What the Buzz? New Year, New Play

What do Don Rickles, Mathew Broderick, and Woody Allen have in common?

All had the opportunity to work with CJ Critt.

She was hand-picked by Woody Allen for a close-up scene in Start Dust Memories, a 1980’s hit. “I was on a gurney next to him, Tony Roberts and the female lead while he, like a mad scientist, created the perfect woman.”

Now living in Oak Cliff, CJ is a respected theater artist in both New York City and Texas, but she came a long way from home. Carol Jane Crittenden was born in Portland, Oregon, in a hospital while her father was out fishing. After her birth he declared, “We caught a big one!”

She was raised in Lake Oswego, Oregon, “A beautiful, woodsy suburb of Portland,” according to CJ. The baby of her family, she has an older sister and brother who live in the Pacific Northwest. Her sister retired from running a bookstore, Powells, in Portland, and her big brother, fromselling lumber where he lives in “the ultimate man-cave log home,” outside of Seattle.  Her eldest brother is retired fromthe Marine Corp. and resides in Washington, DC. 

No one in the family is a professional creative like CJ, so she’s had no breaks, CJ says, “There’s was no ‘Uncle Lou in the Business’ to help me.”

But she’s used to making her own way.

Now she’s preparing to launch her original musical comedy, a wild satiretitled “Buzzed,” one of many completed shows and the culmination of her many decades in the profession as an actor, singer, writer and occasionally a stand-up comic. She admits she wasn’t great at the latter. “I will always remember someone yelling from a crowd in downtown Los Angeles, ‘Too intelligent!  Tell a joke!’ And it was terrifying. If not ‘killing it,’ as the saying goes, one could suffer beaucoup flop sweat!”

GROWING UP

CJ attended school in Lake Oswego, and as she was growing, she remembers, “Every few years they would add a new school and split up the graduating class. You got used to being taken from your friends or your place as top dog.” CJ learned to roll with these punches, as the saying goes, to forge her strong character and career.

Even with the constant change, she thrived in school: she was a National Merit Scholar, competed in speech tournaments that took her to State and National competitions, sang with the Choir on a big trip to Europe in the 70’s, and wrote wild articles about it for the Lake Oswego Review - the first time she was published. She also did a lot of “hammy” parts in plays, using her gift of comic timing and love of the ‘funny’ to make audiences laugh.

CJ attended U.S.I.U. School of Performing Arts in San Diego and remembers, “It was fairly glorious. We would sing, walking down the streets of downtown San Diego, and the better tap dancers would dance. It gave the sailors something to ogle for sure.” After two years, CJ set her sights east and the New York Theater, and attended and graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

In her first job out of college, CJ played Miss LaBouche’, wearing a giant towel with large, unreliable safety pins in the “less than stellar” dinner theater comedy called “Ladies Night in a Turkish Bath.”

“It was in the middle of Ohio, and oh so isolated,” CJ remembers, “We slept underground, and the stage would rise from the basement with the actors on it after they had cleared the roast beef out of the middle of the place.”

CJ explains, “I had done shows before but I consider “Ladies Night in a Turkish Bath” my first professional one, because they flew us to Ohio, fed us, housed us, and gave us our weekly dough - although there was nowhere to spend it! No Amazon or streaming for us back then!”

FAMILY BUZZ

CJ met David May, her Significant Other (from Grande Prairie) through Chuck Montgomery, a mutual friend,  Chuck was an aspiring actor and a “Guitar Comedian.” Then she and David wrote and performed a wild cabaret together, “Romped Out.”

David was a writer-actor-singer who also worked as a bartender at the famed New York Improv. CJ was an actress hawking Tide, Comet and Dr. Pepper for Madison Avenue by day and at night would go and watch the upcoming comedians in the area: young, funny unknowns, yet soon to be famous comedians including Larry David, Richard Lewis, Bill Mahr, and many future TV writers. 

