Leadership
Meet Our Board
Lived experience and professional expertise, united by one belief: every family deserves a real chance to heal and stay together.
Want to help lead this mission? Apply to join our board →
The Board
The People Leading Our Mission
Marie Day
Founder and President
Marie Day founded Day 1 Recovery Center from a deeply personal understanding of recovery, incarceration, family separation, and the child welfare system. Now celebrating seven years in recovery, she has transformed the most difficult parts of her life into a commitment to helping parents rebuild themselves and strengthen their relationships with their children.
Marie is a substance use disorder counselor, housing navigator, NLP practitioner, and life coach with more than five years of experience in the recovery and behavioral health field. Through Los Angeles County homeless service programs, she has helped many individuals and families navigate barriers and secure housing. She is dedicated to supporting people who are ready to take an active role in changing their lives while ensuring they have the guidance, accountability, and opportunity needed to move forward.
Marie believes children are the beginning of the next generation and that lasting change requires supporting the whole family. Day 1 Recovery Center reflects her vision of safe spaces where parents and children can heal, rebuild trust, and allow their relationships to grow and mature.
Her vision is to build the kind of support system she once needed: a place where parents are not excused from responsibility but are not expected to rebuild alone. Through Day 1 Recovery Center, Marie is working to help parents create safer lives, restore trust, strengthen their families, and ensure that their hardest chapter does not become their final one.
Sandi Howard
Vice President, Board of Directors
For Sandi Howard, serving others has never been just something she does. It is the foundation of who she is.
From a young age, Sandi was immersed in community service through the Salvation Army, where her mother led programs that provided meals for individuals experiencing homelessness and participated in Meals on Wheels. Whether she was helping prepare and deliver meals, assembling Christmas baskets for families in need, or simply lending a hand wherever it was needed, she learned early that compassion is demonstrated through action.
As she grew older, Sandi witnessed the devastating effects of addiction within her own family. She saw loved ones work hard to overcome substance use while enduring the heartbreak of being separated from their children. Those experiences gave her a deep understanding that recovery is about more than sobriety. It is about restoring hope, rebuilding families, and creating opportunities for lasting change.
These experiences inspired Sandi to help build a system where families are supported instead of judged, where parents are given the tools to heal, and where children have the opportunity to grow up with healthy, reunited families whenever possible.
As Vice President of the Board of Directors for Day 1 Recovery Center, Sandi is committed to leading with compassion, integrity, and purpose. She is passionate about creating pathways to recovery that strengthen families, empower parents, and remind every person who walks through the doors that healing is possible and hope is never out of reach.
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Join Us in Building Stronger Families
Whether through volunteering, giving, or connecting us with your network, there's a place for you in this mission.
Contact Us"Together, we build stronger families and brighter futures."Day 1 Recovery Center
Board Applications
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If you'd like to help lead Day 1 Recovery Center's next chapter, we'd love to hear from you.