Cecilia Deschenes | Data Analyst

Cecilia was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and immigrated to the United States with her family when she was one year old. She is the oldest of four children; grew up in a multicultural home; and speaks fluent Spanish. Today, Cecilia lives in Essex, Connecticut with her husband, Jim, and their dog, Charlie. At an early age, Cecilia had felt called to serve God as a missionary and therefore was quite surprised when He asked her to study mathematics as an undergraduate and to earn a PhD in applied mathematics after that. While Cecilia walked away from her faith for many years, God kept chasing her until His prodigal daughter finally came home to Him about ten years ago. During her time trying to be her own god, her entire focus was on raising her children, and developing her career working for various respectable and well know secular organizations in varying capacities performing data analytics. (Full testimony here). Until recently she was an assistant professor at the University of Rhode Island’s College of Business teaching business analytics. Thankfully, the Lord can redeem our past: during her tenure as a professor, Cecilia attended a Christian music festival called SoulFest in New Hampshire, and she heard about Love Justice International (LJI). This event awoke a passion for fighting human trafficking in Cecilia, and after receiving tremendous emotional support from her husband, Jim, led her to join LJI as a data analyst. Mark Twain said, “The two best days in your life are the day when you were born, and the day you find out why.” Cecilia has recently figured out the latter and is looking forward to serving full-time with LJI once she obtains full financial support.