The lessons that have shaped her most deeply, she said, came from “sitting with mothers who’ve lost sons and daughters to persecution, listening to pastors who’ve rebuilt their congregations after their churches have been burned, and meeting families driven from their homes because of their beliefs.” Those encounters remain vivid. “I’ve stood in the mass graveyards in northern Iraq,” Lynch said. “I’ve spoken with displaced women in Sudan hiding in the mountains. I’ve met with family members of the 21 Coptic Christians who have been beheaded by ISIS on the shores of Libya. They are not statistics. They have faces, names, and families, and I will carry their stories with me into this role.”