VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Selected as one of Outreach Magazine's "Faces of the Future," Regent business alumna Dr. Elizabeth Rios ('99) has what it takes to shape the future of the Hispanic Evangelical Church. Noting her innovation and methodology in empowering women, Outreach Magazine featured her on the cover of their November/December 2007 issue.

Raised by a single mother in the Manhattan projects, Rios was born with a passion for leadership and empowering women to lead.

“I noticed that in the Spanish Evangelical Church, women were supposed to be strong, but not too strong. They were supposed to have ideas, but never better ideas. I wasn't really good at wearing that mask,” said Rios.

After serving for 10 years as vice president of institutional development at the Latino Pastoral Action Center in New York City, Rios founded the Center for Emerging Female Leadership (CEFL) in 1996, which helped women gain a voice in the church and become ministers in society rather than be confined to "the church kitchen, the prayer circles or Sunday schools," said Rios.

Rios practices what she preaches as a magazine columnist, conference speaker, professor, life coach and most recently ending a three-year adventure as a church planter for Grace Fellowship Church, which she planted with her husband in 2005 near Miami, Fla. Grace Fellowship is the only English-speaking Assemblies of God church plant in the Spanish Southeastern District. The church offered a distinctive leadership style Rios called "blatino," which is a mix of black and Latino leadership and ministry philosophies. Rios and her husband are now attempting their next adventure as she focuses on expanding CEFL and her coaching ministry.

In the past two years alone, Rios founded two other programs for women. Renew, an extension of CEFL, is a year-long mentoring program designed to train and empower women in ministry development, while the new organization, Rebound Life Architects, provides women with coaching and consulting, allowing Rios to share personally about her life experiences in education, building a healthy marriage and caring for her son who suffers from cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus and blindness.

"There's a future after disappointment and failure, it may be the end of a chapter, but never the end of our story," she shares with others.

Amidst her busy schedule, Rios is writing two books titled, Scarred but Still Standing: Thriving After Life Hands You Lemons and Adventures in Church Planting: the Feminine Perspective, which describes the struggles of funding, denominational support and core teams from a woman's point of view.

“As generations continue, more and more young Hispanic women are going to realize they can be the leader at the table. They'll realize they can step up and do whatever God’s calling them to do, whether it be in church or society.”

To find out more about Dr. Elizabeth Rios, visit www.lizrios.com.

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The School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship (GLE) is one of seven graduate schools within Regent University and is located in Virginia Beach, Va. Offering fully-accredited master's and doctoral degrees in a flexible online format, GLE provides rigorous, yet innovative academic programs that can accommodate even the busiest professionals. For more information, visit www.regent.edu/global.