Dr. Shandria Pridgen is a dynamic and motivated professional with a proven record of generating and building relationships, managing projects from concept to completion, designing educational strategies, and coaching individuals to success.

She is the proud Founder/Executive Director of Machiah’s House, Inc. and is a native of New York, NY with over 20 years of combined experience in customer service & human relations. Her seven years being employed with a non-profit maternity organization allowed her to receive the experience and ability to utilize her gifts and talents to assist the young pregnant women in need. She started out as the Weekend Resident Coordinator and within five years, was promoted to Executive Director of the organization. Knowing this was God’s plan, Dr. Pridgen worked endlessly to rebuild and revamp the organization’s vision and operation for continued success.

It was at a symposium in 2018 at a local university here in Charlotte, NC, she learned about young adults who aged out from Foster Care and had to leave their foster home upon their 18th birthday to support themselves without having received proper life skills and resources as they enter into adulthood. The statistics and each young adult’s experience was very appalling and the thought of a young adult being “put out”, left to live on the streets; homeless shelters or be subjected to human trafficking, etc touched Dr. Pridgen and sparked the question, “Where are the safe havens these young adults can go to, be safe and receive the life skills and resources”? Realizing there were not many group homes in the Charlotte area, this great need weighed heavy on Dr. Pridgen’s heart. Though she left the symposium well-informed and educated on the young adults who aged out from Foster Care, her concerned for the need of continued shelter, life skills and education still remained unanswered.

The challenges these young adults endured and faced along with their tenacity to not allow what happened in their past to negatively impact their future, encouraged them to further their education and graduate from college (which didn’t appear to be possible). Hence, was the reason and purpose why Dr. Pridgen was inspired and moved to be the advocate and voice of these young adults. Her desire to provide an organization to accommodate the needs of these young adults caused her to focus her attention on young women aged out from Foster Care. She believes this is her purpose and the reason why God called her to use the experience of working with young pregnant adults, ensuring they received the life skills and resources needed. She possesses in-depth knowledge of State & Federal licensing guidelines pertaining to compliance with audits and inspections of the home and program.

Dr. Pridgen graduated from Carolina Bible College where she received her doctorate in Christian Education and graduated Summa cum Laude. Her drive for excellence and passion to see others succeed and become all that God intended them to be is a great joy and reason why she desires to continue to advocate using the platform provided…to leave a legacy of hope & compassion on the lives God allowed her to impact and His grace to be able to make a difference.