Louise Vincent knew she wanted to make an impact on public health, but she didn’t know what her calling would be in that field until she was a student obtaining her master’s degree at UNCG.
Vincent graduated from UNCG in 2013 with a Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) from the Public Health Education (PHE) Department.
“When she was a student, she had a passion for public health, but she hadn’t found harm reduction,” said Dr. Tracy Nichols, a former UNCG PHE faculty member who taught gender and public health when Vincent attended. “Feminism and public health were always important to her.”
While at UNCG and after, Vincent would forge a path to become one of the most influential people in the country on harm reduction and drug users’ rights. She died on Aug. 31 at 49 in Greensboro.
Vincent, who was on and off drugs for much of her life, pushed for ways to make drug use safe. She also pushed for those who used drugs to not be ostracized, recognizing that abstinence from drugs is not an option for everyone.
“Louise is a legend in the recovery community,” said Dr. Melissa Floyd-Pickard, UNCG Social Work professor and former director of GCSTOP, a non-profit dedicated to reducing opioid-related deaths through harm reduction. “She started a survivors union and had a lot of good insight. She was such a fighter.”
The North Carolina Survivors Union that she founded, based in Greensboro — was one of the first in the state and is designed to provide access to safe drug testing, harm reduction, a syringe service program, and judgement-free support.
Floyd-Pickard said she first met Vincent in 2021 but knew of her prior to that from the recovery community.
“She would come to GCSTOP meetings, and I saw her at syringe exchanges,” Floyd-Pickard said. “She meant a lot to our students. A UNCG student facilitated a survivors’ group, and Louise came and talked.”
And although GCSTOP was started in 2018, after the North Carolina Survivors Union was created, Floyd-Pickard said Vincent never viewed it as competition.
“She welcomed us to the table and gave us good advice. If we ran low on Narcan, (Vincent) would supply us, or vice versa,” she said. “And I never heard her disparage abstinence-based recovery, even though that wasn’t her path.”
Vincent was also an accomplished researcher, having several academic articles published on mortality rates and harm reduction.
“Louise was proud of her degree and increasing people’s awareness,” Floyd-Pickard said. “She was unapologetically herself, she did not try to fit in. She was always willing to talk about anything.”
This included Vincent’s own struggles; her daughter Selena’s death from an overdose in 2016; how she was struck by a car while earning her degree at UNCG, resulting in the amputation of a leg and the loss of one eye; and how drugs have gotten more dangerous through the years, something Vincent experienced herself. Her death was the result of xylazine being mixed into another drug she used. Xylazine is a non-opioid sedative typically used by veterinarians. In humans, it can lead to slow blood poisoning through skin wounds.
“She had a really positive impact on the community. She always put the needs of the population first, and made sure to have their voices at the table,” Floyd-Pickard said. “She taught me that, and I learned a lot about harm reduction from her. She served a great function in society.”
After graduation, Vincent partnered on a project with Nichols, who is now professor and chair of the Department of Community Health at Lehigh University. The pair worked on a Narcofeminism Story Share Project. It sought to highlight the struggles female drug users face as opposed to males. Nichols said many females are unable to see the positives they experience. The story shares help them realize they don’t need to be so negative.
“Around 2018 or 2019, I did a webinar on opioid overdose and had a listening guide. Then I did one on pregnancy and parenting. We wanted to train service providers with story shares in 2020,” Nichols said.
The workshops evolved into two six-hour courses with social work students on harm reduction and overdose prevention in Greensboro. Nichols said soon other states, such as Maryland and Massachusetts, were asking for the workshops. They presented at academic conferences in Paris and Manchester.
Nichols stressed Vincent’s contributions to move the state and country toward more compassionate treatment of drug users shouldn’t be understated.
“Louise was one of those really special people,” Nichols said. “She had that spark. She was kind, compassionate, and had such a passion for what she was doing. She did so much to push our state forward to help.”
By Sarah Newell