I am honored to serve on the Pastoral Leadership Search Effort’s Advisory Council. My spiritual, professional and personal backgrounds indeed make me qualified for this opportunity. I look forward to sharing the gifts that I have gained through the totality of my experience. With my parents’ blessings I became an Episcopalian on my own at age 10 and asked to be baptized soon thereafter. (My mother was Baptist and my father a lapsed Roman Catholic.) At St. Paul’s Episcopal Church I found the spiritual, emotional and intellectual nurturing and stimulation that I had not found elsewhere. I soon became active in the congregation as a lector, acolyte and youth group member. I have remained active at St. Paul’s since then and have served as a vestry member, congregational deputy to our diocesan convention and youth group leader.
As one can imagine, my faith journey has brought me down different – and more fascinating – paths than I intended. I received my bachelor of arts in communications and Afro-American Studies from the University of Pennsylvania at age 20 and my juris doctor from Georgetown University Law Center at age 23. After practicing commercial and class and mass action employment litigation for several years, however, I realized that I was not being fed by my work. I opened myself to the possibilities that the Lord might have for me and was led back home to the Diocese of Newark. I currently serve as the Director of Youth Ministry for the Diocese – a ministry that is more fulfilling than my legal practice ever was. In my position I am able to combine my love for youth with my legal expertise to ensure that proper boundaries, safety, fiscal responsibility and overall wellness of our teens are promoted. I know how important it is to be ever mindful of the proper nurturing, education and encouragement of our people. I would not be where I am today if people had not done these things for me. Thanks be to God, I am now able to pass share my gifts with others.
