Helen Lapakko

I received my first college degree in sociology/corrections, with a minor in psychology and Black studies. I worked in residential treatment for 6-12 year old boys, and then became a probation officer for adolescent offenders, eventually working with young adults at a state-run criminal facility as a chemical dependency specialist. I conducted trainings throughout the state of Minnesota on a variety of issues. Eventually I was hired to start and run an alternative sentencing program for Hennepin County. In my free time I wrote music and short stories or monologues and eventually wrote a one-woman show with my music and monologues that dealt with healing called "Merica's Story." I quit my alternative sentencing job and began performing for many years at treatment center facilities, theaters, churches, and conferences. I love performing so much that I went back to college and studied music and playwriting. I wrote a play called "Connections" about Korean adoption, "Maddie's World," a story about a little girl starting life in a crack house.