My name is Tahilb McMicheaux and I am the new Case Manager here at the Well in the Desert. For the last sixteen years I have been working in communities throughout the Coachella Valley as Minister, Community Activist and educator.

I am not new to fighting for the rights of the under-represented populations throughout the valley.

As a community Activist I have held several positions of leadership which placed me in the forefront of addressing the needs of minorities and the under-represented. As president of the local branch of the NAACP and later the African American Chamber of Commerce, I made it my mission to fight for the rights of all people regardless of race and sex. Working with a strong team we were able to develop programs that educated, stimulated and raised the conscious awareness of the people.

As a minister I have pastored in several churches throughout the Coachella Valley -- from Palm Springs to Indio to Coachella, from a contemporary worship service style to a more traditional style of worship. In the words of Martin Luther King, I have pastored churches from "Treble white to base black" and have come to understand that one of the greatest scriptures in the Bible is - "Love thy neighbor as thyself."

For the last couple of years I have been toying with the idea of starting my own church and on February 4th in Desert Hot Springs Family of Faith will hold its first service.

As an educator I started off in the earlier nineties working as a sub for Marcia Stein at Raymond Cree Middle School. Marcia was a Masterful educator who took me under her wings and taught me everything she knew. After transferring from College of the Desert where I was majoring in Psychology, I graduated from California Baptist College where I majored in Sociology and Minored in Anthropology. Not long after, I started my coursework for my masters at Southern California Christian College.

I spent four years at College of the Desert where I designated the student outreach program for the Alternative Fuel Program there. I have lectured in almost all the high schools, middle schools and some of the elementary schools throughout the valley. I have taught classes at several California State Universities, Cal Baptist University and many of the High Schools here in the valley. My prayer is that God will give me the wisdom of how I can synthesize all my previous experiences into a loving approach that will help my clients here at the Well in the Desert feel like the truly have an advocate.