Markela Batts can be quiet. She gets that from her parents. And with her job, that helps.

She’ll be working with a passel of children dealing all sorts of trauma or behavioral challenges, and her calm demeanor settles them down. She’ll pull out toys or sand trays, and she’ll work with them, get to know them and help them cope.

“You have to meet them where they are,” Markela says. “I’ve been told my calm approach is really helpful, and that’s innate, too. Most of the time, I approach a child in that way and try to figure out what they need in that moment.”

Markela grew up in small-town North Carolina, 40 miles east of Raleigh in Wilson County. She was the oldest daughter of four. Her dad makes airplane engines; her mom helps run a day-care; and Markela grew up thinking she’d be an illustrator, a band director or a member of the WNBA.

That didn’t happen.

She’s a first-generation college graduate, the former drum major and shooting guard at Wilson’s Beddingfield High, who graduated with a degree in recreational therapy from Winston-Salem State University.

After working for three years at Amos Cottage, a program in Winston-Salem for children with behavioral challenges, Markela went back to school and received her master’s degree in social work from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Today, she works with children, adolescents and their families. And like a doctor or a priest, Markela sees what she does is more of a calling than a job.

“It’s needed,” she says of her job as an outpatient therapist. “I feel like I get the opportunity to be an advocate for people in vulnerable situations.”