One of the most popular speakers on the recovery circuit, Chris Raymer rejoined the La Hacienda staff in 2018 as Recovery Community Director and was made Alumni Director in September 2020. He speaks on and off campus, providing patients and alumni additional support to help them succeed in recovery. “I had always dreamed of coming back,” says Chris. “I want to help as many people as possible. I want to sit with them and help them hear the same message that I heard more than 30 years ago.” After high school, Chris entered an apprentice program in food preparation in Houston, but “I drank that career away. I got the work done, but you can only last so long.” After a failed suicide attempt in 1987, he went “straight back into a meeting the next day. They were a bunch of Big Book guys, and they got me busy with the steps. I worked them and got active with service work and stayed sober ever since.” That was November 13, 1987. Chris interned at La Hacienda in 1993, then started work for the alumni department and served here until 2010.