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The Christian Thing To Do


Lori Pappas

Lori Pappas

CEO

Global Team for Local Initiatives, Ethiopian Aid Organization

All I have to do is redefine success.

About Lori

  • Says when she was growing up, women were expected to be teachers, secretaries, or stay-at-home moms and housewives.
  • She always preferred to do office work, so she worked in a series of companies doing computerizing.
  • Eventually built up the knowledge and funding to start her own tech company; ended up selling it at the height of the tech market.
  • After selling her company, she "tried to be retired"; practiced golf, worked for nonprofits, traveled extensively.
  • On a trip to Niger, she saw a girl her granddaughter's age with flies on her eyes; learned that these flies cause unnecessary blindness.
  • Realized she could no longer partake in the shallowness of listening to her peers complaining about their multi-million-dollar homes not selling.
  • Started the Global Team for Local Initiatives, which works to increase the lifespans of indigenous African peoples; now spends half her year living in Ethiopia.
  • Says she needed to experience the traditional "American Dream," in order to realize that she had a different definition of what that dream should be.