So, who am I?
Great question! I am the daughter of the Most High God, the humble servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. My parents raised me in the Church, and as a child, I developed a tender devotion to God and a love for my neighbors. Gratefully, that part of me has never changed.
This is why I founded Childlike Faith & Works. I've never stopped dreaming ways in which God's will could be done "on earth as it is in heaven". My consulting group is dedicated to helping Christian social innovators like me bring heaven to earth by activating the simple, pure, and potent faith of our inner child (Matt. 18:3-4). We are also challenged by the saying, "Faith without works is dead" (James 2:20).
This work is a great reflection of how God designed me. Honest. Hopeful. Hardworking. (There's more to know, so keep reading below. )
Featured
A Christian Social Innovator
I began my career as a New York City journalist, working at People, Time, Newsday, and The Journal News for seven years. After reporting on the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I felt God calling me to return to my hometown of Chicago to become a teacher. It was a bold move, but I obeyed.
I served some of the most dangerous and low-income communities in the Chicago Public Schools district for 14 years. During that time, I founded a national nonprofit organization called Teachers Who Pray, authored an award-winning teacher blog for Education Week, and spoke at education conferences and forums around the nation. In 2019, I wrote the book The Master Teacher on the pedagogy of Jesus Christ, and in 2023, I earned a Ph.D. in Education Policy from the University of Arkansas. (I also hold a M.A. in Teaching from National Louis University, an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, and a B.A. in English from Dominican University).
After teaching hundreds of children, praying with thousands of teachers, writing more than 400 articles, and giving countless interviews and speeches, my soul still wasn't satisfied. Schools weren't getting better; they seemed to be getting worse. I sensed God doing a new thing in me. Just as he moved me from journalism to education, he was moving me to something else ... Christian Social Innovation.
CHILDLIKE FAITH & WORKS is a consulting group dedicated to pushing educators, ministers, business leaders, and entrepreneurs to the edge of their purest faith so that God can do a work in them that is "exceedingly above all that we could ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20). Despite the despairs of the world, we stand on the promises of the Word of God and believe through faith and obedience, we strive to improve lives by bringing a glimpse of heaven to earth.
A Life So Lived
Life comes with joys and sorrows. Though we love the sunshine, there must also be rain. My childlike faith has been tested and purified by fire. I am a divorced, single mother who survived years of domestic abuse. Many of my greatest professional victories were met by my lowest personal defeats. Both experiences, the good and the bad, fuel my passion for CHILDLIKE FAITH & WORKS. Nothing is too hard for God!
"I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me."
- Phillipians 2: 12-13
