at Oregon State University. In December 2023, he received his Ph.D. in counseling.  While in school, Texidor Maldonado worked off and on at Bridgeway. He also worked at Connections 365, formerly Christian Community Placement Center as a mentor with children and young adults.  “I loved it because it gave me a break from the desk and the office and … I was interacting with youth in the community and being physically active,” he said. “I appreciated that experience, and that’s what got me interested in wanting to pursue more mental health services.” In 2008, an employee at Marion County’s Health and Human Services Department asked Texidor Maldonado to work with adolescents in recovery. He spent 13 years working for the county, many of them with the Student Opportunity for Achieving Results program, which helps formerly incarcerated people reenter the community. He returned to Bridgeway in 2012 to work with Spanish-speaking clients with gambling addictions.  He’s been there ever since and became the behavioral health director in 2021.  When he becomes CEO in January, he said, Texidor Maldonado wants to see planned projects come to life, such as new treatment locations in Stayton and Woodburn, which are meant to extend Bridgeway’s services to more parts of Marion County.  He also wants Bridgeway to create a stabilization home for men. A stabilization home houses those transferring between services and need a safe and sober place to live. Bridgeway currently has a stabilization center for women in Keizer called Lupe’s House. As CEO, he wants to improve the organization’s connections with local universities and their graduate programs so students and recent graduates are aware of potential jobs in the recovery field.  That includes Western Oregon University, which has a rehabilitation and mental health counseling program. The program received a $2 million grant this year to address the area’s shortage of bilingual counselors.  “If you have a field that is in huge, dire need, imagine how much more so when you are looking for a specialized skill,” such as bilingual counselors, Texidor Maldonado said.  Bridgeway has around 60 counselors, four of whom are bilingual. He said he wants Bridgeway and Western Oregon to collaborate and encourage those within, or outside of, the Latino community to join the field, even if they don’t work at Bridgeway.  He wants to continue Murphy’s hands-on and compassionate approach to leadership.   “Not to be cliche but I do feel I embody the servant leader,” Texidor Maldonado said. “I’m not the one who just tells others what to do, but I jump in.” His application for CEO was one of about 50, including others with Ph.D.s, former CEOs and medical professionals. The board told him they selected him for his resume and compassion. The choice was unanimous. Texidor Maldonado said his own leadership style comes from his experiences in prison and Olalde’s workshop, where he said he learned how to hold space and understanding for people as a whole, not just their anger or substance use. “I don’t need to be the smartest in the room,” he said. “I believe we empower others to elicit the skills and help and knowledge of those around you.” Contact reporter Madeleine Moore: [email protected]. A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE– If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE. The post Incoming Bridgeway CEO brings a wealth of personal experience, education to addiction treatment appeared first on Salem Reporter.