Grand Rapids Business Journal
Andrea Owens carries a notebook around with her that says “teach, love, inspire” on the cover — words that summarize her life goals.
After a more than 25-year career in the health care industry — during which she was a medical assistant, drug screener, site manager and educator — Owens founded a business, HourGlass Testing Solutions.
She and her two employees provide on-site drug screening and education for employers, including reasonable suspicion training to detect if employees are under the influence of marijuana, as well as how to do breath alcohol tests and collect specimens for drug screening.
HourGlass also provides management services for companies’ nonmandated and/or Department of Transportation-mandated drug testing programs to ensure companies are complying and minimizing risks in their workforce.
Owens said one of the biggest factors that fueled her dedication to drug testing was a traumatic event that happened to her late mother Cora Butler years ago.
“My mom was in a really, really bad car accident when we were younger. The person that was with her was under the influence, and long story short, there was an accident. She survived physically but never really mentally,” she said.
Owens’ father, a factory worker, died when Owens was 7, so her mom was caring for seven children alone while also working full time at the post office on Michigan Street in downtown Grand Rapids.
“She was a great mom; she wasn’t diagnosed with any type of disorder (after the accident), but her hip was messed up for the rest of her life, she couldn’t walk the way she wanted, she couldn’t do the things she really wanted to do,” Owens said.
“With that in mind, I don’t ever want to see anybody be involved in an accident where they’re messed up, whether it’s emotionally, whether it’s physically — not on my watch.
“That accident changed her life forever. And even through it all, her faith kept her going. And as often as I think of her and how she lived out the rest of her life, that is what fuels my passion to do what I do. I’ll talk to any and all who will listen regarding safety and the effects that drugs have on a person’s ability to perform the job duties.”
