Finding Common Ground in the Fight Against Poverty
12 years ago, I boarded a plane to Taiwan, heart pounding. After eight long months of paperwork, waiting, and wondering, my husband and I were finally about to meet our daughter, Olive. I was overwhelmed with excitement—but just as much with fear. Had she been loved enough? Cared for? Would she know how to be held?
When we arrived, everything felt like a blur—rushing through logistics, meeting officials, signing documents. Then came the two-hour drive to her foster home. And suddenly, there she was. I don’t remember speaking—just crying and holding her as tightly as I could. She was perfect.
At the adoption agency, Olive’s birth family was waiting. Her mother, just sixteen, had taken the day off school to meet us. She had spent months preparing—not just emotionally, but with intention. Since January, she had been learning English, determined to share her dreams for her daughter in her own words.
With quiet strength, she spoke:
“I want her to be loved. I want her to learn to read. I want her to become who she is meant to be.”
“I want her to be loved. I want her to learn to read. I want her to become who she is meant to be.”
I sat there, shaking, as this young girl told us she believed we could give her daughter the life she wanted for her—but couldn’t provide. And while I will always be grateful for her choice, I will never stop fighting to end poverty for as long as I have breath in me. Because no mother should have to choose between her dreams for her child and her ability to make them come true.
Poverty steals potential before it can take root. Like Olive’s birth mother, it forces people into impossible choices—choices no one should have to make. A student leaving school to keep food on the table. A young person aging out of foster care without a safety net. Poverty isn’t just about financial hardship—it robs people of the futures they were meant to have.
That’s why our work at LEO matters. Poverty is not inevitable. Those experiencing it don’t need pity; they need real solutions. And evidence is one of the most powerful tools we have—it captures reality in a way that decision-makers can’t ignore. It proves what works, demands change, and ensures that opportunity isn’t a privilege for the few but a right for all.
At LEO, research isn’t just data—it’s dignity. It’s truth. It ensures that no one has to choose between surviving and becoming who they were meant to be. Evidence isn’t abstract; it’s a force for justice, compelling action to break poverty’s grip.
What drew me to LEO still drives me today. We don’t do research for research’s sake. We don’t build evidence around assumptions. We start by listening. Because those closest to the problem are closest to the solution.
Olive’s birth mother didn’t need an outsider to explain her reality—she knew it intimately. She built a bridge between her dreams and her circumstances, allowing me to see, understand, and carry her hopes forward.
That experience shaped my path to Notre Dame and LEO. Here, we do work that matters. We partner with nonprofits and communities to find common ground—to bring research and lived experience together, not just treating symptoms but dismantling barriers. The best solutions don’t come from the top down. They come from the people who have lived this fight, made impossible choices, and still found a way forward.
Change happens where research meets reality. It happens when we stop assuming we have the answers and start listening to those who do. And most of all, it happens when we believe—truly believe—that poverty is not inevitable.
It can be outwitted. It can be overcome. It can end. But only if we work together.
No matter how deep the divides or how impossible common ground seems, we have found it before. We are still finding it. And LEO will always be here—where evidence leads the way.
Whether you’re a service provider, a researcher, a supporter, or simply someone who refuses to accept the world as it is—your role in this work matters.
We are not just fighting poverty.
We are rewriting the future. Together.
Thank you for standing with us.
Check out the rest of of the spring issue of Illuminate below!