“Chuck told David to work with - or hire me for - an ad campaign about underwear. He did, I started visiting the club, getting a peek at great comics and a cheap bar tab, and pretty soon staked my claim on him.” The two have been together ever since - 35 years and counting.

CJ and David have two rescues, “puppy children,” she says are “who arewildly spoiled and run our lives,” she admits. “Alice is a zillion years old and I am keeping her going on pain meds, cooked vegetables, flax seed oil and lots of compliments.  She is fond of purple and being told she’s pretty. Seriously. She also lunges at the TV if dogs appear in commercials or if she sees scenes on horseback.” CJ adds, “Even with reduced mobility, Alice is still all personality.”

Their second pup, Archie, is middle aged. “He’s over 70 pounds and zips through the house like a rodeo animal with boundless jumping and charging energy. Both came to us via the frontyard. Both demanding and getting lots of attention, plus couch time to heal us and slobber over themselves.”

INSPIRATION

CJ said Mid-century musicals made into movies, such as My Fair Lady and The Music Man, and even Peter Pan starring Mary Martin, inspired her to become an actress. She also enjoyed the Disney teen stars of the 60’s, “F-Troop” on TV and cartoons.  When she was very small, she thought, “we could grow up to be cartoon characters and I really wanted to do that.”

CJ felt lucky to have a favorite aunt who was a natural comedian, Charmaine, called Aunt Chick. “She had a lot of kids and great confidence as the matriarch of her home and was very funny to boot, probably a necessity in Oregon where it rained all the time and we were stuck inside.”

Success in the theater industry comes hard, and CJ admits to a few flops or “Maybe too many to list them all because in a 45 year-longprofession as a performer and voice artist, stuff IS going to happen!”

For example, “There was a national tour of the Rocky Horror Show, where Riff Raff dropped me during the Time Warp and I just had to hop up like it was nothing and tap dance away.” CJ recalls. “And there were kids in Canada who rushed the stage and stole souvenirs from our dressing rooms.” 

When she was in her 40’s she played a 70-year-old, wicked Irish matriarch in a professional production with no help at all on the age make-up or a lesson or a prosthesis or a subscription to Face Off, “and the local theatre scribes kept bringing up kabuki (a form of traditional Japanese drama with highly stylized song, mime and face make up) in the reviews. CJ admits, “It was not a happy comparison!”

Besides the long hours of writing, rehearsing, late nights honing her craft while watching others, she does it all for one simple reason: Joy.

“It brings me JOY! And because I can, and so many would love a creative life if they only knew they could - and then, bravelytook action.”

What’s the BUZZ?

Through it all CJ says she is most proud of her persistence. “I’m not giving up on my dreams. Just because I am a certain age, a female, or people told me no. So maybe I am less than 100% physically - or any of the usual excuses -  I stay focused on onward momentum and am celebrating joy every day. Choose it or lose it!”

Her biggest challenge now is getting her bucket list fulfilled “while body, budgetand the fates' still allow.” 

She admits to living frugally so she can pay the bills, travel, support both her and other’s art, pay for Sling, vet meds, tip well when she dines out in Oak Cliff, and “compensate talent when we work together.”

When she's not working on her own production, she offers assistance with Musical Writers Academy when they have festivals or need actors to volunteer for table reads, an early step in the development of new stage works, like plays and musicals.

THE FUTURE BUZZ

Her Bucket List may be fulfilled soon as “Buzzed,” her hilarious musical about bees which carry a certain libido altering sting, comes to fruition.

“Buzzed!” is the culmination of her decades of experience in the theater, as a staff writer for Disney Radio, and a storytelling of over 200 audio books as ace narrator CJ Critt. Never a dull moment or a boring second act. The challenge, CJ says, is building the right team of creative partners, “cultivating the area relationships that thrive,” including friends she still has in New York City.

She points out that the show is meant to make people laugh –and let go, be unafraid ofhaving fun, and experience joy. “It’s a bit like those sci-fi pop-rock delights like ‘Little Shop of Horrors.’”

