Empowering others with her inspiring life story, Christina Meredith survived a childhood riddled with abuse, aging out of foster care, poverty and homelessness to forge a life committed to helping others. Through strong faith, hard work, and imagination she went on to become Ms California, found her own nonprofit foundation, and pursue the path to becoming a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army. As told in her memoir, CinderGirl: My Journey Out of the Ashes to a Life of Hope, during appearances on the Today Show and before speaking audiences nationwide, Christina’s story celebrates the transformative power of dreams, education, and the potential within all of us triumph over adversity. "My entire story is about hope, faith, persistence, achieving the God given dream and purpose that you have been given in this life, and not allowing things to deter you, because circumstances change," she says. "With hard work and a little faith, you can make them change."

Christina Meredith is from the oldest city in the Nation, Saint Augustine, Florida. Christina endured years of abuse before entering the foster care system. Passed from family to family, Christina finally landed in the home where she remained until she aged out of the child welfare system at 18. Graduating from Allen D. Nease high school with nowhere to turn, Christina became homeless and lived out of her car. Eager for a fresh start, Christina moved out to California where she took a series of odd jobs, eventually catching the eye of a pageant recruiter who suggested she compete in the Miss California pageant. In April of 2013, Christina won the title of Ms. California and has since dedicated herself to speaking out on behalf of vulnerable women and children.

She has been the recipient of ISF’s 2019 Community Impact Award from the state of Texas for her work in child welfare reform across Texas, opened for the Special Olympics, spoken to congress on the foster care crisis pushing for bigger mental health budgets specifically trauma therapy services for all foster youth, the state of Florida had her to speak to hundreds of foster youth and state workers teaching trauma awareness, the city of Saint Augustine hailed her a hometown hero awarding her the yearly Child Abuse Prevention month from the Saint John’s Commissioners office, She has spoken all over the country sharing her story, from appearances on the Today Show, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, and others; Christina’s story has encouraged millions that they too can heal from the wounds of trauma becoming all they dream to be.

Her mission to change the way America handles foster youth is well on its way as she continues to travel the country as a foster care advocate and mental health coach as a nationally sought-after Speaker. Her advocacy for policy reform at the state and federal level includes total foster care reform, foster youth to receive basic necessities, stable long-term housing, health care, trauma care, and education to ensure economic stability to stop the systemic cycle of poverty and abuse.

Christina concluded her national book tour with her first book, Cindergirl, published by Harper Collins/Zondervan and is currently working on her second book.

She is a national speaker represented by APB Speakers and serves as a Signal Intelligence officer in the US Army receiving her commission from the University of Florida and has a bachelors degree in Political Science with a focus on Foreign Affairs from University of North Florida. She’s currently working on her graduate degree in Homeland Security Counter Terrorism at Penn State University. Christina lives in Florida with her daughter.