I am the son of immigrants and the first in my family to graduate high school. Faith has always been an important part of my journey. Early church experiences including Lutheran, Wesleyan, and Catholic traditions before my family joined a Pentecostal congregation in Washington, DC. My spiritual home has evolved over the years, and I’ve tried to appropriately bring my values into the work that I do. It has been a blessing to serve as the Deputy Director for Religious Affairs on the 2008 Obama presidential campaign, as head of outreach to a range of belief communities in the White House Office of Public Engagement from 2009-2013. I later served as national director of AmeriCorps Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) before being tapped as Acting Director of the Community Relations Service (CRS) at the Justice Department in 2016. From 2017-2022 I worked as Chief of Staff to the President & Assistant Vice President of External Affairs at Howard University. President Biden nominated me to return to CRS in December 2021 and the U.S. Senate confirmed my nomination in April 2022.