But at the end of BUZZED! no-one dies because CJ delivers the satisfaction of a happy ending.

“I want people to leave feeling good about the play, themselves, and the joy of life.”

She wants to make sure the audience leaves the theater with "a happy glow from letting go!"

If CJ Critt has her way, that will be a buzz that lasts for days.

Want to learn more or Bee involved in the production of this new show? 

Check out: cjcritt.com or contact cjcritt@mac.com

Cable Ace Winner & Voice of 200 Audio books

Judy Porter, MBA, is a writer in Dallas who focuses on individuals, non-profits and small businesses which are making a positive difference in their community.

The original cast of BUZZED included:

CJ Critt
Natalie King 
Rebecca Cordes (Composer and Musical Director)
Joshua Kumler
Alexandra Daniels
Jamal Houston
Ellen Eberhardt
Barry Young (Composer)

Danielle Francingues Knows Students with Autism Have a Long Road Ahead of Them – Fortunately, She’s a Long-distance Runner

Business Owner, teacher, tutor, consultant, and advocate for those who can’t speak for themselves, Danielle Francingues feels that sometimes getting through the toughest time of your life requires extraordinary resilience - and may produce amazing results. 

Danielle knows what that’s like. “The toughest time of my life was my senior year in high school. We moved from Dallas to New Orleans, my parents got divorced, both grandparents on my dad's side passed, then I had to leave home and go to college.” She had no say in all that occurred, so she had to focus her energy elsewhere.

While some people run away from their troubles, Danielle ran through them. She joined her new school’s cross-country team her senior year and competed in the state competition. And she ran fast: “My mile run was under 6 minutes.”

Running helped her clear her head of all that was happening in her personal life and prepared her for her future working with students who are often frustrating to teach because they can’t talk about their emotions or problems – or at all.

Growing Up

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Danielle lived in NOLA until the 3rd grade when her family moved to Dallas. She lived happily in Dallas for 10 years and attended Bishop Lynch High School where she played volleyball, ran track, and was the boys’ baseball team manager.

But her move back to New Orleans her senior year was a tough surprise, leaving her friends and teammates in east Dallas behind. She finished her high school career at Archbishop Hannan, where she played volleyball and ran cross country. She acknowledges it’s fortunate she has a particularly good sense of direction, because sometimes the high school cross country courses are not well marked. Getting off track or lost can happen.

But Danielle kept her head down during her senior year and graduated with a vision to help others going through tough times. She admits she is also very attuned to the people around her, which makes her an excellent teacher and tutor for those who can’t say what they’re thinking.

She attended the University of New Orleans for a year and then completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in general studies and a minor is Psychology. She went on to obtain a Master's in Teaching with a Special Education focus at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

She landed a teaching job right out of college in the Calcasieu Parish School District in Lake Charles, LA, teaching in a Special Education self-contained classroom. 

Teaching Through Tough Times

But after teaching for 11 years in most Special Education class types, “I found there was too much red tape and the curriculum for Special Education was not sufficient.”

Frustrated, Danielle looked for a better way to connect with her students. She was introduced to a method of communication and teaching called RPM (Rapid Prompting Method) that presumes competence for non-verbal learners. Rapid Prompting Method (RPM), was developed by a parent of a child with autism to teach communication through a system of quickly delivered prompts, meant to match the rate at which a student might engage in stereotypic behaviors.

“I knew that this was the future for special education,” Danielle says. She began tutoring using this method and loved the results. “So, when the opportunity presented itself in 2019, I took my tutoring side job full time.”

She met her business partner, Adriana Barriga, soon after Danielle was introduced to RPM. “I found out that we had a mutual client and I asked to observe her work with him and would ask her questions about the program when I saw her.”

The two work together because, Danielle says, “We are the only two people in DFW who provide the official RPM technique and we share an office space for the ease of the clients.” They have a combined 20 years of experience teaching Special Education in both the public and private sectors. They noticed a need for more individualized instruction after the school day ends and launched their business at 135 E Harwood Road in Hurst, Texas in September 2019. They plan to move to Lewisville/Carrollton area by November, but their students come from all over the metroplex. 

