Blog

This is one in a series of question and answer sessions with Family & Children’s Place Ambassadors, young business and community leaders helping build support for and awareness of the agency and its work.

Question: Why did you get involved as an Ambassador with FCP?
Answer: Because my mission is to empower; especially survivors of abuse! FCPs services are fantastic, and I want to help spread awareness!

Q: What’s your day job?
A: Director of Program Development & Marketing at Leadership Southern Indiana

Q: What person do you consider to be your greatest influencer in terms of your own personal values?
A: Laura Rhea (my aunt), and Barack/Michelle Obama

Q: What do you hope to achieve by 50?
A: Help be a change agent for nonprofit culture, lead a nonprofit organization, do more international service work, and develop as many skills as possible! I don’t want to be a one-size-fits-all professional; if it can be learned, I want to learn it! Unless it’s science-related. Then I’ll leave it up to the sciency professionals.

Q: What’s your favorite local restaurant, and why do you love it?
A: Grale Haus. You can’t beat that brunch. Holy Moses, those Speculoos Crepes!

Q: What does a perfect day look like to you?
A: Environmentally speaking, hiking in the mountains where it’s gray and overcast. With a winery. Definitely a winery.

Q: What teacher in school made the most impact on you and why?
A: My AP English Teacher, Mrs. Roberts. She pushed me to think outside my small-town, Conservative-Christian bubble, encouraged me to pursue creative writing (my minor in college), and she and her husband were Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and helped write my recommendations for my Peace Corps Service in the Kingdom of Tonga.

Q: What accomplishment are you most proud of so far in your life?
A: I apologize if this is too personal, but I have channeled my own abuse into absolute fuel for squashing the abuse epidemic and plugging into organizations that offer services for survivors and focus on prevention. I’ve used my story to develop supportive relationships with others and try to be a voice as much as I can!

Q: What is your best childhood memory?
A: Picking vegetables in our huge garden with my dad picking veggies, mom and grandma silking corn, and my grandpa rolling us down in a wheelbarrow full of empty corn shucks. Gardening was a total family affair!

Q: When you were little, what did you want to be?
A: An astronaut, then an architect. Then a nurse, a teacher. Now, I just want to be Maggie Smith and spout off brilliant one-liners as an old, British woman.

Q: If you could have lunch with one person (alive or dead) that you look up to, who would it be and why?
A: Ayaan Hirsi Ali—she has pushed me to think of feminism, equalism, and tolerance beyond my liberal bubble. She was raised in a Muslim home, bounced around the Middle East, endured genital mutilation, and is now a fierce spokesperson on women’s rights and – as much as I’d like to defend it – the flaws and negative impacts of the Islamic faith (particularly the war between traditionalism and radicalism). She has seriously rocked my world.

Q: What is your favorite hobby (outside of Family and Children’s Place of course!)?
A: I LOVE to read and have daily, minute adventures with my partner-in-crime. And our cat.