From a tender age, Todd Collier realized to construct bridges to assist the ones in want. His want to serve led him in lots of instructions, from becoming a member of the army, beginning the scientific undertaking Faith In Practice and in the end changing into director of the Center for Interfaith Initiatives and Inquiry on the Memnosyne Institute, a Dallas-based nonprofit on a undertaking to assist communities thrive in an an increasing number of interdependent and attached international.
From Serving His Country to Aiding God
Raised in Oklahoma City, Collier comes from a circle of relatives this is no stranger to bravery and dedication to carrier. For his great-grandparents, that intended braving the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 to ascertain a spot for his or her circle of relatives. For his father, it intended serving his nation throughout WW II and the Korean War.
At handiest 14 years outdated, Collier was once additionally presented to army carrier when he joined the New Mexico Military Institute, which allowed him to develop his persona and uncover his management features. He candidly seems again at that duration as an excessively formative time during which his ability to construct bridges emerged when he realized on a foundational degree to increase coalitions between the ranks.
After leaving the army, Collier started his lifestyles as a civilian. In that very same duration, he additionally began to search out his Christian religion. A conversion enjoy in 1979 was once the surprising spark that lit the fuse, in the end main him to review theology and graduate with a grasp’s at Princeton Seminary and a doctorate at Columbia Theological Seminary, Atlanta.
Collier’s First Rodeo–Guatemala and the Start of Faith In Practice
Another formative second in Collier’s lifestyles got here when, within the early 90s, he began to volunteer in Antigua, Guatemala. He fell in love with Guatemala but in addition realized in regards to the many hardships its other people skilled. His next want and efforts to assist the Guatemalan other people ended in him founding the Faith In Practice scientific undertaking in Houston, Texas.
Around that point, Collier was once ordained as a Presbyterian minister, which helped him take Faith In Practice to church buildings the place he served, increasing its achieve and rising it into a company that now is helping 30,000 Guatemalan sufferers once a year.
Joining the Memnosyne Institute and Launching FoodSupply DFW
After leaving Faith In Practice, Collier joined the Memnosyne Institute. There, he introduced the meals rescue program FoodSupply DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth) after finding a vital hole in how support merchandise have been accumulated and transported to organizations in a position to dealing with massive volumes.
As the motive force in the back of the group’s preliminary supply operation, Collier connected a U-Haul in the back of his Honda Pilot and in my view introduced meals to these in want. Eventually, 18-wheelers changed Collier’s U-Haul when massive organizations partnered with FoodSupply DFW.
Since its release, FoodSourceDFW.org has transported 25 million kilos of meals and drinks, serving to other people throughout screw ups, together with, maximum not too long ago, the ones suffering from the chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio.
Providing Care and Support as a Father
In 2019, Collier needed to shift focal point to assist his youngest son, Rowan, who was once born with biliary atresia, an extraordinary liver illness. That situation in the end led Rowan to obtain a liver transplant on the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. He pulled thru however wanted aftercare because of post-op headaches. During that duration, Collier was once all the time at his facet whilst on the identical time by no means shedding sight of others in want.
Due to UPMC Children’s beef up machine constructed round liver illness sufferers, Collier may just unlock time to paintings in conjunction with World Emergency Relief and PepsiCo Atlanta, to move truckloads of Gatorade to Hurricane Dorian disaster-struck spaces, which was once a venture that helped FoodSupply DFW make bigger its operations nationally.
More Food Aid and Establishing a Center of Excellence for Liver Care
With Rowan, now a full of life 4-year-old, receiving follow-up care from youngsters’s hospitals in Dallas and Plano, Collier continues his paintings for the Mysonene Institute, which is increasing its food-sharing operation with the assistance of its new spouse, the Akshaya Patra Foundation.
Besides turning in extra support, Collier helps Dr. Jorge A. Bezerra, M.D., the present pediatrician-in-chief at Children’s Medical Center Dallas, to ascertain a middle of excellence in Dallas for liver care. It is a significant purpose for Collier as a result of his son’s sickness made him notice how confined persons are to their geographic location when their youngsters want assist with biliary atresia. Because of that have, he encourages folks to hunt assist in other places if their youngsters can not obtain just right high quality skilled care in the community.