Helping the Non-verbal Student

Danielle loves being able to help families see the potential in their students.

She also advises parents about their children’s rights in their school system and the correct procedures for each individual student at his or her school. “At Open Pathways, we usually provide tutoring and classes, using the Rapid Prompting Method in academics, hobbies, and life skills to help people with Autism and other communication related disorders.”

Recognizing that Covid set many students back, Open Pathways is ready to help by offering tutoring services to anyone who may need them. 

At Home 

When she’s not tutoring or advocating for her students, Danielle enjoys her pets:  a cat named Dallas and a dog named Cheyenne. She’s an avid cross-stitcher at home. But when she goes out, she enjoys hiking, kayaking, working out, reading, meeting up with friends, live comedy, and music. While working at Deanie’s Seafood in Bucktown, LA, she met a few celebrities including comedian Bernie Mack.

She admits a sense of humor helps in her current job as a private tutor and special education advocate. “It’s good to be positive when working with students of all abilities. We presume competence in them, especially with non-verbal clients. We start by giving them choices and then work up to them using a stencil for them to spell and communicate. It is a parent-lead program, so it does need to be worked on at home with parents.”

Her current success with her students gives her hope for their future – and her own. “In five to 10 years, I hope that we have expanded the individual tutoring to small group sessions or even a homeschool cohort or co-op. Eventually, I hope to make presuming competence a nationwide initiative.”

As the saying goes, Danielle is in it for the long haul, running this race to help her students win – at school, and in life.

For more information on Open Pathways LLC, see the website: pathwaysteaching.com

Or contact Danielle Francingues, MA Ed at pathwaysteaching.com or call 682-503-9967.

Judy Porter, MBA. writes about local non-profits, small businesses and heroes in the Dallas Metroplex. Contact her at judy-porter@sbcglobal.net

What would you do to meet Sting?

Oak Cliff resident Christine Horstman has led a pretty colorful life for a computer geek and librarian.

“My sister and I met Sting once which was awesome. I entered each of us in a contest at Sound Warehouse - that’s how old I am, LOL - and she won! We flew to Madrid to go to his concert and had a meet and greet.”

The bubbly blonde admits, “People usually laugh when they hear I was both a computer programmer and a reference librarian. I am very talkative and a people person so that tends to surprise them. While short-lived, I got a lot out of each experience.”

She met her husband of 22 years, Doug, when they both grew up in Lake Highlands. “We’ve known each other since I was 16. He, my sister, and her husband have been best friends since high school.” Doug works for Targetbase, a marketing agency, in Irving.

Although her life sounds charmed, she had a big scare 16 years ago.

Deal with It, Doll!

“I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer when my son was 18 months old. It was rough and it took a lot of support from my family and friends, especially my sister who helped care for my son.”

Since then, her health has been up and down. “I live with multiple chronic illnesses so there’s been a lot of challenging times.”

This led her to her current status – published author. She just finished writing a book called, Deal with It, Doll!: Coaching Yourself through Crisis. “Writing and journaling help me cope in general and I hope the lessons I’ve learned working as a coach and living with chronic illness will help others get through their toughest time.”

Life and Work

Born in Connecticut, her family moved to Freehold, New Jersey - where Bruce Springsteen is from - when she was seven, then moved to Dallas when she was 12. “I went to Ursuline and Lake Highlands. I was on the drill team at UA and played volleyball at both UA and LHHS.”

Christine graduated from Boston College with a major in Political Science and a minor in Women’s Studies, where she was active in the Residence Hall Association and was a member of the Golden Eagle’s dance team. Her favorite part of college was studying abroad in Barcelona.

Her family-owned Papyrus, a stationary store, in NorthPark Mall for many years, so when she first came home from college, she went into the family business and helped her mom and sister at the shop.

