Do you know someone whose past is so horrific that they don't believe the Lord could ever reach them? Today we will hear from one woman who the world had given up on...but Jesus never did! You won't want to miss this incredible story.
Kathy McReynolds is the Director of Academic Studies for the Joni and Friends Christian Institute on Disability, where she contributes to the organization on many levels. She develops position papers on the many ethical issues in bioethics that Joni and Friends International Disability Center seek to promote and influence for the benefit of the disabled, as well as contributes to curriculum development for the variety of courses in disability studies that the Institute is creating for Colleges, universities and seminaries around the country.
Kathy graduated with a B.A. in Christian Education from Biola University in 1991, and then she went on to earn an M.A. in Systematic Theology at the Talbot School of Theology, Biola University. She then took five years off, had three children and wrote five books. She then returned to her educational pursuits, earning her Ph.D in Ethics at USC. She specialized in ethical issues in genetic enhancement research.
In 2000, the Biblical Studies Department at Biola University offered Kathy a part-time position. Because of her diverse educational background, she was also offered part-time positions in the English, BOLD, and Apologetics Departments. Her responsibilities involve teaching a variety of subjects, ranging from theology to philosophy to bioethics. Her duties also involved course development and overseeing on-line discussions on various theological and philosophical subjects. Kathy also spent a year and a half as a tutor in the Torrey Honors Institute. Her responsibilities in that department included mentoring students, giving context lectures, and leading sessions. Kathy continues to teach part-time at Biola while serving at Joni and Friends.
Kathy spent the last seven years as an active member of the ethics committee at Children's Hospital in Orange County. She was also a member of the Institutional Review Board committee at the hospital. She has recently been invited to become a member of the ethics committee at UCI Medical Center. Her duties at these institutions involved ethics consultations, participation in review of policy at the hospitals, and continuing ethics education of nurses and residents.
Kathy also serves on the Ethics Committee at Tarzana Hospital in Tarzana, Calif., and was named the Leading Health Care Professional of the World by the International Biographical Center in 2009 along with receiving numerous other prestigious awards in her career. She currently resides in Oak Park, Calif., with Mike, her husband of more than 20 years, and their three beautiful children, Jessica, 16, Moriah, 14, and Jeremiah, 12.