On August 27, 2017, while on a break from college, Alexis Salisbury was picking up her brother, Noah, from school in her family’s hometown of Clovis, New Mexico. It was supposed to be a short visit to see them, as she was eager to return to Albuquerque to re-enroll in college and finish her bachelor’s degree.
During a stop at the Clovis-Carter Public Library, where Alexis was printing some papers, she needed for school while her brother patiently waited, a 16-year-old Clovis High School student walked into the library with a gun and started shooting.
During the chaos, Alexis and her brother laid on the ground and pretended to be dead while they watched other victims die around them. They stayed on the ground for about eight minutes before the police arrived, and the shooter surrendered. It was then that they both realized they had been shot, and all they could do was pray the terror was over.
Alexis’ brother was shot in the hand, a wound that upon reflection could have been much more serious had the bullet landed mere inches in another direction. Alexis was shot once over her heart, and she experienced an intense burning sensation like never before. Her body felt like it was on fire, and she felt extreme pressure and a weight like her body was being held down by sandbags. That’s because the bullet had ricocheted off her sternum and blew up on the side of her rib cage. She also was shot once in each knee. The bullet in her left leg traveled at an angle up into the bone marrow, fracturing her tibia.
“It's still there to this day,” she says with an unexpected smile that does not reflect the trauma she and her brother experienced that fateful day.
Through her journey, Alexis has learned to manage the anxiety, stress, and trauma that the shooting had on her life. But not without a great amount of work.
Dark Times, But No Excuses
After the shooting, Alexis faced a long road to physical recovery, with numerous surgeries due to shrapnel in her body, including knee surgery as a result of the scar tissue that affected her walking.
Today, she still can’t walk for long periods of time without a break.
The mental and emotional recovery is ongoing. Alexis has been diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety, and depression.
“I hated how I felt,” she recalls, adding that while both therapy and medication played a role in her recovery, she had completely lost the feeling that she had control over her life.
But Alexis knew she had to keep going, if not for her, then for her brother. Eventually she got married and reached other memorable life milestones.
“I know if I stopped and made excuses, that would give Noah the excuse himself to use,” she says. “And I don't ever want that for him because he has his whole life to live.”
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A New Beginning and A Better Understanding
Weeks after the shooting, Alexis began a new job at USAA while confined to a wheelchair, and her head was in a very dark place. Despite that, she returned to school at the University of New Mexico to complete her bachelor’s degree. She realized how competitive her job was, and acknowledged that “just having a bachelor's degree didn't really set me apart anymore.” So she decided it was time to take action.
As part of a mentorship program at USAA, Alexis was inspired to continue her education and get her master’s degree thanks to a partnership the company has with the University of Arizona Global Campus (UAGC). After learning about its flexible online schedule – one course at a time, six weeks at a time for a master’s degree – she was sold.
“I was like, oh my gosh, that’s completely manageable!” she says. “This is what I'm doing. This is where I'm going. I didn't look anywhere else after learning how like seamless the process was going to be.”
She spoke to advisors at UAGC about the different programs to discuss what concentration she should consider pursuing. She ultimately landed on a psychology major because she felt she could she use the knowledge to help herself as well as others. Personally, the degree would help her to understand her trauma. Professionally, she knew she could better help people because of what she had gone through herself.
“My dream in the future is to help other survivors of trauma, more specifically gun violence,” she says. “And if I can save somebody else, one year, two years, just a little bit of time of feeling as awful as I felt, that'd be a game changer for me, because it's really, really hard.”
When Alexis walked the graduation stage to receive her Master of Arts in Psychology in June 2024, she did it for the first time in her life, with her entire family cheering her on.
Like so many others in her graduating class, Alexis balanced school with family responsibilities and a career. In her role at USAA, Alexis helps members of the military, veterans, and their families get access to insurance and banking products. Since joining the firm, she has risen through the ranks and now works in anti-money laundering compliance analysis, where the critical thinking and analysis skills she learned in school are essential to her success.
“In my job, I'm able to understand human behavior when it comes to financial transactions, critically analyzed data,” she explains. “Communication, understanding motivations. So even though it's not directly correlated, there are a lot of things that I could apply toward my career, whether I stay in anti-money laundering or even just go any other route.”
August marks the seventh anniversary of the Clovis library shooting. Alexis has spent these years trying to make her life as meaningful as possible. It started with her recovery, then finishing her bachelor’s degree, and then her marriage to her high school sweetheart. The pinnacle of her success – at least for now – is her master’s degree, and she says it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of her family and UAGC.
“Everything has been amazing,” she says. “All of my professors that I had were awesome; any questions that I had, they answered. Whenever I let them know that I needed to have like some time away, they understood. I don't think I could have gotten my master's degree if I would have participated in a different program. This one just matched me so well. I'm so thankful.”
In addition to her role at USAA, Alexis has gotten involved with the New Mexico legislation process, specifically New Mexico Senate Bill 247, which would prohibit juveniles from being sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. The young man that shot her and others is currently serving two life sentences plus an additional 40 years, and if passed, he could be eligible for parole after serving 15 years.
Alexis knows the pain he has caused so many, but she also believes in having compassion for others.
“I do believe in redemption, and I wasn't motivated by revenge, because there's no revenge to get, you know?” she says. “It was just really about the violent crimes committed by juveniles, and it all leads back to mental health.”
Alexis knows how it feels to be lost and struggling emotionally. To be scared to leave the house, or go anywhere alone. To feel triggered by experiences and places. And to feel like some people can’t understand it, and even if they do, they have a hard time talking about it.
“If I could just help one person, just one person, save them a little bit of that heartbreak, I'd love that because anytime I see on the news when this stuff happens, because it's not stopping,” she says. “My heart sinks into my stomach and it just crumbles because I know the road that they're about to take on, all the weight that they're about to experience, too.”
Giving Back and Moving Forward
Alexis still has her bad days, but her education and her family have made a tremendous difference in helping her get to a better place. During her master's degree program at UAGC, she focused a lot on trauma.
When it came to her assignments, she often focused on PTSD. “I focused on how our brain reacts to trauma,” she explains. “And I love that. And that helped me understand how my brain worked going through this process.”
Alexis says she was never somebody to put in half effort. If she is going to do something, she is really going to do it.
“I would say I'm passionate, motivated, I don't want to say inspiring because I don't know if I truly am,” she questions. “I just know that's what I want to do for other people who go through hard things. The doctors gave me the nickname Wonder Woman, and I said there is no force more powerful than a woman determined to rise.”
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Certain degree programs may not be available in all states.
Successful completion of this program by itself does not lead to licensure or certification in any state, regardless of concentration or specialization. The Master of Arts in Psychology is not a licensure program and does not prepare an individual to become a licensed psychology professional.