For Axia’s first seven years, I was the person who did all the WOW interviews, and had such great conversations with so many amazing women. So, as in early 2020 when I did my own WOW, it feels more than a little strange to be putting together my own update!

The biggest item for me is that I am stepping down from my role at Axia. For most of the last seven years, I was both founder and president. I loved working with my incredibly talented fellow founding board to make my/our vision of Orthodox women blossom on our website and social media. It has been one of the greatest joys of my life to talk to so many of you, meet so many in person, and get to talk in all sorts of far-flung places about Orthodox women’s lives, spirituality, and value. I found it exhilarating every time we were able to bring women together across our jurisdictional divides and hear for myself how deep the conversations went so quickly. 

Our first panel discussion was about bringing faith to the workplace–it gave us immediate proof of concept, especially when the panelists ended up meeting on their own afterward because they had enjoyed the conversation so much. Axia also showed me so much of the hard side of being a woman in our beloved church; it could be exhausting to spend time working to make those things better, or at least to support others through it. Some really important things have changed for the better in the last ten years, though. Among other things, it’s no longer an anomaly in some jurisdictions to have women in the choir or reading the epistle, or sitting on diocesan councils. About ten years ago, I put together a list of women serving the church in a wide variety of roles, and the list ran to twenty single-spaced pages. I recently revisited that list, and before I got tired of typing and stopped, the list had reached over thirty pages! Maybe I’ll be part of a panel discussion that talks about that someday.

I’ve learned a lot about myself in these last seven years. One thing that helped came from a Leadership Education conference at Duke Divinity, where I received a copy of Tracey Gee’s The Magic of Knowing What You Want. The exercises in the book helped me tune in to my own wants, which was definitely not something that I learned as part of my childhood education! 

Shortly after I finished that book, I was also fortunate enough to begin executive coaching from the remarkable Dr. Ioana Popa. For me, it was a perfectly structured program. I grew up in a family of scientists, and I live with and very often have conversations with theologians. Her coaching is as scientifically based as it is theologically sound, which worked for me. She had me begin with learning to process grief. It wasn’t where I had expected to begin! I had lost a friend who was as close to me as a sister twenty years ago, and—between a demanding corporate job and two young children—I had never had a chance to process it fully. Over the following years, I lost too many other dear friends, relatives, and in-laws (which accelerated during the pandemic);  my mother also fell into dementia and died 18 months ago. Learning to grieve fully was key to unlocking peace and joy, and I couldn’t be more grateful. All the subsequent built on that foundation.

All this internal work showed me that my overarching goal no longer had much to do with Axia. That was a surprise, to say the least. I had intended to finish out my second term as president, which would have ended in June 2027. But earlier this summer, a number of things coincided beautifully in a way that allowed me to step down from my leadership role. I feel like an amazing chapter of my life closed exactly the way it should have. I am grateful to everyone who made that possible–Jen, Rebecca, Amber, Jenna, I’m looking at you!--and I cannot wait to see how the team at Axia carries the organization forward.

What’s next? I’m waiting to see where God wants me. In the meantime, my husband and I are starting the process of ridding our home of everything that doesn’t serve us. I have a clear idea of what I am no longer interested in (teaching Greek, editing manuscripts, making pasta, weaving bead jewelry, stargazing). I can move all the things that supported those activities (and so much more!) out of the house and wherever they need to go. I’ll be keeping the books, the yarn, the fabric stash, the raised vegetable beds, the cooking gear, and the cats!

I also look forward to spending more time in academic research. In 2023, I was lucky enough to be able to join my husband when he took ten weeks of his sabbatical in Cambridge, UK. Axia’s team kept our communications and events rolling, while our hosts at the International Orthodox Christian Studies did the paperwork so that I could have access to the University’s incredible library collection. As some of you might know, I have a doctorate in Modern Greek literature. For the last thirty years, when I wasn’t working my corporate job in communications, I have been working on the folktales of the Greeks from the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor. The research and analysis I did while at IOCS gave me the chance to do a deep analysis of a single folktale about an old woman who seeks advice from the sun—and learned more than I expected! The article that resulted was ultimately published a year ago in Fabula, the top folk narrative journal–a heady achievement for an independent researcher. I hope to carry that work forward, looking at least another twelve folktales from different Black Sea regions, and perhaps producing a few translations while I’m at it.

Also: about a year ago, I also started working with a spiritual director for the first time. I’ve wanted one since I was baptized in Greece in 1986 (40 years!), and feel immensely fortunate that the monk who has so often said the most useful things to me over the last decade or so agreed to meet with me on a regular basis. I feel a great need to get to know God much better than I do, and I could use your prayers, if you have some to spare, to help me do that.

More prosaically, I have joined a local knitting group, attend my son’s shows when his band is in town, visit my daughter in grad school, started learning Italian, spend time in a long-distance sewing circle with my sister and a decades-long friend whom my mother also taught that craft, and enjoy hanging out with my husband. I still head to Houston at least four times a year to see my 96-year-old father and his friends. If I run into you somewhere, be it in the New York area or  wherever else, feel free to let me know. I’ll always love hearing what you are up to! Until then, I am certain that God has his hand over Axia and is working with the amazing women on the staff, board, and advisory council to take it where he wants it to go. May it be a blessing to you, the Church in all her manifestations, and the world at large.