Through books and action, Debra Wilson channels positive change and seeks to empower others.

Debra Wilson has lived in Salinas most of her life. Her parents, both veterans, adopted her when she was 2 months old. They appeared to be a typical family. In her teens, Wilson was a cheerleader and youth drug counselor, and her brother was on the football team.

Reality was different; her father suffered from PTSD and he coped with it by using cannabis and later on a cocktail of cannabis and cocaine. “It was like living with an in-home terrorist – you didn’t know how you were going to wake up in the morning,” Wilson says.

Overcoming that experience helped inspire her to eventually enter the ministry in service of people whose future can seem tenuous – she is a minister at Monterey County Jail – and to write such books as Drop Your Fists & Raise Your Hands. Her Kingdom Boot Camp trilogy is inspired by her ministry work. She is also the owner of Black Kafe, which offers five coffee blends. While working full time, Wilson also managed to earn a master’s and PhD, studying healthcare organization and management at San Jose State.

As for her full-time job, Wilson currently serves as the acting contracts purchasing manager for Monterey County, overseeing how some $533 million per year is spent on everything from office supplies and furniture to construction contracts.

She has overcome different challenges throughout her life – divorce and single parenthood, for instance. Each time she refocused and kept on.

Weekly: You wrote about your personal experiences in your first book. How did you feel when you wrote it?

Wilson: I journal all the time. One of the reasons that I wrote in the book was to keep my peace. It’s like it’s therapy. So when I started writing the book [Drop Your Fists and Raise Your Hands], it was actually going to be called Behind the White Picket Fence. Because what happens is, you have a lot of people who live what they call the American Dream, which is the white picket fence. That means you have the house, the kids, the dog, the cat, the two-car garage, and all those types of things. But what you don’t know is what goes on behind those doors. And a lot of times there’s a lot of trauma and drama going on behind a person’s door.

How do you handle the different hats you have to wear?

Probably by the grace of God, I would say that I keep busy. That’s what kept me from giving up. That’s what kept me from throwing in the towel.

That and my beautiful kids. My kids have been the wind beneath my wings.

You mentioned the jail ministry was the most rewarding. Can you tell me how it changed your life?

I realized that people that are hurting hurt other people, people that are damaged do not know how to not damage others.

What advice would you give to people who want to change their paths in their lives?

There are some things – I don’t care how close they are, who they are – there are some things that just are not healthy. Find something to do [and] put something in its place. You have to be able to make that balance and make those decisions for yourself. Take responsibility, accountability.

The goal is abundant life. They say YOLO, right? All I have is what I have here so I have to make the most of it. If you want something different, pour yourself into something different.

You’re talking about finding and taking a different route. Is there an example from your personal experience you can share?

I was a marginal writer [in high school]. I had an assignment in English and I worked hard on it. I got it back and it said, B. There were no red marks. There was nothing that even indicated that she read it. My mom went to the school and asked the teacher, “Did you read it?” And her response was, “I have a lot of kids.”

She never read my paper. She decided that I was B and put a B on my paper without reading it, because that was what she decided.

Don’t let people decide what you are and when they do, challenge it. Show them something different. That’s what I did and now I have five, six books. And I’m not stopping; we’re going do some films too [based on the books].

DEBRA WILSON holds a book signing at 6pm on Friday, March 18 at Downtown Book & Sound, 213 Main St., Salinas. A reception follows from 9-10pm at Mangia, 328 Main St., Suite. A. Both events are free to attend.