Paths Informed by Faith

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For Angie Thomas, the career paths she has taken have been informed by faith. During a visit to Anne Comiskey’s Law Studies class, she shared with students life events and choices that led her to serve today as Chief Executive of the Woman’s New Life Center in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The Woman’s New Life Center is a Christian organization that promotes the sanctity of human life, the dignity of women, and the sacredness of sexuality through medical and mental health services. This professional counseling and medical clinic provides services and resources for women who are facing an unplanned pregnancy.

As the CEO, Mrs. Thomas oversees development, education about life issues and implementing new programs in building a culture of life. In partnership with Dr. Susan Caldwell, the Hope Woman’s Clinic opened in the same building for the New Orleans Woman’s New Life Center, located directly across the fence from the regional Planned Parenthood clinic. The Hope Woman’s Clinic is dedicated to reclaiming reproductive healthcare and offering alternatives to Planned Parenthood.  Its services include well-woman exams, adolescent wellness exams, pro-life fertility care and Natural Family Planning counseling.

Following graduation from the Manship School of Mass Communications at Louisiana State University (magna cum laude), Mrs. Thomas studied law at Loyola University Law School. “I had plans to be a pro-life attorney,” she told the class. “When I got to law school I was humbled. We did not touch on constitutional law until the second year. I began to question if I was in the right place.”

“Law school is where you learn how to think. Analyzing information, dissecting it and getting it out in a strategic and purposeful way are critical,” she noted. During and after law school, she worked for Americans United for Life and the Bioethics Defense Fund (BDF). BDF is a pro-life public-interest legal and educational organization that develops effective strategies for model legislation, litigation and public education on bioethics issues including abortion, human cloning and embryo research, end of life matters and healthcare rights of conscience. There she met Mrs. Dorinda C. Bordlee, Vice President and Senior Counsel of BDF. Mrs. Bordelee is a Dominican alumna (Class of ’83).

In 2004, Mrs. Thomas received her Juris Doctor,  graduating cum laude. She also was trained through the Blackstone Legal Fellowship, an intensive training in Christian worldview principles and how they apply to the study and interpretation of law. Although there are no guarantees for anyone to have a clear path to realizing their full potential, Mrs. Thomas encouraged the students to be receptive to opportunities. Teachers, mentors, and even a physician who held strong pro-abortion views, have been part of her career path.

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“Each of us has been given special gifts and God is calling you to use your gifts. All of us have different paths to take. Through the act of contemplation –  quietly and prayerfully thinking of how to use the gifts, you will be guided to the path that is for you.”