Woman of Influence: Debbie Espinosa
Debbie Espinosa radiates a beautiful, serene, buoyant peace — even in a Zoom interview that’s late on a busy day, at the end of a super hectic week. She laughs easily, shares personal stories unreservedly and seeks nothing more than to be of service, however the Divine should choose to place her. The depth of her faith is magnificent, and it surrounds her palpably, wrapping itself around anyone she comes in contact with. Few people walk in this sort of faith, though many claim to and even more aspire to. Her authenticity and calm, unflagging trust in her God resonates with fellow believers and skeptics alike. The woman walks her talk.
Espinosa has had a heart for others her whole life. Her undergraduate degree is in nursing, and she spent the first part of her career as a labor and delivery nurse. She attributes her calling to nursing, in part, to an incident when she was 10 years old: Her pajama top brushed against an old-fashioned gas heater in the family’s living room, and more than half her body was burned. She underwent skin grafts and a long recovery, and the nurses who cared for her made a lasting impression. “I think that experience led me into nursing, as well as the need for nurses,” she says.
A self-described “cradle Catholic,” Espinosa was born and raised in Oklahoma City, and for the past decade she’s been exactly where she’s supposed to be: working in Okarche as the executive director of the Center of Family Love. The job found her; it was not the other way around. She’d been working at INTEGRIS Hospital as its home health administrator, a position she held for eight years.
“When I look back, I just see the footprints and the guidance of God’s hands, teaching me and showing me and developing me each step of the way, because I had no idea I’d love business so much until I began learning more and more and more. INTEGRIS was really a great instrument of learning,” she says. It was great because it was tough. As in, she was hired to re-energize a department that was failing, and she was given six months to turn it around. Otherwise it would be shuttered.
Daunting? Yes. But also, if you’re wired like Espinosa, “I thought ‘Oh, well, what do I have to lose, this will be fun,’ you know, I wasn’t going to make it worse. I could only make it better.” She did, transforming an entity which had been losing $350,000 annually into one with a yearly net profit of about $1.8 million.
“But as I was working so hard at that job and learning so much, I began to reflect. Am I being used in the manner that God wants me to be used? And I started praying for just … a calling. Something to do where I could make a difference in someone’s life. I wanted to help an organization that needed help.” She also wanted to really feel the difference she was making in someone’s life. So she applied to become the executive director of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.
Debbie and emcee Malcolm Tubbs with Center of Family Love resident Brian at the 2018 Gift of Love Gala
“I had been asked to apply for that while I was at INTEGRIS. And I thought, ‘Well, this must be an answer to a prayer. Maybe this is where I’m supposed to be,’” she says. She didn’t get the job. “They said, ‘Oh, we’re so sorry. You know, you were such a great candidate,’ and they were very polite and very nice and kind. And I said, ‘You know what, I don’t want it if it’s not for me. God has a plan for all of us. And I just want to go where I’m needed.’” Three months or so passed.
“I got a call for someone that was on the interviewing committee, and she said, ‘Debbie, I have the perfect job for you. I think this was just made for you.’” The woman told her it was at the Center of Family Love in Okarche. “And I said, ‘What is that and where is Okarche?’”
She drove out for a tour and her interview, realizing in the process that Okarche isn’t far from Oklahoma City, so the logistics could work. Though she’d done some research, she hadn’t understood just how large the Center was. There are 130 residents, ranging in age from 18 to 94, with varying degrees of developmental disability or “neurodiversity,” which is the current terminology. “I took the tour through the homes, and I remember just falling in love with these residents immediately. And I literally said, ‘I have never met so many friends in such a short time in my entire life.’ And I broke down because I think that they just melted my heart so much,” she says.
Today, the Center of Family Love is preparing for its next iteration, an expansion of services launching on a second campus. Years ago, a donor gave the Center a parcel of land near Piedmont. “We are going to build a new platform for our residents,” Espinosa says. It will be a 70,000-square-foot, $35 million compound called the Oklahoma Institute for Cognitive Development, designed to help fill in the gaps for people with cognitive disabilities.
“When people get to the 12th grade, they age out of high school. And then there’s nothing for them if they’re developmentally disabled, or have a disability, or learning disabilities, such as autism, or dyslexia, etc. So they age out, and they have no choices, or no options — or more importantly, no opportunities. If you and I didn’t have anything after high school, you can only imagine where we’d be, right? We wouldn’t be challenged each day. We wouldn’t be growing each day. And even though our IQs may be different, they still have those same needs. We can help fulfill that.”
The Institute will offer training and development options based on each person’s talents and wants. People can be trained for careers in the culinary arts, gardening, veterinarian tech services and more. “It will be equipped with the technology and with the resources that are needed for those kids in high school,” she explains. “So we will still serve our 130 residents. And we don’t charge them anything. But we could also serve hundreds of individuals going through this training, going through this development, going through the opportunities based on their skill sets and tapping into their unique talents.”
Espinosa and team will officially launch a capital campaign this summer, along with a documentary film. To learn more about the Center of Family Love, visit centeroffamilylove.org. •