About Us

A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Sandra relocated to Clearwater, Florida in March 2016 from El Paso, Texas where she resided for 24 years. She is the President & CEO Gulf Coast Jewish Family & Community Services, one of the largest JFS agencies in the nation with services impacting 30 thousand people annually in counties throughout the state of Florida.

For 10 years Sandra was CEO of the largest YWCA in the nation and had a successful 25-year career in higher education, including having served as Associate Vice Provost of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and adjunct faculty for UTEPs Graduate School where she taught courses including Educational Leadership in a Diverse Society, Leadership of Organizational Change and Qualitative Research Methodology to educational leaders in pursuit of their Principal credentials or doctorate. She has dedicated her professional and personal pursuits to helping low-income youth to succeed in high school and beyond and to empowering families to overcome barriers to success.

Dr. Braham was invited to the White House on two occasions for her work focused on educating Hispanics and was also invited to the George W. Bush Presidential Center for her leadership and work with military families and Post 9/11 Veterans. She has been profiled in three books including:

• My Favorite El Pasoans: Past and Present, by J.R. Murphy;
• African Americans in El Paso, by Cecilia G. Venable and Maceo Crenshaw Dailey Jr.; and
• African Americans Making History on the Border of El Paso Texas, by Ethel Kindred

Her life story was featured on the 2015 KVIA-ABC Television Series (El Paso, Texas), Journey: 450 Years of the African American Experience.

While at UTEP, she chaired the President’s Advisory Committee on Diversity and led an initiative to establish an entering students’ course on diversity. She has received numerous awards and honors, including most recently being named a “Gold Nugget” Alumnus, representing the UTEP College of Education.

Sandra has spoken to diverse audiences nationally on a host of topics from Leadership, Black History, Women’s History, overcoming adversity, mental health, and foster care. She recently completed Harvard University’s Executive Education Series, “Strategic Perspectives for Nonprofit Management.” Sandra is married with three adult children and is currently working to complete her first book, a memoir which details her life story, growing up in a home with her mother who suffers from schizophrenia and the many twists and turns that followed as a result. She received her bachelor’s in biology from the University of Missouri and her master’s doctorate degrees in education from UTEP. Sandra’s groundbreaking dissertation, African American Middle and High Schools Students’ Experiences in a Predominantly Hispanic Educational Environment, was named “Dissertation of the Year” in 2005 by the University.

Chris Adams, author, speaker and women’s ministry consultant, retired in 2017 after serving over 22 years as Senior Lead Women’s Ministry Specialist at LifeWay Christian Resources, Nashville, Tennessee. She helped pioneer women’s ministry as we know it today and has compiled three women’s leadership books: Women Reaching Women: Beginning and Building a Growing Women’s Ministry, Transformed Lives: Taking Women’s Ministry to the Next Level, and Women Reaching Women in Crisis.

As a part of her ongoing work at LifeWay Chris served as Executive Editor of Journey, a women’s devotional magazine and was an ongoing writer for the LifeWay Women’s leadership blog http://lifeway.com/womenreachingwomen. In 2008, she received the Career of Excellence award at LifeWay.

Prior to her employment at LifeWay she was the special ministries coordinator at Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas overseeing women’s ministry and missions education.

Chris is an adjunct professor at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary’s where she received her undergraduate degree in Christian Ministry from the seminary’s Leavell College.

When she’s not consulting, speaking to women, and training women’s ministry leaders, you can find her reading or spending time at the beach. Chris has been married to her husband, Pat since 1971. They have twin daughters (and two sons in law), seven grandchildren, seven bonus grands, and a 7-pound Yorkie named Mo. A self-proclaimed chocolate connoisseur, Chris is famous for her toffee, whichshe never seemed to bring enough of according to her co-workers and friends.

We were born and raised in Iowa and met at Iowa State Teachers College and were married in 1959.   Gus:  BA – Iowa State Teachers – MA – University of Iowa.  Mary :  BA – Iowa State Teachers College, MA – Arizona State University.

We moved to Phoenix in 1963 and and both taught for over 30 years in the Glendale Union High School District.  Gus taught physical education, American History and Heath at Glendale High School and   Mary taught physical eduction and business at Washington and Thunderbird High Schools.

We retired in 1991/92 and served missions for our church in North Carolina 96/97 and in Farmington, New Mexico 1999/1920 and 2004/2005.

We lived in Tucson from 1998 to 2009 and moved to Farmington, New Mexico in 2009 where we are currently living.

We became avid U of A fans during the Lute Olson era and continue to support football, basketball, softball, baseball and volleyball, driving 8 hours to attend these events.

