Plagued and embarrassed by her name, made worse by a nomadic
childhood that made it impossible to build lasting relationships, Shenandoah
Chefalo developed a tough skin at an early age. Along the way she learned to
deal with disappointment, push through discomfort, overcome adversity and
accurately gauge people, qualities that have helped her to succeed.
After spending nearly 20 years as a Law Office Administrator,
Shenandoah became unsettled by the ever revolving door of people into the
criminal justice system and set out to find a way to change it. She attended
Coach U and became a certified life coach. Working through that program
Shenandoah began to understand her childhood in a way she never had before.
She began researching and learned that there were nearly 400,000
children in the foster care system each day in the United States. Out of those
children nearly 61% would age out of the system without having a place to live,
nearly 50% end up incarcerated within 2 years of aging out and almost 80% of
people on death row are former foster alumni. These and other statistics made
Shenandoah realize that she had to do something.
She set out on a mission to tell her story and educate the
general public about the grim realities of a life that she had always tried to
hide. Through education, she believes that some of the grass roots solutions
that she offers as well as ideas and solutions from others could change the
lives of children and the landscape of the country.
Shenandoah Chefalo is a graduate of Michigan State University,
holding a Bachelor of Arts with a Major in Interdisciplinary Studies in Social
Science, a Core Essentials Graduate from Coach U, and volunteers with several
organizations both locally, nationally and internationally. Shenandoah Chefalo
is the author of multiple award winner, Garbage Bag Suitcase, an e-book
entitled Setting Your Vision and Defining Your Goals and is also working on
another book Hiking for Stillness. She is the President and Owner of Chefalo
Consulting: Trauma-Informed Specialist focused on holistic trauma-informed
project management, implementation, training and consulting services. She is also the co-founder of #4600AndCounting,
a grass-roots movement to find missing youth from care.