ABHMS Fills Key Positions on Leadership Empowerment Team
VALLEY FORGE, PA (1/20/23)— American Baptist Home Mission Societies (ABHMS) is pleased to announce that Alexzandria Sanchez was hired as National Coordinator for Scholarships and Emerging Leaders after an exhaustive national search. She previously served as a digital content coordinator for ABHMS. In her new role, Sanchez will manage ABHMS’ comprehensive scholarship and continuing education grant programs and be the main liaison between ABHMS and its emerging leaders and scholars network.
Commenting on this key addition to the Leadership Empowerment Team, Dr. Jeffrey Haggray, ABHMS Executive Director, said, “Ms. Sanchez exhibits the insight, drive, thoughtfulness, and poise we seek in young leaders asked to join our staff. She will be a tremendous asset to her clients and colleagues alike.”
The Rev. Lauren Ng, Director of Leadership Empowerment, concurred, describing Sanchez as a stellar candidate. “We were impressed by her skills, said Rev. Ng, “but more so by her earnest expression of affinity for the mission of helping students to become leaders while strengthening their faith and gaining clarity in their vocation,”
Remarking on her new responsibilities, Sanchez said that she looks forward to changing lives through the remarkable gift of education. “I know from experience that scholarships can be vital to a student’s higher education goals,” she said. “Because I received a full-merit scholarship, I can now proudly say that I am a first-generation Latina graduate.”
Sanchez sees her job as more than connecting students to scholarships. It is also about building continuing relationships. “I have a goal of cultivating cohorts of students and eventually an alumni network, to provide mentoring, internship opportunities, and more,” she said.
Sanchez holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, with minors in politics and Latinx studies, from Ithaca College.
ABHMS further strengthened the Leadership Empowerment Team by promoting Juliana Herrera to a critical support position, Coordinator of Scholarships and Special Projects. Her responsibilities include serving as the primary contact for students while their scholarship applications are in process and ushering chaplaincy applicants through their endorsement process. “Ms. Herrera’s attention to detail and friendly demeanor made her an ideal choice for this role,” said Rev. Ng.
Herrera earned a bachelor’s degree in international economic relations from the Universidad Autonoma de Colombia and is pursuing a master’s in nonprofit management at the University of Maryland.
More information about the work of ABHMS as a driving force in cultivating leaders and assisting students is available at abhms.org.
American Baptist Home Mission Societies partners with American Baptists to promote Christian faith, cultivate Christ-centered leaders and disciples, and bring healing and transformation to communities across the United States and Puerto Rico.
American Baptist Churches USA is one of the most diverse Christian denominations today, with approximately 5,000 congregations comprised of 1.3 million members, across the United States and Puerto Rico, all engaged in God’s mission around the world.
