The most consistent and persistent job/calling I have had throughout my life is youth ministry. Throughout attending Michigan State University and University of Michigan and even before having my own children, I was teaching Sunday School and volunteering at youth camps throughout Michigan. While raising our 3 wonderful kids with my awesome husband Mark, I was serving as staff at camps so that our kids were “honorary Senior High Campers” as newborns, toddlers and elementary school kids. I coordinated Bluewater Campground camps for approximately 7 years prior to moving to Huntsville, Alabama. I have continued to teach Sunday School and lead youth ministries at every congregation we have served in Michigan, Alabama, Illinois, and now back in Michigan. I am an Elder and the first woman ordained in the Community of Christ in the Detroit Area in 1985, but I do have a day job. 

I’m an industrial hygienist, which means I prevent worker illnesses and injuries. Prior to returning to independent consulting and expert practice, I practiced industrial hygiene management on a global scale for both AbbVie, pharmaceutical company and LafargeHolcim, the world’s largest cement corporation. I have invested over 25 years in practicing occupational hygiene in a wide variety of high hazard industries and I continue to provide expert witnessing, management, training, and select field services to sectors such as the pharmaceutical, automotive, military, hospital, electronic, food, chemical, and commercial facility industries. In my profession’s volunteer realm, I currently serve as the Chair of the University of Michigan Graduate School of Public Health COHSE External Advisory Board, and I serve as the President-Elect of the American Industrial Hygiene Association Executive Board of Directors. I am a busy person, but providing an opportunity for children to learn that Jesus is their best friend will always come first.