We recently connected with Amy Smathers and have shared our conversation below.

Amy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What was one of the most important lessons you learned in school? Why did that lesson stick with you?

One of the greatest lessons I learned in school is that progress comes with collaboration.

My favorite course in college at Tufts University was a program called EPIIC that brought in humanitarian practitioners to talk candidly about their work around the world. We learned from leaders who had walked the foothills of Afghanistan with the Taliban, negotiated peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and helped to stop the use of child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Their stories always had us on the edge of our seats, and it opened our minds up to a whole new world beyond the confines of our classroom walls. Suddenly we weren’t just reading stories and statistics in the newspaper, but we were hearing real, honest stories about people around the globe.

At the end of the course, we organized a big symposium with a program called Voices in the Field that brought these leaders to the table for a weekend to share about their greatest successes and failures. I returned to participate in this program two years ago and it really struck me – solving these huge challenges in the world is possible, but we’ve got to find solutions together and we need all hands on deck. Instead of feeling overwhelmed at the state of the world today and the news articles we read, if we collaborate together to build understanding and come up with creative solutions, we can do amazing things to serve the most vulnerable.

Amy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Amy Smathers and I’m the founder of The Well Initiative, a faith-based non-profit that seeks to mobilize and equip the global church to address the world’s largest humanitarian problems, with a focus on empowering women and girls.

I started The Well Initiative in May of 2022 after years of dreaming about running my own non-profit and working in foreign policy in Washington D.C. and overseas. I had always worked in a huge organization with hundreds to tens of thousands of employees, so it was a huge shift to start my own non-profit with only one employee (myself!).

My hope is that The Well Initiative will be a connector for faith-based nonprofits, leaders, and businesses to make a powerful impact around the world.

First, we offer education for individuals in the church about complex international issues. For example, what is human trafficking and what does the Bible say about our role in stopping it? What’s happening around the world today and how can our generation make a difference?

Second, we work with leaders in the church around the question of “what can I do?” For example, where can they give their donations? What are the best non-profit organizations to partner with?

Finally, we convene faith leaders and subject matter experts to create a strategic way forward. My hope is to one day host a conference or retreat for leaders to come together and map out new strategies to address issues like human trafficking or global poverty that affect so many people around the globe.

Outside of this work, I live in Dallas with my husband and I’m in the process of writing two books which share stories of courageous women from different countries around the world and how God is moving in unexpected ways.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One of the most powerful lessons I’ve ever learned as a leader is that your age doesn’t define you and your potential.

I started out doing human rights advocacy work when I was only seventeen years old. I had just participated in a summer program that taught us about global issues, from child labor to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At the time, I vividly remember being so hungry to learn more about what was happening around the globe – I wanted to raise awareness, fundraise for causes, you name it.

But whenever I spoke about what was happening around the world and shared how I wanted to do something to help, that there was this impression that young people who believed they could change the world were “naive.” Older people would say that younger people simply hadn’t seen enough of the world to understand that some things just never change.

Then as I got older, I met so many people who were retired and reached an age where they felt that they weren’t able to help either.

To each group I would say, your age doesn’t disqualify you. If you have a passion to help and serve others, you can do it, and you should.

My hope is that The Well Initiative will empower people of all ages to find ways to help, whether that’s helping them to figure out where or how to give to non-profits working on the ground or learning how to pray for and support people living through conflict or humanitarian disasters.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

When I was younger, I took so many internships starting in high school all the way through graduate school to figure out what kind of work I wanted to do, from working to support human rights education with Human Rights Watch, to supporting peaceful elections overseas, to working with the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand.

I’ve also held a variety of professional roles – ranging from working with corporations, government, non-profits, and in ministry. Through all of these experiences I believe I’ve built experience that is uniquely diverse and it’s given me a passion for bringing different sectors together, like seeing social businesses in the private sector partner together with non-profits to support female entrepreneurs.

On a personal note, another simple but important piece is kindness. When people think of working in Washington D.C. I think they often think of a cutthroat work environment steeped in politics, just like a show like House of Cards. I even had one boss tell me I should be more aggressive and do whatever it takes to get to the top, but I disagree.

I strongly believe that kindness and integrity are critical to our leadership. I’ve worked at the lowest levels making xeroxes and I’ve sat in the same rooms as world leaders from around the world. At the end of the day, I believe that each person in your organization should be treated with respect. How we treat others and honor them is even more important than how efficient, productive, or successful we are in our work.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wellinitiative.org
• Instagram: @wellinitiative
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/thewellinitiative1
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/amylsmathers/

Image Credits
Kelly McMullin Photography