One of the joys (and pains) of doing CCD is building healthy relationships, and it’s a process that doesn’t happen overnight. To encourage you all to keep doing the hard work, we’re celebrating Women’s History Month by getting to know some of our CCDA leaders. This year’s CCDA National Conference theme is Wellbeing, so we hope that these nuggets of wisdom will contribute to your continued pursuit of wellbeing.
- Name: Cecilia Williams
- City/State: Minneapolis, MN
- CCDA role: President, CEO
- Coffee or tea? Coffee (all day long, friends!!!)
- Early bird or night owl? Night owl
- Summer or winter? Summer
- Beach or park? Beach
- What’s your favorite breakfast food? Bagels with cream cheese
- What’s your most used emoji? 🙏🏼 (praying hands)
- What’s the most beautiful thing you’ve seen in nature? The miniscule hummingbirds that frequent my backyard
- If you could live anywhere in the world for a year, where would it be? KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
- If a movie was made about your life, what would be your theme song? “Take me to the Alley” by Gregory Porter
- What book do you recommend every chance you get? Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman
- What’s one thing you wish you’d known when you first started doing CCD ministry? Quite simply, this: “Nothing about us, without us – is for us.“ (slogan popularized by South African disability rights and youth activists)
- Who is one of your sheroes? Anna Julia Cooper, author, educator, sociologist, speaker, Black liberation activist, renowned scholar.
- Name: Lesa Engelthaler
- City/State: Dallas, TX
- CCDA role: Board member
- Coffee or tea? Coffee!
- Early bird or night owl? Night owl
- Summer or winter? Summer
- Beach or park? Combo – Hike a mountain trail along the edge of the ocean.
- What’s your favorite breakfast food? Shipley’s glazed donuts.
- What’s your most used emoji?
(Orange heart)
- What’s the most beautiful thing you’ve seen in nature? Giant sequoia redwoods
- If you could live anywhere in the world for a year, where would it be? Puerto Rico
- If a movie was made about your life, what would be your theme song? You’ve Got a Friend by Carole King (from the musical “Beautiful”)
- What book do you recommend every chance you get? Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez
- What’s one thing you wish you’d known when you first started doing CCD ministry? To shut up and listen.
- Who is one of your sheroes? Joan of Arc.
- Name: Michelle L. Goudeaux
- City/State: E. Palo Alto, California
- CCDA role: Board member
- Coffee or tea? Both
- Early bird or night owl? Early bird
- Summer or winter? Both
- Beach or park? Park
- What’s your favorite breakfast food? Egg white omelet
- What’s your most used emoji? Red heart
- What’s the most beautiful thing you’ve seen in nature? The burnt orange rock driving through New Mexico as the sun rises
- If you could live anywhere in the world for a year, where would it be? Spain
- If a movie was made about your life, what would be your theme song? It would be a song called “Girl Has Grit” that was written specifically for the movie.
- What book do you recommend every chance you get? The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
- What’s one thing you wish you’d known when you first started doing CCD ministry? It’s heart work, not hard work
- Who is one of your sheroes? Fannie Lou Hamer
- Name: Kit Danley
- City/State: Phoenix AZ
- CCDA role: Board member
- Coffee or tea? Tea
- Early bird or night owl? Both
- Summer or winter: Summer
- Beach or park? Beach
- What’s your favorite breakfast food? Racine Kringle
- What’s your most used emoji?
- What’s the most beautiful thing you’ve seen in nature? Hummingbird nest with newborn chicks
- If you could live anywhere in the world for a year, where would it be? Walking the Arizona Trail (800-mile trail across Arizona from Mexico to Utah)
- If a movie was made about your life, what would be your theme song? “The Lord Hears the Cry of the Poor” (Psalm 34)
- What book do you recommend every chance you get? Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman
- What’s one thing you wish you’d known when you first started doing CCD ministry? Deep relational investment in the community requires an understanding of power and systemic change . . . social justice and community organizing + a contemplative life/mystic activists
- Who is one of your sheroes? I have many: Dorothy Day, Sojourner Truth, Simone Weil, Mother Teresa, Ida B Wells, St. Catherine of Sienna, Denise Levertov.
