After defeating his own addictions, MATC alumnus Kenneth Ginlack discovered his true calling was helping others overcome theirs
Kenneth Ginlack credits MATC instructors with helping him stay on the path to graduation.
How Kenneth Overcame his addiction
Kenneth Ginlack was ready to kill for crack. On a frigid winter’s night in 2007, Ginlack was addicted to drugs and desperate. He was living in his mother’s basement. He had a wife, three kids and zero money. He needed cash to buy crack cocaine. He slid a metal pipe under the sleeve of his ragged winter coat, walked into the frosty air and straggled down Milwaukee’s West Burleigh Street. Near Sherman Park he saw two guys looking to buy drugs. He talked himself into their car, telling them he could help. As he sat in the back seat, a long list of mistakes, miscalculations and miseries littered his mind. The memories slammed into each other and piled up into a full-blown disaster, like derailed train cars or out-of-control automobiles.
Growing up watching prostitutes work on his block. Snorting cocaine at 14. Becoming a teenage father. Never getting an A in any class. Getting kicked out of one high school. Missing his eventual graduation because he was selling drugs. Becoming addicted to crack. Lying to his family and his friends. Losing his car, his job, his house. And now, Ginlack was stealing money for crack. Then, out of nowhere, he heard a voice. If you do this, your life will change forever. “I tried to ignore it,” Ginlack recalled nearly 20 years after that fateful night. “But I heard it again.” If you do this, your life will change forever. Suddenly he leaped out of the car. He doubled over on the cold sidewalk and sobbed uncontrollably. “I was a crackhead and an alcoholic,” he said. “I knew if I didn’t change my life, I’d die. I just wanted the pain to stop.”
That night he checked himself into a detox center. He got treatment and counseling. In time, the agony eased. He got a factory job and was on his way to recovering from addiction. Eventually, he enrolled at MATC and earned an associate degree in the Human Service Associate program in 2012. Today, recovering addict Kenneth Ginlack holds two college degrees and works as a licensed clinical social worker, a clinical substance abuse counselor and an independent clinical supervisor. Since December 2021, he has served as executive director at Serenity Inns Inc., which assists, counsels and treats men with substance abuse issues. Serenity has four locations in Milwaukee, including a 14-bed treatment center that opened in August 2024 and a drop-in center that opened in February “I tell myself each day that I am enough,” Ginlack said. “I like to say that finding out what motivates you is an inside job. And inside me is a person who loves doing things for other people.”
Ginlack started his rehab in a residential recovery center on 32nd Street and Locust Avenue. He spent three months in treatment and then lived in a transitional house for three months. While recovering in rehab, Ginlack struggled to find his way. “I prayed every day for my purpose,” he said. “I had this chance. But I didn’t know why I got it and what I was supposed to do with it.” One day, a counselor asked him to run a support meeting. The next day, a fellow recovering addict told him he did a great job. “The light bulb went off,” Ginlack said. “It was all revealed to me in that moment.” He was working in a factory when an entry-level job as a resident assistant opened up at the rehab center he had been at. Ginlack quit his higher-paying gig and started his life’s work. Along with starting at the rehab center, he enrolled at MATC to earn a certificate in Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse (AODA) counseling. He found out he could earn his associate degree at the same time. But even the thought of higher education filled him with dread. “I was terrified,” he said. “I had never been a great student. The statistics said I should have been in prison or dead. I was voted least likely to succeed. I didn’t walk or talk like all the others heading to college.” At MATC he found the support to succeed. “The instructors at MATC were amazing. I got the one- on-one time I needed. They helped me and encouraged me,” he said. “Thanks to them, I hung in there and stuck with it.”
The instructors at MATC were amazing....They helped me and encouraged me. Thanks to them, I hung in there and stuck with it.