We  enjoy spending time with our family in Family in Farmington:  Daughter Krickittt and husband Kim, grandson Danny (17) and Granddaughter LeeAnn (14).  We also love to visit our son Jamey and wife Gretchen who direct Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) along with granddaughter, Grace (23)  and Grandson Jamey (20).

Kris King is loving life and opportunities—good and bad—and the lessons they provide. She is a Jesus-lover, wife to Randy since 1981, mom to two girls and a boy, mother-in-law to two boys and a girl, and Kooki to five grands. Kris is a Lubbockite, Texan, writer, author, speaker, business owner, volunteer, and fun-seeker. She loves office supplies and Cheetos.

Kathy J. McDow has a great passion for sharing the Gospel in a tangible way by bringing messages of hope, healing and restoration along with services to assist individuals and families in need.  Vibrant and articulate with a sense of humor, McDow accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior in her youth.  Kathy has several years of progressive responsibility in church ministry  and administration, nonprofit social services and corporate business management that provide a depth of knowledge and abilities well suited to her current endeavors.  In 2003, she was licensed to “preach the Gospel, perform marriages, administer the Sacraments, and to direct the other functions of the Ministry” by Bishop Alexis A. Thomas of Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church in Phoenix, Arizona.

Reverend McDow is a current, active member of St. John Baptist Church of Corpus Christi, Texas where she serves as an Associate Preaching/Pulpit Minister and Director of Women’s Ministry.  McDow received her Master of Divinity Degree from  Fuller Theological Seminary, headquartered in Pasadena, California and her Liberal Arts Degree from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota; served two terms as a Board Trustee of the South Texas School of Christian Studies in Corpus Christi, Texas; a published author; and has several years of for profit and not for profit entities culminating in executive management.

McDow’s greatest joy is introducing others to the saving grace of our Lord while ministering to underserved and at-risk individuals and families in local communities. This is both the God-given vision and mission of Kathy J. McDow Ministries. Reverend McDow enjoys a blessed single life, bowling, writing and meeting people of diverse backgrounds while engaging in provocative theological, socio-political and philosophical discourse.

Brenda attended school in Littlefield, Texas, and graduated from Littlefield High School in 1966. She briefly attended Texas Christian University and then finally graduated from Texas Tech with a degree in Accounting.  Brenda worked in the career school industry for nearly 30 years.  She married Rodney Richardson in 1984, and together they have 5 children and 9 grandchildren as well as many family members added by marriages.  Brenda loves Jesus and His church and her desire is for all to know Him.

In the past decade Pat Rigsby has built over a dozen businesses as a CEO and Co-Owner, with five becoming million dollar or multi-million dollar ventures. Two of those businesses, Athletic Revolution and Fitness Revolution, have been multiple time winners on the Entrepreneur Franchise 500 with each being the #1 franchise for it’s respective market.  He has been a best-selling author 6 times and has been featured in Entrepreneur, Men’s Health, USA Today

After twenty-six years with a firm in East Asia, Mark and Kandy Persall now consult with individuals, businesses and churches to seek intentional community transformation.

As owner of Allied Planning and Mark Persall Consulting, Mark strives to explore ways to integrate leadership principles with solid Kingdom values. After receiving his master’s degree from Southwestern Theological Seminary, Mark went on to become a corporate trainer with the Ken Blanchard company as well as a coach with the International Coaching Federation. Mark’s passion is to help people get from where they are to where they want to be.

Kandy is author of the published devotional book: Hungry For More: Feasting through the Word and occasional contributor for LifeWay Press.  An avid blogger, Kandy uses hungryformore.org to challenge readers to dig deeper into the Word of God. She also travels throughout the United States speaking at women’s and college conferences to help others find what they are truly hungry for. In 2015, Mark and Kandy published their first joint effort: Hungry For More: Marital Intimacy.

The couple make their home in Lubbock, Texas. They are parents of two married daughters and grandparents to six grandchildren.

 

Brad Jovi worked in boat manufacturing for over 25 years.  In 2009, with the economy downturn, God took Brad in new directions.  He now works for a train manufacturer.  In his spare time, Brad enjoys playing his guitar at home and in the orchestra and praise band at First Baptist Church, West Frankfort, Illinois, and cooking for just about any occasion.  He has a wife, Misty, and they have shared almost 30 years of marriage.  He has also been blessed with two children, Chloe and Jonah.

Misty Jovi earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and worked for several years in sales until she was blessed to have the opportunity to be a stay at home mom for 15 years.  Misty likes to bake and used to earn extra spending money by baking for other people while being a stay at home mom.  She now works for Edward Jones Investments and bakes on the side for friends and family.  Misty has been married to her one and only, Brad, for almost 30 years and they have two children Chloe and Jonah.