Her first “real” job was as a Programmer Analyst for the City of Dallas. ”The economy was terrible and there were hiring freezes at all levels of government. I wanted to work in municipal government and had previously interned for the Department of Economic Development. I was hoping to get my foot in the door at the City. I had to reprogram the payroll system which was terrifying.”

Eventually she moved on to creating her own company, Paper Doll Communication.

“I started first as a small business consultant. I still do a lot of corporate trainings and work as a professional development instructor, but most of my private clients are one-on-one coaching clients. I realized using my managerial background helping individuals with their career and personal development was a better fit for my own work/life balance, and I find it more rewarding.”

The best thing about working in her business? “Hands down it’s helping others and seeing their confidence grow. Because I focus on communication, emotional intelligence, and soft skills, I am constantly learning and growing, too.” She is a Certified Professional Coach, Certified Career Coach, and an Accredited DISC Trainer, a theory that helps better understand human behavior.

Some folks might recognize her from the successful professional development series she created - she was a frequent presenter for the Dallas Public Library's "Ask a Career Coach Series.

Community

When Christine isn’t working to help people grow their soft skills and business, she enjoys volunteering. She’s serves on the Advancement Committee and as the president for the newly formed Parents’ Association for Bishop Dunne High School where her son is a junior. Last year she was on the Circle of Friends board for New Friends, New Life, a nonprofit with a mission to help formerly trafficked women and girls rebuild their lives. She’s still an active supporter of the agency.

And she started the Oak Cliff chapter of Young Men’s Service League to instill the importance of service in her son, “And to have an activity we could do together. It’s been such a fun thing to do with other mothers and sons. I have met and reconnected with a lot of great women in starting the chapter. It’s been bright spot during the pandemic.” She’s also on the Arthritis Foundation of North Texas’ Jingle Bell Run committee.

And when she’s not working or volunteering, she admits to running around the neighborhood out of necessity: “We have a Labrador Houdini. Our yellow lab/golden retriever mix, Woodrow, is an escape artist. When our house was under construction, we were living in a hotel, and he got us kicked out.” Woodrow keeps her paying attention to her surroundings – making sure he’s where he should be, safe at home.

Overcoming the Pandemic

Her book, she says, is a timely resource to help people grow through change and deal with life’s many curveballs with resilience, confidence, and hope.

“We could not have imagined with our clever ‘2020 vision’ slogans at the start of the new year that we would get a collective punch to the gut come spring.” She says, “You may be going along swimmingly in life and out of nowhere face your own crisis. You may have already had more challenges than seem fair for one person to endure. Whether you are still trying to process the pandemic or dealing with a crisis of your own creation, Deal with It, Doll! will leave you feeling less alone and so much stronger.”

Our collective health crisis inspired her book, but it’s written for the typical curveballs of life.

“It was written for the stuff many of us face personally and professionally in any given year. The changes most of us will deal with in our lifetimes: parenting, careers, finances. Handling failures and fractures and managing our relationships. Health problems. All of it.”

Christine says that through each new phase in life, we have the opportunity to grow through change. “When the literal and figurative masks come off, who are you, Doll? Who do you want to be and how are you going to make the most of your life, especially when things aren’t going your way? Your struggles, your shifts, your changes, and your challenges are creating the next version of your life in ways that may not yet make sense. Do not despair. Life is ever changing and full of twists and turns. Stop stressing and start dealing with it.”

The Way Forward

She says, “As a life and career coach most of my skills feed what I do.”

She also tries new things, to keep learning. Last year she had a poem published, “The Long Haul,” which helped her process her experience with COVID. It was included in the Writer’s Garret 2021 anthology.

And she’s recently started painting. “I hadn’t taken an art class since my required elective freshman year in high school. Turns out I’m not awful.”

Positive self-talk, from the Life Coach herself!