Driven to succeed
As Ginlack stuck with it, the successes piled up. He got an A on a paper. He made the honor roll. He won the President’s Award and became the first Human Service Associate graduate to receive the honor. He walked across a stage to graduate for the first time since sixth grade. A fellow graduate cried when she saw Ginlack in his cap and gown — he had counseled her troubled brother. “All those things people said I could never do, I was doing,” he said. “The more I gained, the more I didn’t want to lose it. This was a new high for me. A new drive.” He continued his education. In 2014, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Upper Iowa University in human services with an emphasis in social work, and in 2017, received a master’s degree in social work from Loyola University Chicago.
During the next decade, he worked as a substance abuse counselor and treatment coordinator at several agencies, and he taught in the University of Wisconsin Continuing Education extension program. In 2020, he served as the director of outpatient programs for the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division. In the fall of 2021, Serenity Inns came calling. “When you are trapped in the horror of your addiction, it consumes you,” Ginlack once said. “You might have a hobby, a wife or a family, but you can’t think of anything besides getting high. The drugs take over your life.” Serenity offers a holistic approach to recovery, addressing physical, social, emotional, financial and spiritual well-being. Since the program began, 690 men have walked the path to recovery, Ginlack said. A hands-on executive leader, Ginlack often visits and talks to men in recovery, always willing to share his personal story to connect with them.
“When they hear my story, they figure out I was right where they are at,” Ginlack said. “I tell them recovery is a lifestyle choice. If you don’t like your new life, you’re going to go back to your old one. I see many men walk in here, and the look in their eyes is hopeless. My biggest reward is seeing hope come back.” This personal approach is key to Serenity’s success, said Glenn Mathews, associate dean of MATC’s Business and Management Academic and Career Pathway and a member of Serenity Inn’s board of directors. “I have seen firsthand how Ken supports the vision, the people and the mission of Serenity Inns. He is not only a CEO; he’s a servant-leader, a mentor and a problem-solver who brings his whole self to the work,” Mathews said. “Ken exemplifies what it means to rise from a challenge, lead with integrity and transform systems that often leave people behind. He’s a proud MATC graduate who now leads one of Milwaukee’s most respected recovery agencies.”
Sharing his story is key to Kenneth Ginlack’s recovery philosophy, he’s speaking to an audience in this moment
Serenity expands
In August 2024, city and county officials celebrated the opening of Serenity’s $3 million, 14-bed house, which will serve 56 additional men. The new center sits adjacent to Serenity’s existing 12-bed treatment facility. “Last time I was here, this was an inner city vacant lot,” Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said at the celebration. “Now we have this new facility to support people who need help with drug addiction and are trying to turn their lives around. Every citizen can support treatment for those in need. It costs nothing to be kind.” Ginlack has been extensively lauded for his kindness. In November 2021, Milwaukee’s Kappa Phi chapter of Omega Psi Phi fraternity named him citizen of the year. In 2022 he received the prestigious IRIS Award for Outstanding Mental Health Professional from the National Alliance on Mental Illness Wisconsin annual conference. In November 2023, the BizTimes honored him as nonprofit executive of the year. In June, he was named comeback father of the year at the third annual Fathers Making Progress Awards. Still, his greatest rewards for his work usually come as surprises: A man shaking his hand at a cigar bar or a gent stopping him on the street. They are recovering addicts and former clients. Sometimes they break down and become emotional in their gratitude. “In those moments, I know I’m truly walking in my purpose,” Ginlack said. Ginlack plans to keep walking in his purpose as long as he can. He is thinking about getting his doctorate. He’d like to see Serenity expand and build even more residential units. He’d like to teach at MATC. He’d like to take his grandson fishing. “I was 30 years old the first time I caught a fish,” Ginlack said with a laugh. “I have learned you can always recover. Not just from addiction and pain, but recover the things you have lost, like your family and friends.” Most of all, he’d like to keep passing on the joy, the bliss and the gratitude for life he feels every day since he decided to listen to that voice in 2007. If you do this, your life will change forever. He decided not to steal and not to kill. He decided to leave that life behind and try to create a better one. And he certainly did.
Go to serenityinns.org to learn more about the organization’s mission.
Sharing his story is key to Kenneth Ginlack’s recovery philosophy, he’s doing a one-on-one in this moment.