Christi serves as Chief Donor Relations Officer, playing a pivotal role in advancing CURE’s mission to reach more children with Jesus’s love and life-changing surgical care. She fosters and sustains deep connections with supporters and partners to further this important work.
Christi’s passion for nonprofit work began when she witnessed a leader in her high school youth group leave to work for an international health-focused NGO—an experience she calls life-changing. “I remember being amazed that you could have a job that helps people globally and deciding on the spot that I wanted to spend my career doing exactly that,” she says.
From there, she shaped her future with the goal of international nonprofit work in mind, earning her undergraduate degree in business communications and international development from Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and an MBA from Thunderbird School of International Management in Glendale, Arizona.
She also eagerly sought out hands-on global experiences, including studying abroad in Honduras, before beginning her professional career with international nonprofits. Having visited 25 countries and lived in Africa, India, and Latin America, Christi brings an understanding of varied experiences from many different cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds to her service.
“I’ve worked across many different themes in jobs that help people in great need: economic development, environmental restoration, anti-human trafficking and human rights, and now access to surgical care for children,” she says. “It’s really clear how all those things fit together.”
Before joining CURE in March 2025, Christi served as Vice President of Marketing and Development at Plant With Purpose, where she led fundraising efforts to combat poverty, reverse deforestation, and promote spiritual renewal worldwide.
Her leadership and expertise align seamlessly with CURE’s ongoing mission to make a lasting, transformational impact on children in need.
“What we do at CURE is a shocking form of generosity. In the context where we work, the gift that we give children is so big that it’s beyond imagination,” she says. “Offering something so extravagant at no cost to families and in the name of Jesus is profound. Jesus did this same thing, in a very similar context, so being a part of CURE allows us all to see Jesus in a special way.”
Christi is grateful to be with CURE, helping to fuel improvements in the physical, spiritual, and emotional well-being of children around the world.
Christi lives with her husband and two children in Grand Rapids.