Want to learn more? Meet Christine at her book signing coming up IN:

Wind Down Wednesday | Whose Books, Neighborhood Bookstore (square.site)

Christine Horstman      

tel.  214.226.3075 

Paper Doll Communication 

Certified Career Coach

Certified Professional Coach 

Judy Porter, MBA, writes stories about local heroes and nonprofits in the DFW community. Contact her at judy-porter@sbcglobal.net

A Mind for Business and a Heart for the Homeless:

Sajida Ahmed is Making a Difference 

While doctors take care of the many seriously ill patients that come through their private practices due to the Coronavirus, who is taking care of the doctors?

Sajida Ahmed understands that doctors are overwhelmed and are beginning to quit private practice in large numbers, due to both physical and mental fatigue. Many in private practice can’t keep up with their workload and the enormous paperwork that accompanies it: Insurance, patient medical records, billing, HIPPA requirements.

But Sajida Ahmed is the “Finance Doctor,” there to help overworked and exhausted doctors to keep doing what they do best: heal sick patients.

Her specialty is medical billing and Accounts Receivables, and she has been able to recover thousands of dollars from AR for cardiologists which they may have had to write off. Her work behind the scenes makes them more efficient - and can save lives.

Strong and Self Reliant

Born in Kuwait, Sajida went to a boarding school at the age of seven to Murree, a city in a different country from where her parents lived. She says, “I learned self-reliance at a very early age.”

She completed high school at the age of fourteen in Kuwait. “I was a nerd as a kid, not involved in sports, was always at the top of my class. My parents thought since I was so smart, I should skip a few grades, so I skipped grade 2 and then skipped grade 7, that’s how I was the youngest person in my graduating class.”

Sajida went to college in Rawalpindi, Pakistan and received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics & statistics. She finished at the top of her class and received a silver medal for being at the top in a college of three thousand students. While in college she played volleyball and acted on stage in a few plays.

After college she went to Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan and got a master’s in Computer Science. She remembers, “At the time computer science was a very new field and there were very few girls. I was the only girl in my class and one of three girls in the entire department of Computer Science.”

She loved to hike and walk for hours around campus and the city. She completed her degree in June, got married in July and five days later moved to America to go to school at Iowa State University. There she earned a master’s degree in Computer Science from Iowa State University while working 20 hours a week as a teaching assistant.

She was pregnant in her second year of her masters’ studies and had her son during grad school while completing her degree. With no internet at the time, she had to go to the department computer room to complete my assignments. “I would take my baby with me so I could breast feed him and take care of him while completing my assignments.” Sometimes she would be there till 3 a.m.

Right after she completed her dissertation, Sajida worked for Pioneer Hi-Bred company in Des Moines Iowa, returning to her college campus for her graduation ceremony after she had been working for five months.

Now she’s worked in three countries and six states. “My first job was in Iowa, then we moved to New Jersey, after that I worked in Rockford, Illinois, then Madison Wisconsin.”

She says, “The first time I became a manager, I found it fascinating that here I was a brown woman managing 10 white men.” She and her husband moved to Texas and worked for Textron the parent company of Bell Helicopter and Cessna Airplanes and worked for Raytheon in McKinney. The couple moved to California where Sajida worked for eBay and PayPal in the Bay Area in California before they decided to move back to Texas.

Helping Doctors Avoid Burn out

Having worked in corporate America in the tech industry for 25 years, Sajida’s last job was as a consultant for eBay and PayPal, where she was managing 1200 people in four continents and working 18 hours a day. She decided to quit and work for herself.

Seeing her sister, a physician, at the brink of burnout, she made it her mission to help doctors in private practice achieve a work/life balance while managing a very profitable practice.

The pandemic has made her work crucial to the many doctors she works with.

Three years ago, she started her business, S2N2 Medical Business Solutions. Her passion is to help private medical practices thrive. She says proudly, “I have very good relationships with my client doctors.” Her goal is simple: to inspire people to do their best and help medical practices be more efficient and profitable.