- Name: Mary Nelson
- City/State: Chicago, Illinois
- CCDA role: Board member
- Coffee or tea? Coffee
- Early bird or night owl? Early bird
- Summer or winter? Summer
- Beach or park? Park
- What’s your favorite breakfast food? Cereal
- What’s your most used emoji? Don’t use them
- What’s the most beautiful thing you’ve seen in nature? Sunset on a lake in Minnesota
- If you could live anywhere in the world for a year, where would it be? East Timor, a struggling, poor country near Australia that is making remarkable progress despite the challenges, where people are loving and hospitable. I would want to be a partner in their efforts.
- If a movie was made about your life, what would be your theme song? “We’ve Come This Far by Faith”
- What book do you recommend every chance you get? Subversive Witness by Dominique Gilliard
- What’s one thing you wish you’d known when you first started doing CCD ministry? That the joy comes through the struggle, the courage comes through prayers and partnership, and to celebrate small victories in the midst of all the other things.
- Who is one of your sheroes? My Mother, Ruth Youngdahl Nelson. She created our home as a part of the ministry (my father was a pastor in Washington DC at that time), making it a haven for the lonely and left out, and our dinner table was an education and awakening for us children throughout the years.
- Name: Bethany Rivera Molinar
- City/State: El Paso, Texas
- CCDA role: CCinco cohort member, board member
- Coffee or tea? That’s a hard one; coffee gets me going, and tea comforts me!
- Early bird or night owl? Early bird
- Summer or winter? Summer
- Beach or park? Beach
- What’s your favorite breakfast food? Menudo!
- What’s your most used emoji?
- What’s the most beautiful thing you’ve seen in nature? El Paso skies – especially our sunsets!
- If you could live anywhere in the world for a year, where would it be? New York City
- If a movie was made of your life, what would be your theme song? “Under Pressure” from “Encanto”
- What book do you recommend every chance you get? Mujerista Theology by Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz
- What’s one thing you wish you’d known when you first started doing CCD ministry? One thing that I wish I knew then and I am still learning now is the depth of the incredible, paradigm shifting, foundation shaking, transforming power of the people already present in our neighborhoods to bring about shalom in our communities.
- Who is one of your sheroes? Carmelita Torres -a transfronteriza Mexicana who stood up to the powers that be in our El Paso Juarez borderlands when she and her people were subjected to inhumane conditions by a racist mayor – look her up! Her story is one that needs to be heard!
- Name: Christina Foor
- City/State: Fayetteville, AR
- CCDA role: Staff (Advocacy and Communications Lead)
- Coffee or tea? Chai
- Early bird or night owl? Night owl
- Summer or winter? Summer – I love swimming!
- Beach or park? Beach – did I mention I love swimming?
- What’s your favorite breakfast food? Pumpkin spice waffles
- What’s your most used emoji?
(the brown version)
- What’s the most beautiful thing you’ve seen in nature? Great Barrier Reef
- If you could live anywhere in the world for a year, where would it be? Sydney, Australia
- If a movie was made of your life, what would be your theme song? “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin
- What book do you recommend every chance you get? In this season of life, I’m recommending liturgy books to help us pray when we don’t know how to – given this season: Every Moment Holy I & II by Douglas McKelvey, To Light Their Way by Kayla Craig, and for kids: Children of God Storybook Bible by Desmond Tutu
- What’s one thing you wish you’d known when you first started doing CCD ministry? The deep grief/anger I’d experience toward injustice coupled with the incredibly deep love of God and neighbor I’d experience. Both/and, not either/or.
- Who is one of your sheroes? Mother Teresa
