Dr. Shonda Reynolds

Still Got Joy! Dr. Shonda Reynolds Author, Filmmaker, Life Coach & Minister

By Patricia M. Hammock, M.Ed./AET

Talking with Dr. Shonda Reynolds feels like getting a long, tight hug from your grandmother. You feel valued, loved, and affirmed. She meets you where you are with a gritty realism uncommon among the clergy.

The Pulaski, Tennessee native overcame drug addiction while in rehab in 1997. There, Dr. Reynolds experienced a spiritual awakening that has sustained her 23-year sobriety from crack cocaine. She became an author in 2013 and self-published her first book, Dying to Live, a true story of being freed from addiction, adultery, and unwise decisions, by the power of God.

Dr. Reynolds, who is an ordained Minister, has published a sequel, Dying to Live (A New Beginning) and coauthored/executive produced the full-length feature film, STILLGOTJOY, which is an autobiographical look at her journey to triumph.

Dr. Reynolds says she is very excited to be featured in the inaugural edition of the Women Who Rock Nashville Magazine and credits Divine connections for her chance meeting with event and magazine visionary, Tanya DavisThirkield, while appearing on a talk-show in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, for the honor. “I was elated when Tanya asked me to be featured.”

Dr. Reynolds is a first-generation college graduate,

earning a BA in Social Work from Middle Tennessee State University, (MTSU), in 2003 and her first master’s degree in 2010 in Professional Studies in Public Service Management from Cumberland University. She graduated with honors and earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Andersonville Theological Seminary in 2013; she also holds a second master’s degree, awarded in 2017, in Professional Studies in training and Development from MTSU.

Dr. Reynolds credits her husband as the visionary for STILLGOTJOY. “When he read the book, he said, ‘This should be a movie.’ He believed in it. It was amazing that he believed in me and my story enough to want it to be told.” Due to a lack of funding and little knowledge about the film industry, she said she wrote the script and let it sit for a while. She gives praises to “the most-high God” as she describes the process of getting her film made.

Neither Dr. Reynolds nor her husband had any theater or film experience. They formed a committee to begin researching the process of film production and found an awesome Director, Ricky Ivy, and Cinematographer, Ricky Burchell. Several artists agreed to appear on the film soundtrack. The actors were real people. One professional actor lent their time and talent. The production took only six weeks to wrap in 2018. All the while, Dr. Reynold’s husband was working in the background to ensure they had the funding necessary to complete the production.

The film has been screened twice, once in her hometown of Pulaski, Tennessee, and once in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Dr. Reynolds says a woman was healed at the Murfreesboro film screening.

Dr. Shonda credits a teacher who she says was a “prophet who spoke life into her” when Shonda was in the 7th or 8th grade. “I believe in my heart of hearts that Charles Stogner, (now deceased), was born just for me.” Mr. Stogner and his wife took Shonda out to the back of the schoolyard and said, “You are going to be a leader one day. Whatever you have in your mind to do, you will do.” He continued by cautioning, “It will be harder for you because you are a Black woman, but you will succeed.”

Dr. Shonda says she was called a “Polly Pure Bread growing up.” She didn’t smoke cigarettes, and never used alcohol or drugs, not even marijuana. By 29, she was spiraling as she had married “the biggest drug dealer in Giles County” and because she had no support system. She said it seemed that everyone was doing it, so she tried crack cocaine for the first time… and she liked it … a lot. After a number of missteps in this toxic environment, she said she knew she was in trouble and wanted a better life than the one she saw around her. Dr. Shonda said, “I was smart, but nobody I knew went to college. Where I come from, if you graduated high school and got a factory job, you were doing good.”

On New Year’s Eve 1996, Shonda said she was struggling, but “I could hear the voice of Charles Stogner speak to me and I said, “I don’t want to go into 1997 high” – and she didn’t. While in rehab in 1997, she found recovery and God and began rebuilding relationships with her sons and parents. She wanted to make them proud.

Another angel placed along her path was a friend, Connie, who she said God used as the catalyst to get her interested in college. An MTSU professor, Dr. Charles Frost, assigned a paper asking his students to describe a wonderful life. Dr. Reynolds said she cried for three days because she could not imagine what a wonderful life was. She wrote the paper. Identify ed as the defining moment, after reading it, Dr. Frost told her that her paper should be a book. Dr. Shonda gave copies of her book, Dying to Live to inmates when she began her prison ministry in Murfreesboro.

Four degrees, two books, and a feature film later, Dr. Reynolds operates in the spirit of transparency, saying, “Struggling in silence keeps you in bondage. My life is exposed to the world as an example of what God can do because He doesn’t ‘half deliver’ anyone. There is no shame in where I’ve been. I thank God for the journey and wouldn’t give anything for it – the good, the bad, and the ugly – and I am excited about what comes next.”

Learn more about Dr. Reynolds at www.drshonda.com

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