Sajida is the Finance Doctor. She explains: “I specialize in the financial health of my doctors and improving practice workflow efficiency; from front desk operations to coding recommendations, to billing, to patient statements and collections.” Her business management expertise helps to maximize revenue for private medical practices allowing doctors to do what they do best: heal others.

The name of her business comes from her family’s favorite movie series.  “We as a family are huge fans of ‘Star Wars,’ so the name is inspired from R2D2 in Star Wars. Both my husband, Sohail, and I have names that start with “S,” and both our children’s names start with “N,” so the business is S2N2 Medical Business Solutions.”

Sajida says, “I love helping people. Having my own business gives me the flexibility to work on my own time.” Even so, her hours tend to be long: most days she’s at work by 8 a.m. and sometimes doesn’t finish until 8 p.m.

Helping the Homeless

She credits her father with her strong work ethic and passion for helping those in need. “I inherited the passion of helping people in need from my father.” Sajida explains, “I find joy in serving the homeless, especially kids. The joy of seeing a smile on a child's face when we give them a new toy is priceless.”  She has committed to donating 10% of her business income to charity every year and has co-founded a non-profit organization to make this happen.

Community Outreach

Sajida has been helping the community by giving out grocery boxes to the elderly during COVID, donating to the Children's Advocacy Center, giving toys to children in underserved communities, donating to Texas Food Banks, supplying a Thanksgiving meal to families staying at the Ronald McDonald house and giving clothes to the homeless.

She is also on the board of a non-profit that builds schools in remote areas where there is no internet, no schools and sometimes no electricity.

Once a year she is an integral part of the “Day of Dignity” at the Martin Luther King Center in Dallas.  “We bring people from six homeless shelters to the MLK  Center to give them clothes, undershirts, socks, hygiene kits etc.”

She has been giving 10% of her business income to charity and is very heavily involved in philanthropic work. Sajida does one project a month with the homeless or food bank or Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). Her project for December 2021 was providing a holiday meal to Promise House, a homeless shelter for teens and children in Dallas, feeding twenty-five kids and ten staff members. She also gave out $35 gift cards to each of the seven teen moms at the shelter and toys to the teen moms’ babies.

A hard working, determined to “Do Good” woman, she says she would love to meet Oprah Winfrey one day – another woman who is known for building schools and fulfilling dreams.

Family Life

Married to her childhood sweetheart, Sohail Ahmed, Sajida says, “We met when I was 15, and we have been together since.” He is an architect and has his own architectural company in Fort Worth. The couple have a son who lives in Wisconsin with his wife and daughter and a daughter who lives in California.

Blessed with two healthy grown children and, “The love of my life, my adorable granddaughter, Nora,” Sajida is generous with others whenever she can help.

She loves to travel and that’s a good thing, since she’s never lived in a state or country for more than eight years. She’s moved seventeen times since being married and since moving to America, has lived in New Jersey, California, Iowa, Illinois and Texas. Her personal goal is to see all the “Wonders of the World.” So far, she’s seen the pyramids of Egypt, Niagara Falls, Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, and The Coliseum in Rome.

“I love to inspire people,” she says, “Everywhere I go people tell me they love reading my posts on social media and feel very good after reading them. Several of my Facebook Friends tell me they copy my posts and read them several times during the day.”

Overcoming Challenges

She also loves challenges. She remembers, “In the third year of college, I decided I wanted to major in mathematics, I studied the entire course work of two years during the summer holidays. My professor thought I was nuts and would never be able to graduate in four years, but I not only proved her wrong, but I was also at the top of my class.”

Life has been difficult at times. “Going to graduate school full time, with a

2-month-old baby, while working 20 hours a week and completing my dissertation, all the while applying for a full-time job on a student visa, trying to convince the companies I wanted to work for to apply for my green card - it was the toughest time of my life.” But – she survived – and now thrives. “That experience taught me that there are 24 hours in a day, and I have to make the best use of each hour.”

