Stephanie Alvstad
CEO and President, J Bar J Youth Services
“Seeing teens that are struggling or facing great challenges turn their lives around and become happy, healthy, productive adults is a great honor and joy. At J Bar J Youth Services, we see kids succeeding every day.”
Stephanie started with J Bar J in 1989. She began working with teens and families providing mediation, shelter, groups, and individual case management at Cascade Youth & Family Center. In 1997 she became CEO and began moving J Bar J to a positive financial position, building a healthy reserve, and establishing an endowment.
As a result, over these 30 years, Stephanie has developed the organization with the addition of multiple programs serving youth. These include the Academy at Sisters, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Oregon, Street Outreach, the LOFT Transitional Living Shelter for Homeless Youth, the at: project providing services for human and sex trafficking survivors, and J5 Parole and the Revocation program.
Stephanie saw the need and benefit of collaboration with other community programs serving youth and created mergers with Grandma’s House and Kindred Connections. Most recently she oversaw the building of a Vocational School that will prepare boys from the Boys Ranch for employment.
Stephanie’s focus has been on building the capacity of the organization through a continuum of services, to assure youth are prepared to be productive adults. She believes in the potential of young adults and has committed her career to support them. To assure quality drives all activity, J Bar J Youth Services became accredited with the National Council on Accreditation in 2021. J Bar J Youth Services is one of eight COA accredited programs in Oregon and the only program accredited on the east side of the Cascades.
Stephanie has served on many Boards and is a state resource for legislation. She is at the table for important issues related to kids and families. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors for First Story, the Oregon Alliance for Children, a member of the Governor appointed Interstate Council for Juveniles, the Oregon Youth Authority Partner’s Advisory Council, and a member of the Rotary Club of Greater Bend.
Stephanie graduated from the University of Montana summa cum laude with a B.A. in Social Work. In her early career, Stephanie acquired her private pilot’s license, as well as worked extensively with breaking and training horses. When not at work, Stephanie can be found hiking, riding horses, or spending time with her family including the family dogs Bill Murray and Züg.