Rev. Dr. Sanghoon Yoo, the founder of The Faithful City (TFC), has led ministries and social services at Arizona State University and the Phoenix metropolitan area for over two decades. He holds a master’s degree in Social Work (MSW) and a Doctor of Ministry (DMin) degree. He also founded Arizona Trauma Informed Faith Community – now, Coalition (AZTIFC), collaborating with Arizona ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) Consortium where he served as a founding board member. He is certified in spiritual direction, ACEs TOT (training of trainer) training, trauma-informed care, mindfulness leadership, social-emotional learning, historical trauma, and many other pieces of training.

He has organized an annual statewide conference since 2019, Building Resilient Church Conference at Pure Heart Church, collaborating with over fifty local and national speakers. With the AZTIFC, he has mobilized a trauma-informed community movement, providing regional monthly meetings and developing collaboration with various professional fields and societal sectors.

He offers ACEs & trauma-informed care training, organizational and cultural change training, and consultation to faith communities, school districts, public health, mental health, and the foster care system. With the Arizona ACEs Consortium, he contributed to the authorship of the training modules for opioid and substance use prevention and statewide standardized ACEs training of trainers modules. Recently, he was awarded a grant by the Maricopa County Dept. of Public Health to train faith communities in trauma-informed lens-based substance use prevention. He also coaches executive leadership of health and mental health organizations for their trauma-informed community-building journey. In addition, he is co-managing the faith-based community at PACES Connection (the national hub of the trauma-informed care movement) with the staff, and chairing the faith sector for the community of practice at a national coalition, Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP) to advance the movement with national leaders and colleagues.