Back when Erin Lee was in high school, there was a stigma around students with mental health challenges.

Lee, now a social worker at Oak Lawn Community High School, has turned that stigma around into an atmosphere of acceptance and creative help. For her efforts, she's been awarded the 2024 Social Worker of the Year award by the Illinois Association of School Social Workers.

Students say she's making a difference.

Gianna O'Brien, a senior with a learning disability who has worked with Lee in groups and individually since freshman year, said Lee has helped her excel academically and feel good about who she is.

"She's helped me learn coping mechanisms for my anxiety and OCD," said Gianna. "Ms. Lee actually helped me realize it was normal.

"She's so positive all the time."

That help included learning social skills, coping skills like breathing techniques and feeling good about oneself. Sometimes students get a chance to meditate with Lee, too.

Lee laid out a plan of success for Gianna, including weekly goals and keeping track of what she needed to do to stay on top of courses. She got Bs, Cs and Ds as a freshman, and she's now earning As and Bs.

"She definitely helped me with staying on task in school," said Gianna, who said she loves people and hopes to become a flight attendant. "She'll check what assignments I still have to do and how much impact the grades will have. She's a really hard worker and she's always there for everybody."

Lee has taken on many roles in her 11 years at the school, where she leads a team of social workers and psychologists. She runs a community partnership program with local agencies that come to work with students on stress management, empowerment and coping strategies and provide outside referrals. She's been a social worker for about 25 years total.

"It provides them with another layer of support for their social/emotional needs," explained Lee. "We bring therapists into the building to eliminate barriers to them working with students."

Lee has also brought mindfulness and meditation to the school, after she wrote and published "Mom's in her Closet Again!" in 2019. The book lays out the practices that helped her gain her footing as she juggled her four kids, husband and work. She realized students could also benefit.

She started a physical education class with PE teacher Sean Lucas called "Mindful Movement," where she offers presentations about mindfulness and meditation, healthy living and making healthy choices. Students also get to go on field trips, do goat yoga, rope courses and hiking.

"It's a wonderful class," she said. "We have a lot of fun."

Among Lee's other accomplishments are starting an advisory program to teach social and emotional learning to students, overseeing a suicide screening program with follow-up care and being a social worker for an after-school alternative education class with high-risk students.

"We really work in schools on treating the whole child and not just their academic but social and emotional needs," she said.

Lee is driven by the number of teens all over who are struggling with mental health issues.

"I think there has been a mental health crisis in our country," she said. "Teaching skills and techniques to manage anxiety and stress is imperative to their well-being."

She also loves the job.

"I absolutely love working with my students," said Lee. "They teach me so much more than I teach them.

"They remind me every day what's important in life -- being good to others, being good to yourself and finding things that fulfill you and things you're passionate about."

Thea Meierkort, student intervention facilitator, Michael Sunquist, director of Student Services, and other staff members nominated Lee for the award, applauding her unwavering help to students. She won from a pool of 100 nominees.

Melissa Schumacher, a social worker colleague there who has known Lee for years, said she wasn't surprised Lee got the award but ecstatic about her win.

"Since I've known her, she's always been a leader ... she leads with a lot of kindness," said Schumacher. "She also has the ability to get people to work with her. She just has this magnetic personality that people feel drawn to."

Lee also has a knack for helping some of the highest needs students feel safe, Schumacher said.

"Just her general demeanor is very welcoming," said Schumacher. "She's definitely always looking at what else she can do to help students."