Eva was born and raised on the Northwest side of Milwaukee, WI. She has always had a passion to help people and it was this passion that led her to earn her B.A. with Cum Laude honors studying a double major in Psychology & Business Administration at Ottawa University. Eva’s life changed in 2015 when she decided to host a sock drive for people who were experiencing homelessness. She found a grass-roots community group to donate the socks to and quickly became intrigued by the work this group was doing. She began to join them in going out on the streets to seek out and connect with our neighbors without homes. Eva immediately saw the difference she could make in people’s lives by simply offering friendship and consistency. She recognized a glimmer of Hope in people’s eyes when they felt like someone truly cared for them, and this had a huge impact on her.

After a few months, Eva wanted to experience what it was like to be in the shoes of the people she was serving. That winter, in January of 2016, Eva and another volunteer stayed with some of her new-found friends in a wooded encampment, in the middle of the city, for 48 hours. Eva found this experience to be inhumane and very challenging, to say the least. When the 48-hour experience came to an end, Eva began to rally other concerned community members and in partnership with Ascension Lutheran Church, they opened an emergency overnight winter warming room on nights that temperatures hit ten degrees or below. It was at this warming room where Eva would meet Co-Founder Shelly Sarasin.