Shaped by Adversity.
Informed by Experience.
A Voice That Equips and Empowers You to Move Forward.
Stephanie Woods is a speaker, author, resilience coach, group facilitator, and Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor (CADC) based in Las Vegas, Nevada. She brings together lived experience, more than three decades of teaching and ministry, and a commitment to helping people recognize their strengths, use their voices, and take intentional steps forward.
Her message of becoming is rooted in her own journey. Stephanie has faced the impact of her mother’s drug addiction, survived rape, experienced divorce, and struggled to recognize her own worth. She has known what it means to move through life without loving herself while trying to find the strength to keep going.
She has also endured profound loss. Her mother died from complications related to drug use, and five and a half months later, her sister was killed in a drive-by shooting. Grief, disappointment, and feelings of failure became part of her story. There were times when she wanted to give up on life, yet she kept pressing forward, even when doing so was difficult.
That determination guided her back to her education. After leaving formal education in 1986, Stephanie returned to school in 2012 with only ten credits toward her diploma. In 2013, she graduated from Desert Rose High School, passed the required proficiency exams, and earned her diploma 27 years after leaving school.
She continued at community college before transferring to Grand Canyon University, where she earned Dean’s List recognition during her final two years and graduated in 2023. She accomplished this while navigating dyslexia, a learning disability, and ADHD. Her journey gives personal meaning to the message she shares today: becoming has no deadline, and our participation is required.
Stephanie’s foundation in teaching and ministry began long before those academic milestones. After rededicating her life to Christ in 1989, she began teaching Sunday school in 1991, accepted the call to preach in 1992, and began preaching in 1993. A licensed minister, she has served children, youth, and women through teaching, small groups, workshops, and mentoring.
In August 2004, Stephanie birthed GT Women. Inspired by Proverbs 18:22, GT stands for “Good Thing.” The ministry grew from women’s requests for opportunities to continue learning and growing with her beyond the church classroom. Stephanie recognized that adversity and painful experiences had left many women struggling to see or express the good already within them. Through teaching, coaching, and mentoring, she sought to help women recover, renew, restore, and revive that good; recognize their worth; communicate their needs; and make intentional choices.
Her motto, “You have power in your ‘no’ and authority in your ‘yes,’” encourages women to use their voices, establish boundaries, and make conscious choices about what they pursue, support, and commit to.
Her service has also extended into the wider community. From 2008 to 2023, Stephanie volunteered as a mentor, coach, and presenter with the juvenile courts in Las Vegas through the Sister to Sister program.
Stephanie has worked in the substance use and recovery field since December 2022. In December 2025, she began placing greater emphasis on recovery education through workshops, seminars, training, and small-group learning experiences. Drawing on her counseling background, she helps people understand recovery, build practical skills, and take steps toward their goals.
As the author of Everything You’re Meant to Be Through Adversity, Stephanie invites readers to consider adversity as an environment for formation and to take an active role in who they are becoming. Through speaking, individual and group coaching, and group facilitation, she combines meaningful conversation with practical tools that help people reflect, learn, and move forward with purpose.