About me
Shelley Callahan decided when she was young, while still in college, that she wanted to commit her life to working for the underprivileged. While attending Virginia Commonwealth University to receive her Masters of Social Work in 2006, Callahan started a non-profit organization called Books on Wheels, which provided free books and free bicycle repair to children living in low-income neighborhoods all over the East Coast of the U.S. In her free time, she taught English classes to refugee families in Richmond, Virginia, her hometown, while also volunteering abroad for various non-governmental organizations. Callahan has spent time digging wells in the Amazon to provide clean drinking water for the indigenous populations of Colombia, leading medical teams to a clinic in Jacmel, Haiti, and teaching children sanitation techniques and practices in villages in Nepal to help keep them healthy.
After receiving her degree in 2008, Callahan followed her interests to a global scale, serving as the Director of Development for the non-profit organization Children Incorporated that provides thousands of children in need with basic needs in 22 countries, including the United States. As the writer of the Children Incorporated On the Road blog series, Callahan has traveled extensively across the U.S. and around the world reporting on the burden of poverty that families face while also working to support communities in need. Since starting her work with Children Incorporated, she has visiting the slums of Ethiopia and Kenya and worked closely with children in need in Mexico, Bolivia, India, Sri Lanka, and in Eastern Kentucky bringing attention to the plight of the underprivileged.
Callahan is also the author of the book The House of Life (Chop Suey Books, 2016), and has written for many online and print publications about her work within the non-profit sector.