Dr. Tamara Olt is USA TODAY Women of the Year honoree for Illinois

In recognition of Women's History Month, USA TODAY is celebrating its 2024 Women of the Year, who are using their influence to empower women to lead the next generation. This year’s list includes 55 local representatives from each state, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, as well as five national honorees. The honorees include distinguished educators, actors, authors, philanthropists, activists, CEOs and more. These Women of the Year lead and fight for equity while providing hope and inspiration to others, and embody Gannett’s mission to empower and enrich communities. To read the stories of the 2024 distinguished local and national honorees, visit womenoftheyear.usatoday.com.

PEORIA – Tragedy led Dr. Tamara Olt on a mission that has saved hundreds of lives in central Illinois.

Almost 12 years ago Olt, an obstetrician and gynecologist, lost her 16-year-old son, Josh, to an opioid overdose. The cause of death was shocking because Olt didn’t know her son was doing drugs.

As a physician, Olt knew about naloxone, the antidote to opioid overdose, and that it could have saved his life. But at that time, it was not readily available in central Illinois. Almost immediately after her son’s death, Olt began working to get it into the hands of emergency responders and the general public.

"Right away when he died and we asked for donations in lieu of flowers, it was to start something for drug awareness and harm reduction,” said Olt. “I’m a fixer, and you know death is the one thing you can’t fix, you can't undo, you can’t make it better. I needed to understand why this happened and what I could do to make sure this didn’t happen to other people.”

Olt brought harm reduction to central Illinois through an organization bearing her son’s nickname, JOLT. It wasn’t easy at first because most people didn’t know what harm reduction was. Many believed that the distribution of naloxone and syringes enabled drug users when what they needed was “tough love.”

Organizers worked to educate the public about the fact that substance use disorder is not a weakness, but an illness difficult to cure, and that victims should be supported and treated with respect.

JOLT organizers struggled to find a home for its first brick and mortar location because people feared it would bring problems into their neighborhoods. But JOLT proved to be an excellent neighbor by helping people and managing problems already present in the community.

Three years later, when an expansion forced JOLT to seek a larger facility, not a single neighbor stood in its way.

Today, the work JOLT Harm Reduction does goes far beyond the distribution of syringes and naloxone. It addresses issues of homelessness and hunger, and helps people find medical care. Though the program is still funded by donations, government grants are helping it grow.

“We just got a large recovery grant, so we are really working on helping people who want treatment, setting up appointments, taking them to appointments," said Olt. “We really provide a full spectrum of services, from helping someone deal with severe use, to somebody who says ‘hey, I’m done. I want help.’ We are the whole continuum of care.”

For her work, Olt has been named a 2024 USA TODAY Women of the Year honoree.

Olt has not confined her work to central Illinois, however. Through her role as executive director of GRASP Broken No More, Olt is reaching a much broader population.

“GRASP stands for Grief Recovery after Substance Passing. It’s a peer-led international non-profit that helps people who have lost someone from substance use. We have 120 chapters in the U.S., the U.K. and Canada,” said Olt. “The Broken No More part of it is drug policy and advocacy, focusing on evidence-based policies and strategies to help reduce the harm that comes from drug policies.”

By leading GRASP Broken No More, Olt is giving back to an organization that helped her during her darkest hour.

“GRASP really saved me in the beginning,” said Olt. “It helped stop the what if’s, the why’s, the guilt. Because those things will drive you mad if you don’t try to reign them in, if you don’t try to deal with them. It helped me to deal with my grief so that I could function and do the things that I needed to do.”

Q & A

Who paved the way for you?

“The people that paved the way are the people who have been doing harm reduction for years, since the HIV crisis when they were handing out clean syringes to people to help prevent the transmission of HIV. These programs didn’t exist. These people were pioneers, the first to say, let’s do this. There was no funding for this. They did it out of the back of their cars, their homes, on the streets, before harm reduction was really a word.”

What is your proudest moment? Do you have a lowest?

“My proudest moment was the day Jolt Harm Reduction finally opened on Adams Street, in the spring of 2018. My lowest day was the day I found out my son died, April 29, 2012.”

What is your definition of courage?

“Having the strength to fight for a cause, a mission you believe in and know is an absolute good in spite of adversity, nay-sayers, and dealing with personal grief and loss.”

Is there a guiding principle or mantra you tell yourself?

"Yes, that every life has value and no one is disposable."

Who did/do you look up to?

“My mentor was Dan Bigg, who was the executive director of Chicago Recovery Alliance, and he started the first community naloxone distribution program in the United States. I was so lucky to be mentored by him. There was no one better to have guided me in the early days... He was a co-founder, and they started giving out Naloxone before it was a thing – just doing what they had to do.”

How do you overcome adversity?

“By never giving up, always fighting for what I know is right. And not accepting no for an answer.”

What advice would you give your younger self?

“To stop and smell the roses, to appreciate the little moments in life, and mostly that life is not about the destination, it’s about the journey.”

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Dr. Tamara Olt is USA TODAY Woman of the Year for Illinois