Staff Christmas Pic – Let me introduce you to my team!
We had our staff Christmas party Saturday night for the core team. Such a fun night! My staff director, Linda, hosted it at her house — which she always does up so beautifully. (I’m always jealous; the gene for ‘how to decorate for the holidays is not present in my DNA.) We were missing a few people who I wish had been able to be there, like Naomi and Melinda, who arrange my personal-relationships and corporate speaking for me, but live in Dallas and Portland, and Tally, my senior researcher who wrote The Good News About Marriage with me, who lives in Ohio. We were also missing an amazing array of contractors, like Angela who does all of our design work, but lives in California, and a fantastic team of other specialists like writers, editors, and the like, but I was grateful to spend such a fun evening with my amazing core, Atlanta-based team!
These women are truly wonderful, dedicated, and excellent at what they do. Let me introduce them to you.
From left to right:
Theresa is my executive assistant. If you’ve ever booked me for an event in the last few years, she’s been the sweet voice on the phone working out e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g with you, and being so helpful about every little detail. If I arrive on time, on the right flight, at the right entrance to the right building, with the right speaking notes in hand, selling the right books at the book table, it’s because of her! She takes great care of me (and the event organizers who work with her!), organizes all the office stuff and all the books (both are quite the job, trust me), manages all the incoming emails, and keeps all the trains running, so to speak. Standing behind her in the picture is her wonderful husband, John. A really good guy with a big heart.
Caroline is my digital content manager. If you’re a partner ministry who uses our content, or reading these words on a blog or via social media, it’s because of her! She interfaces with all our partners, our writers, and makes sure that all the great content we create is seen by others. She has been with us for almost a year now, and I don’t know what we did without her! As you can tell, she is just weeks away from welcoming baby #2, and will be taking a bit of time off early in the New Year to juggle a 16 month old and a newborn! Her warm and funny husband, Jason, is standing behind her. Making all the other men look short.
Then there’s me and Jeff. You know us already! (Fun fact: I had literally just flown in from New York a few hours before, so I had given zero thought to what I was going to wear and had hardly any jewelry on, but Theresa rescued me by giving me a beautiful long necklace as a Christmas present, which I immediately put on!)
On the right is Linda, my amazing staff and operations director. She has been with me for nine years, since the very early days of For Women Only, and has built this organization from the ground, up. She runs the whole thing. If you’ve ever read one of my books, looked through my research, listened to me speak, read an article or a blog, heard me sharing something in the media, gone through a corporate event, participated in one of our Bible Studies, or been impacted by anything we’ve put out, it’s because she has made it possible. She manages everything the staff does, the website, all the details of the ministry and corporate side of things, in order to free me up so I can do the research with people, sit at my computer and put words on paper about it, and fly somewhere to walk onstage and speak about it. Everything else is Linda; she either manages the team (not just staff but lots of contractors) to get it done, or on many things (like the website) does it herself. She also is the backbone of a lot of our corporate stuff, and my top corporate trainer. She’s a woman of prayer and insight and discernment. I’m so blessed in an amazing, amazing right-hand-woman. Behind her is her husband Don, a great man who is also one of the smartest people I know.
All of us on this core staff team also are very aware that so much of what we do is dependent on YOU! You are the ones who share our research and our books by word of mouth. You are the counselors who take our findings and use them to encourage a struggling couple. You are the parents who speak differently to your kids because of what you read. You are the pastors or church leaders or corporate execs who want to see lives and relationships changed. You are the men and women who want to learn and grow, and share with others. At this time of year when we count all the blessings God has given us, we’re immensely grateful for YOU.