I am a Chattanooga, TN gal, born and raised. My professional career began in the entertainment industry in television and motion picture production. After tiring of freelance work, I attended law school and became a labor and employment litigator. I met my husband, Will, while he was a third year OBGYN resident at Vanderbilt. We married and moved away from Nashville but yet found our way “home” 7 years ago. We have been married 16 years and have two teenage boys, Cooper and Patrick. After our boys were born, I stopped practicing law full time while continuing to work in various law related jobs on a part-time basis. When the Lord brought us back to Nashville, I became in-house counsel for a national franchise. I resigned from that job after a couple of years and not so patiently waited to see what the Lord had for me. It turns out that He had Larry and Mary Bolden, Wellspring Group and the Battle waiting for me! A sweet and life changing surprise!

Wellspring Group and the Battle process has transformed my heart and my life. I was raised in a Christian home and came to know the Lord as a young girl but yet didn’t understand or appreciate how deeply I am loved and that God delights in me. As a reluctant participant at my first Battle retreat, I had very low expectations and was proven dead wrong. The Lord used that first retreat to reveal a mystery about my heart that was impacting the way I parented my two boys and the poor way I was relating to my husband. My heavenly Father pursued me through the Battle material and my fellow teammates. The deeper I dove into the process, the more alive my heart became.

Before Battle, I was able to easily access negative emotions and rarely, if ever, experienced deep, satisfying joy. After being introduced to the idea that the Lord loves me for who I am and not for the items I check off my to-do list or my professional successes, I was released from a life of striving and launched on a journey to uncover the role that God had for me to play in His larger story. I was expecting that role to be something in my skill set..something I was familiar with. Go back to practicing law or find a job helping a business to grow as their in-house counsel. Dead wrong again. That role presented itself as an unexpected call from one of the pastors at my church, West End Community, with the suggestion that I interview for a staff position with the church. After much prayer and determining that this was indeed the role He was calling me to, I accepted a position working with our church’s women’s ministry, small groups and supporting our Battle groups.

My newly re-calibrated heart was being drawn to a life of serving Him and others. Since joining the church staff 2 years ago, I have had the privilege of walking with women through celebrations and hardships, all the while honing my heart pursuing skills learned through Battle. I no longer see relationships as transactional but as opportunities to share my heart and to experience deep community with others. My role as a Board member is another way the Lord has asked me to step into His larger story. It is a privilege to serve on the Board of a ministry that has been instrumental in my spiritual and personal growth and a ministry that I have seen transform the lives of others in a real and tangible way.