Dr. Selma DeJesus-Zayas is Director of mental health at Creative Connections in Florida after becoming the first Hispanic graduate of Fuller Seminary's School of Psychology.
Her team has gained national awards based on a ground-up strategy that encourages prison inmates to gain small victories such as finishing high school, getting an SSI card and driver's license, staying physically fit, and volunteering to serve.
Her team innovated with an in-house radio program covering personal growth issues.
"The penal system is often a breeding ground for criminal thinking," she acknowledges, but her answer is to challenge inmates' mindsets with hope and by recapturing true values based on a holistic biblical perspective.