Leadership Profile
Joy Sparks
Joy Sparks
Leadership Development Advisor
Joy has a passion for students from all walks of life but has spent most of her career working in some of the most challenging, underprivileged school districts in Michigan. Never content with comfortable complacency, Joy feels that great rewards are born from great challenges and intentionally puts herself in positions to live out this philosophy. She is a first generation college graduate. Joy’s parents instilled the importance of higher education—a value that shaped her personal worldview and set her on course to become an educator.
Through difficult classroom experiences, Joy learned the hard way that building relationships with students is the key that opens the door to learning. When she was first trained in Capturing Kids’ Hearts, she quickly realized that this process perfectly aligned with her personal experience. Since that time, by consistently and intentionally utilizing the CKH process, Joy has excelled in developing relationships with her students that have produced remarkable results. She strives to inspire her students to embrace the same lifelong love of learning as a way to change their circumstances and provide a future that may otherwise be unimaginable to them.
Joy’s passion for people shines through in everything she does, overflowing into her personal interests and activities. Her friends joke that she could make a friend anywhere she goes and that she knows someone no matter where she finds herself! These qualities have led her to volunteer locally, throughout the US, and even internationally. Her favorite places to volunteer are in the local state prison and on the derelict streets of Iquitos, Peru.
Married to a career firefighter, Joy and Ryan are raising three amazing children: Gunnar, Coleman, and Ainsley. Most evenings, their family can be found at football games, wrestling matches, dance competitions, baseball and softball games, or band concerts. Joy loves to travel—seeking adventure wherever she goes.
Joy Sparks
Leadership Development Advisor
Joy has a passion for students from all walks of life but has spent most of her career working in some of the most challenging, underprivileged school districts in Michigan. Never content with comfortable complacency, Joy feels that great rewards are born from great challenges and intentionally puts herself in positions to live out this philosophy. She is a first generation college graduate. Joy’s parents instilled the importance of higher education—a value that shaped her personal worldview and set her on course to become an educator.
Through difficult classroom experiences, Joy learned the hard way that building relationships with students is the key that opens the door to learning. When she was first trained in Capturing Kids’ Hearts, she quickly realized that this process perfectly aligned with her personal experience. Since that time, by consistently and intentionally utilizing the CKH process, Joy has excelled in developing relationships with her students that have produced remarkable results. She strives to inspire her students to embrace the same lifelong love of learning as a way to change their circumstances and provide a future that may otherwise be unimaginable to them.
Joy’s passion for people shines through in everything she does, overflowing into her personal interests and activities. Her friends joke that she could make a friend anywhere she goes and that she knows someone no matter where she finds herself! These qualities have led her to volunteer locally, throughout the US, and even internationally. Her favorite places to volunteer are in the local state prison and on the derelict streets of Iquitos, Peru.
Married to a career firefighter, Joy and Ryan are raising three amazing children: Gunnar, Coleman, and Ainsley. Most evenings, their family can be found at football games, wrestling matches, dance competitions, baseball and softball games, or band concerts. Joy loves to travel—seeking adventure wherever she goes.