Betsy Faber

After a successful, but demanding, 25-year corporate career, I gleefully took early retirement in August 2013. Not long after my big send-off, I had a fateful lunch date, reconnecting with my old friend Cissy Brady-Rogers. I divulged my long-held aspiration of someday working with a nonprofit, and she divulged her long-held interest in someday starting one. Cissy shared her vision for this nonprofit, one that supported self-care for women, and with that, a beautiful God-filled partnership was born! We spent the next year researching nonprofits and laying the groundwork, and in January 2015 we held our first Board meeting, with me serving as Board Chair.

I was immediately drawn to Cissy’s vision of Alive and Well Women, especially the focus on empowerment of women. I have predominately lived and worked in male-dominated worlds. I was the only daughter in my family (with two brothers), I graduated from law school at a time when women comprised less than 30% of the student body, I worked in a male-dominated field, married a man and raised only sons. In the process, I discovered how vital my female support system is to my wellbeing. I also found that, after much trial and error, I had intuitively embraced many of the core principles of Alive and Well Women and found my own self-care path, but I wish I’d been exposed to the Alive and Well Women model sooner!

Since that pre-destined lunch with Cissy in 2013, it has been heartening to see the receptivity and support for Alive and Well Women. I look forward to bringing our programs, workshops and small groups, teaching on women’s self-care, and identify development, and, ultimately the empowering message of God’s love, to as many women as possible.