I’ve spent most of my life bringing people together.

I’m Carmen Hall—a storyteller, relationship builder, nonprofit and advancement professional, ordained wedding officiant, volunteer, traveler, friend, sister, daughter, and someone who believes deeply that God places people in our lives for a reason.

For more than thirty years, my work has centered around people and purpose. I’ve worked in philanthropy, nonprofit leadership, communications, community partnerships, and higher education advancement. Along the way, I’ve had the privilege of helping families through Habitat for Humanity, serving communities both at home and internationally, officiating weddings, raising money for causes I believe in, and meeting some extraordinary people in some very ordinary places.

But the accomplishments on my résumé aren’t what inspired me to write The People in the Room.

The people did.

At fifty-five, I looked around at a room filled with friends and family from nearly every season of my life and realized something that changed the way I thought about success:

I was incredibly wealthy—and it had nothing to do with money.

My wealth was sitting in the room.

They were the people who had shown up, prayed for me, challenged me, forgiven me, celebrated with me, made me laugh, carried me through loss, and loved me through every version of myself.

That realization became The People in the Room.

My Christian faith is at the heart of the way I see those relationships. I believe God has been present in my story all along—sometimes through extraordinary moments, but more often through ordinary people who arrived at exactly the right time.

Today, I’m trying to live with more gratitude for the people already in my room, more intention about the kind of person I am in theirs, and enough faith to always leave one more chair open for whoever God sends next.

I’m glad you pulled up a chair.