Bethany and Lee Burgess, a husband-and-wife team of Licensed Clinical Social Workers at Alaska Island Community Services, have been integral over the past few months in maintaining critical care for participants in the AICS Crossings program.
There is an old adage that workplace romances never work.
But, what if you brought your romance into the workplace – and held mutual dreams and goals for your life and career?
That is precisely what two clinicians at Alaska Island Community Services are doing in the Crossings program.
Bethany and Lee Burgess, a married couple who are Licensed Clinical Social Workers in the program, met in college in Michigan and, as the pair says, they fell in love and made their career goal a life’s passion – together.
“We met when we were 18, during our freshman year of college,” Lee said. “We met in the lobby of our dorm, learned we were on the same floor, and that we had actually grown up down the road from each other in Michigan between Lansing and Detroit.”
Lee said they struck up a conversation, and from there, love bloomed.
“We had started talking to one another quite a bit, and from there, the rest is pretty much history,” he said.
The pair earned their undergraduate degrees from Michigan State, and garnered their Master’s Degrees from the University of Michigan.
Lee added that having Bethany as his spouse and coworker can sometimes help in assisting the youth who pass through their doors at AICS.
“We provide therapy and clinical social work predominantly for these kids right now,” he added. “We pretty much divide up the work we have, so we don’t usually collaborate on specific cases. It is nice though, when clinical issues come up because we can bounce ideas off each other, which is pretty helpful.”
The main treatment Lee and Bethany are offering right now, he added, revolves around behavioral health assessments for Crossings participants.
And after three years of marriage, Bethany, who has spent time in other regions of the Last Frontier, said being in Wrangell with her husband as a partner in life and career is especially important to her.
“It’s really great because I think we can communicate so effectively, because we know each other so well,” she said. “We get to talk things through and make decisions easily.”
The couple lived in Juneau for three years before coming aboard with AICS and did clinical work there as well. Bethany also worked for a summer in Denali National Park.
Staying in Wrangell is something she said they both plan on doing.
“We love it here,” she said. “We love the work and we love where we live. This is, by far, the smallest town we have ever lived in, but we really love how welcoming it has been to us.”
Lee’s experience – and love affair with – Alaska began early in his life, he added.
“I had visited Alaska as a child,” Lee said. “My aunt lived in Anchorage, so we would come visit her quite a bit. I enjoyed it so much that I always kept Alaska in the back of my mind as an option. I met some staff that worked here at AICS while at a conference, so we came up here in 2008.”
Crossings’ director Steve Helgeson said he is extremely satisfied with the work ethic and abilities the couple brings to the program.
“The thing about them is they are really hard workers,” Helgeson said. “We are short staffed therapeutically and when I add programs it puts a lot of pressure on them. We serve kids here and to have people that are professional like they are, and willing to get the kids out with a high attention to detail is very important. They step to the plate and they are fantastic.”
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