Image description: Middle aged white woman smiling and looking off to the side of the camera. She has curly, short brown hair, and is wearing a black women's business coat over a deep blue collarless shirt or dress. Picture is not mine, and is of Karnit Flug, the first woman to run the Bank of Israel.

Unlike the teenagers whose personal growth Usalmy Shem is responsible for overseeing in her role as Northern Star's Program Director, Usalmy herself didn't have it easy growing up. Her family moved to Massachusetts from Israel in the 1960's when her father accepted a new job, and she had only the slightest grasp of English and, as a result, not too many friends. Her parents had high expectations for her and held her to them with loving firmness, and as a result, she thankfully got through her teenage years with a minimal amount of drama and trouble-making, as well as a respectable high school academic record. From there, she attended the nearby Wellesley College, and, shortly after graduating, the Smith College School for Social Work, where she earned her MSW in 1982. From there, she accepted a position at the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, working at the Philadelphia regional Children, Youth and Families Office.

She met Morton Groninger through a mutual acquaintance during her first year at DPW. To be honest, he was more than a little awkward, and latched onto her a bit too quickly for her comfort, but it soon became apparent that they were perfect for each other (the one thing that her parents and her have never agreed on, unfortunately). They were married in 1985, and have remained so ever since, despite some rough patches here and there.

Everything was going fine in their lives, more or less, until one day in 2007 when one of her more difficult clients started a fight and claimed that Usalmy had struck her first (and really, if that's what that girl calls a "strike," DPW ought to have been ashamed for removing her from her parents' house for alleged abuse). In an effort to save face, or perhaps just money, the DPW fired Usalmy, leaving her to try to find work at the beginning of one of the worst economic downturns in the country's history.

Thankfully, she found an opening -- in Oregon. Specifically, Northern Star Academy was looking to replace their Program Director, who had gone on to start his own program in Montana without having to worry about the kind of regulations that Oregon schools do. With her MSW and years of experience, Usalmy was more than qualified for the job. She moved herself and Morton across the country, and over the past 7 years has made great strides in connecting with licensing agencies, educational consultants, parents, and most importantly kids, as well as improving Northern Star's model to make it more competitive within an ever-evolving industry. Some kids and families still complain, of course, but that only means that they didn't put the effort into learning NSA's most important lessons. Meanwhile, she's not losing any sleep over what the critics have to say -- she's the one out saving kids' lives, after all.