Each day, I arrive at work with a greater sense of purpose than I have ever experienced in my life.  When I was hired to become CEO of the NETWORK of Community Ministries, I knew I had come full circle—from poverty back to helping the impoverished—and it feels great!

NETWORK of Community Ministries, Inc. is one of the largest basic needs providers in Dallas County, having served last year well over 32,000 individuals struggling to overcome hardships.  NETWORK has won numerous awards this year—2008 Best Local Charity, 2008 NTFB Model Agency, and 2008 RISD Spirit Recipient—but no award is more fabulous than the appreciation immediately exhibited when we tell an individual he/she will get food that day to feed the family.  I enjoy the instant return on compassion given to my staff, over 350 volunteers, and me each day.  I am especially delighted because I am reminded daily that I know their plight well because I have lived it. 

I grew up in Murfreesboro, North Carolina in a family of seven children with undereducated parents who made a living in the old expression "the best way they knew how".  After receiving a four year scholarship to college, I set out on a journey to personally rise above my upbringing and all of its socio-economic nuances.  I wanted to "be somebody," and that was what I kept telling myself.

College teaching seemed like the epitome of success, thus it became my career path on which I remained for many years.  I was determined to rise above poverty and all that came with that identification.  I remained in academia, steadily rising in rank. 

I began working on my Ph.D. and continued through to the point that I was about to declare the topic for my dissertation when a family tragedy struck.  The death of a young brother convinced me that I needed to make a dramatic change from what I was doing and begin again. 

Ironically, I did not lament the new thought of changing directions following the death of my brother.  I just knew I would have to do more than what I had been doing—a different way.  I knew I had to step away from the lecture room and make the new arena for me the basic needs of others.  I could not look away; I had to hurry back.

I answered an ad that following summer in the Dallas Morning News for a writer to do proposals for a Hispanic service organization.  I was hired and began from the ground up a completely new career.  It was my encore as a professional, and this time I had a brand new gauge to measure my success—personal fulfillment. 

What I had been so desperate to escape had never left me.  I needed to return to my upbringing because those people made me who I am, gave me the courage to never give up, and delighted my senses with their wonderful humor and enduring cultural stories. 

I began a new frontier in the nonprofit arena, and as the expression goes, "the rest is history" because I worked for such charities as SER-Jobs for Progress, the National American Red Cross, Heifer International, and the Todd Beamer Foundation before joining NETWORK. 

I smile everyday because the way that NETWORK’s building is designed,everyone must come through the client lobby where individuals and families await their help.  It is my reminder that I need to get into my office and get to work because there may be a little person who will one day take the place of me.  Encore!