She knows she is driven. “I am a very hard worker; I have two businesses and I work seven days a week.” But she finds time to do philanthropic work and still have fun. “I like to go out, watch movies, attend parties and I love to travel.  I still have time left over, so I think to myself, why am I wasting time? What else should I do?”

Need to help a doctor? Or a bit of inspiration? Contact Sajida Ahmed, CEO

(682) 273-0386  or (650) 450-6531

https://bit.ly/SajidaAhmed 

www.s2n2solutions.com

Photo 1: Sajida Ahmed looks more like a Hollywood star than a grandmother with two master’s degrees and a Ph.D. who helps doctors avoid burn-out. A member of Oak Cliff Women in Business, she donates 10% of her business income to local charities every year and bought a holiday dinner this month for everyone staying at Promise House, a home for homeless teens.

Kennedy Irene Settimi is not your typical teenager: she's an excellent student, accomplished musician, outstanding athlete, and Black Belt in Karate.

Born and raised in Dallas, she lived in the Casa Linda neighborhood for the first two years of her life, and then grew up in the Lochwood neighborhood of east Dallas.

Because she has no brothers or sisters, she says, “I’m the star of my family!”

She certainly has accomplished enough for three people. In elementary school and middle school at Zion Lutheran, Kennedy played every sport offered: basketball, volleyball, soccer, tennis, track, and she took martial arts outside of school. She also played t-ball when she was younger, moved up to baseball until fourth grade, then softball for about a year after that. This year, as a high school senior at Bishop Lynch, she is a softball player and Captain of the Golf team.

One thing most people don’t know about her is the softball-sized cyst she had when she was just five years old. Surgery was required to find it and remove it, because, as she remembers, “We only discovered it after I had bad pains in my stomach and was throwing up profusely.” That awful time is a distant memory, and now Kennedy is a senior ready to head off into college this fall.

In addition to her classes and her sports, Kennedy completed over 100 hours of community service, volunteering with people of all ages: the elderly in the Dallas VA Medical Center running their Bingo games, assisting in Vacation Bible School for children at Bethel Lutheran Church, the Best Buddies Friendship Walk supporting inclusion for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and before COVID-19, she often volunteered at her mother’s school to help her and other teachers in their classrooms. Once she’s allowed to go back and help out, she’s ready.

Her parents met at a Lutheran Church Camp when they were about her age now, teenagers, and then reunited later in life. They have been married for 20 years. Her mother, Tracy, is a DISD Kindergarten teacher, and her father, Ron – after working in Human Resources for years - now at enjoys working with plants instead of people at Ruibal’s Nursery as Manager of Landscape and Design.

Kennedy’s home is full: she lives with her parents, her grandfather, and three adorable dogs: Harley, Truly, and Baby.

Now she’s preparing to continue her education and is interested in the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Colorado at Denver, and Stephen F. Austin University. Her Dream College is Texas A&M University. The school is “full of history and tradition,” and Kennedy wants to become a part of that. 

With her sports background, she thinking about a major that includes sports, or possibly work in another arena that requires athletic skills, like the Fire Department. 

Her goal is simple, “To find a job that doesn’t feel like a job, because I enjoy it so much!” 

One memory she enjoys is her “meet and greet” with with Vanilla Ice, the rapper who was also born in Dallas. Kennedy would like one day to meet Miley Cyrus, another strong young woman like her, “because I love Hannah Montana and watched the show religiously when I was younger.”

Like so many, 2020 was a hard year for Kennedy. She says the toughest time of her life was in September of 2020, when her beloved aunt passed away. Kennedy says she’s still not over it, “but I try to find her in the little moments.” This positive outlook is one of the many strong personality traits she embodies.

Now she is looking forward to college, and in five years, getting into her career. Ten years from now, she hopes to have a family and enjoy her time at home. That is, when she’s not volunteering, playing sports, practicing Karate or making beautiful music on her trumpet - and in her life.

Judy Porter, MBA is a Lake Highlands resident and writer. Contact her at judy-porter@sbcglobal.net to tell YOUR story!