Dr. LaVerne Cox is a fervent Unbridled supporter and has been there since the beginning. LaVerne has been overseeing Unbridled’s VIP gift bags for years and embodies what Unbridled is about. Laverne’s life reads like a novel you can’t put down. Equal parts grit, brilliance, heartbreak, and divine purpose.
She was born on Mother’s Day, abandoned three months later, and adopted by a minister and his wife who had saved for five years to bring her home. Her life from there was anything but conventional. Married at 14, she’d skip grades in school and grow up surrounded by faith, classical literature, and an unrelenting drive to learn.
Despite early detours, Laverne returned to her education with fierce determination. She earned her undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Louisville at the age of 30, followed by a master’s and a doctorate- supported by coursework from UK and UofL. Along the way, she raised children, worked multiple jobs, and pulled her home out of foreclosure.
“I got through because people believed in me,” she said. Mentors stepped in. Doors opened. And she never wasted a single opportunity.
Her career spans clinical psychology, military consulting at the War College, mental health EAP work for Ford, and developing the crisis intervention program for Louisville’s police. She helped launch sister cities programming with Ghana. She modeled fashion before she could afford it. She’s taught college courses, worked in lumber mills, and founded her own behavioral health firm. “People think I’ve been on a velvet cushion all my life,” she says. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Faith grounds her. “When I listen to God, I don’t go wrong. When I think I know better, that’s when I screw up.” Her understanding of grace, shaped by a childhood steeped in church and a lifetime of being underestimated, colors every relationship she touches.
Dr. Cox sees value in everyone. She recalls doing family therapy in Eastern Kentucky, a Black woman walking into hollow after hollow. “They had never seen someone like me,” she says. “But I carried a UK briefcase, and they loved them some UK.” She learned the power of grandmothers in Appalachian family dynamics. She witnessed both poverty and dignity, lessons she never forgot.
And when it comes to Unbridled, she sees something rare. “It’s egalitarian,” she says. “Nobody asks where you come from. You just roll up your sleeves and do the work. And everybody matters.”
In a world that often measures people by money or pedigree, LaVerne is a living reminder that what truly matters is character, resilience, and the courage to keep going, even when the lights are off and you’re fighting to save your home.
“I’ve made so many mistakes,” she says. “But I’m still here. And I know that’s because God had a purpose for me. I’ve been tremendously blessed.” It is people like LaVerne Cox that make Unbridled special. And Unbridled is blessed to have her be a part of our journey.