About the Author

Lydia Meredith is the founder of Beacon of Hope, Inc.—Renaissance Learning Center, with a mission to strengthen families and communities and lift poor children and their families out of poverty. Lydia has Master Degrees in Business, Christian Education, and Public Policy from Vanderbilt University, The Interdenominational Theological Center, and Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, respectively. She married and had three sons with Reverend Dennis A. Meredith, who is now an openly gay pastor and leading a congregation of over one-thousand members—predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. She and the pastor divorced in 2008, but remain close friends.