Stephanie Kiesling, MSW
“My name is Stephanie Kiesling and I came to New Moms by way of Parenthesis Family Center, a small family support non-profit in Oak Park that New Moms acquired in 2016. I’ve had a long personal and professional passion for working with moms, babies, and teens with children.”
Favorite Quote: “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” — Rainer Maria Rilke
“This Rilke quote has been my favorite since I was a teen. Then it gave me permission to not know what I wanted or really who I was. Now it gives me permission to embrace the journey and to remember to be grateful for everything along the way.”
Professional Bio
Stephanie has a Masters Degree in Clinical Social Work from the University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration and has been a LCSW for 25 years. Her professional life over that time has included both paid and volunteer social work. Professional positions have included working at an alternative Chicago Public School for pregnant and parenting teens and as a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Social worker.
Oak Park has been home to Stephanie’s family since 2002. She was fortunate to use her work skills in the Oak Park and surrounding community at Parenthesis/New Moms, as a member of the Leadership Lab at the OPRF Community Foundation, and currently serves on the Board of Trustees at Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation.
Since 2019, she has been the Clinical Supervisor for The National Runaway Hotline, a National hotline based in Chicago, that provides phone and digital crisis support to runaway and homeless youth. She coordinates and supervises the intern program as well as provides clinical support to the crisis hotline workers. Stephanie has enjoyed this role very much, since it combines working with students, teaching, and supporting the great work of crisis workers who do the difficult work of helping young people in crisis.
