By Jamie Weiser

To see a vidoeclip from Mary Mezera interview, click here.

People make assumptions about those who move through the halls of the Dane County courthouse in Madison or stand behind the defendant’s table in any circuit court in the state. They expect, in essence, criminals – people who willfully break the law for their own ends.

But Mary Mezera sees something quite different. She’s dedicated her professional life to helping people with developmental disabilities who end up entangled in the snare of the criminal justice system through her position as program director for REM Wisconsin Inc. She sees clients with a variety of mental disabilities, ranging from Down's syndrome to mild mental retardation, who are often hopelessly caught up in that system because of their own disability.

Watching Mezera with her clients, people suspect she was born for the job – custom-built with the intrinsic patience, understanding and compassion required for working with people who are unable to steer clear of trouble. But Mezera did not seek out her calling. She says she happened upon it by accident, after wandering through her 20s.

At 30, Mezera had already been to college and dropped out. She had lived in Florida, North Carolina and Michigan. She’d been a bartender, managed a bar and owned one of her own. When she and a business partner decided to sell their bar, Mezera moved home to Prairie du Chien. She then decided to finish her degree in accounting at Edgewood College in Madison.

Fate struck Mezera when she came across an advertisement for the Madison branch of REM Wisconsin Inc., a privately owned provider of health care and living assistance for members of the community, including those with developmental disabilities. The company was looking for a worker to care for two women with developmental disabilities while also living with them.

“I read the advertisement in the Prairie du Chien paper that you could be a live-in and have your days and weekends off,” Mezera says. “I thought, ‘This is perfect. I can go to school and get my accounting degree and I can move on from there.’”

Weeks later, Mezera took the job in Madison as a temporary way to make money until completing her degree in accounting. But in doing so, she soon realized she preferred caring for others to crunching numbers.

“I started working with two ladies who loved life, loved being in the community, liked just doing things, and I just kind of fell in love with the whole concept of helping people out in the community and making sure their lives were like mine,” Mezera says.

Mezera soon became heavily involved with the entire REM community. Through her interactions, she observed that people with developmental disabilities often wind up in the criminal justice system for reasons that are sometimes beyond their control. Mezera decided that these unique cases should be handled more sensitively and wanted to work for that change. Accounting, then, seemed inappropriate. So she changed her major to criminal justice and with the advice of her supervisor, used her degree to become an advocate for people with developmental disabilities.

After graduation, Mezera applied for and received a position as one of three program directors at the Madison branch of REM. Program directors act as team leaders and supervise the support staff. She trains the staff to understand and assist clients with specific disabilities, providing them with unique services. Each team specializes in particular issues related to REM’s clients with developmental disabilities. At REM, Mezera leads a team that concentrates on providing support for clients with criminal tendencies. By working with various people in the criminal justice system, Mezera acts as an advocate for her clients, while also helping to settle their criminal cases in an appropriate manner.

“Mary has pushed the envelope here by suggesting and then following through on supporting people who have developmental disabilities and have been involved with the criminal justice system by breaking the law in some way or another,” says Olwen Blake, REM’s Dane County regional director and Mezera’s supervisor. “She has built up networks and community support in order to help these people that would otherwise be institutionalized for being criminals and disabled.”

Few people are actually cut out for Mezera's job.

“You’re either a nurturing person in and out of this job, or you won’t survive in this job,” says Chris Ballweg, a program coordinator for REM. “I think that to Mary’s credit, she has been working with the company for a very long time.”

The one time Mezera left the job, she could only stay away for three months. She took a short-lived job in customer service to get a break from the intensity of the emotional work. However, she soon realized that she wouldn’t be happy doing anything else.

“I used to be someone that was more for myself,” Mezera says. “It was all about me and that was it and when I got into working more with people with developmental disabilities, I began to realize that it’s not about me. I changed in the fact that it’s so much better to be giving, rather than receiving.”

Mezera, now 47, oversees a staff of 129 people and ensures that her 62 clients get the best care possible in the community and at home. And although she claims her involvement with REM can be attributed to dumb luck, Mezera’s commitment to acting as a voice for people with developmental disabilities may actually have begun in her youth.

At the age of 1, her cousin Elaine became developmentally disabled after being stricken with meningitis. Having fond memories of growing up with Elaine and enjoying the time the two spent together affected Mezera’s views on the lives of people who are disabled. Elaine grew up at home with her family and was able to live as normal a life as possible. Elaine largely influenced Mezera’s love of and devotion to supporting people with developmental disabilities.

“I think that I didn’t have reservations about living with the two women when I first began working for REM because I was doing stuff I already knew,” Mezera says. “Elaine was around all the time, so I guess I didn’t really view anyone with a developmental disability as different than I was because that’s just how I was raised.”

Her family as a whole helped shape her life and career decisions. The support she received from the rest of her family has enabled her to provide similar support for her clients when they have a crisis, go to jail, go to court or struggle with a fatal illness.

“To me, nothing is impossible and that’s because my family has always been behind me,” Mezera says. “They supported me no matter what and I think that’s what gives me the ability to take a few more risks; the ability to take on clients that might be a little riskier than other clients.”

The work may be challenging, but the rewards make it worthwhile. For Mezera, it’s enough to know she has a positive impact on other people’s lives.

“The most rewarding part of my job is seeing my clients smile,” Mezera says.

“When they’re walking through the door and they’ve gone through a time that has been pretty bad for them and they walk up and say, ‘Hey Mary, how ya doin’? It’s good to see ya.’ Or they’re smiling and they’re not having a hard time and they’re not escalating and they’re at an even cue and life is very good for them."

For more information, visit the following site:

REM online: The official REM Web site.