Few leaders bring lived expertise, deep knowledge, and a heart for service to every training, workshop, and interactive experience quite like Dr Theresa Pringle. A dedicated advocate, mentor, founder, and licensed minister, Dr Pringle founded Pringle’s Training Services and Pringle’s Pit Stop to bridge the gaps between employers and employees, and between systemic failure and human dignity. Her nomination for Visionary Impact Leader of the Year at the Influencer Magazine Awards 2026 recognises her transformative work helping individuals and families escape homelessness and the fallout from not having stable housing, which affects health education and employment.Her innovative approach to person centered case management, employee readiness into workforce transition, and her unwavering commitment to “Make It Make Sense, Change The Mindset, Change The Outcome “©2019 has empowered service providers, community organizations corporate and the faith based communities to deliver more effective services this assisting people to get on their feet stay on their feet and thrive.
Based in New Jersey, United States, Dr Pringle brings a perspective forged through profound personal adversity. Having personally experienced several degrees of homelessness, including street homelessness, couch surfing, and the shelter system, she notes that she fell through many unaddressed cracks within the system that create further barriers hindering life stability.Rather than allowing that experience to defeat her, she overcame the barriers addressing challenges that many homeless individuals and families face daily and resolved to create an organization that would help others avoid those same systemic cracks and setbacks.
In 2019, Dr. Pringle established Pringle’s Pit Stop, an organization specialising in providing services to those experiencing homelessness or in imminent danger of homelessness in the greater Newark, New Jersey, and surrounding metropolitan area. As founder and president, she works alongside her sons Jeri, Geri, and Ieri and her daughters Keri and Aeri, a true family enterprise rooted in service. The organization helps individuals and families not only get back on their feet but stay on their feet through various innovative services, including mobile, remote, and on-site case management, as well as comprehensive daily living skills training for those in need.For outside service providers, community organisations, corporate leaders and their employees, Pringle’s Pit Stop provides training focusing on “The New Face of Case Management.” Her approach is grounded in non-judgmental techniques and a powerful guiding philosophy: “Make It Make Sense. Change the Mindset, Change the Outcome.” This philosophy is operationalised through seven core values: No Judgement, meeting every individual where they are with compassion and respect, recognising their unique journey without bias or stigma; Person Centered Planning, ensuring each individual is a part of their own process to getting on their feet and staying on their feet; Empowerment, meeting people where they are and helping them rise on their terms with the support they need and the knowledge to do so; Accountability, holding both the organisation and its clients accountable to growth, consistency, and progress; Equity, advocating for marginalised and underserved populations through culturally competent, inclusive training; Integrity, leading with honesty and upholding the highest standards of professionalism and ethical practice; and Compassion, grounding all work in empathy and respect.
Beyond her homelessness work, Dr Pringle spearheaded a second business endeavor, Pringle’s Cleaning Services, in 2022. Specialising in commercial cleaning, she hires those currently experiencing homelessness or in imminent danger of homelessness, in shelter as well as those newly released from the prison system. This innovative social enterprise model creates pathways to employment for populations that traditional employers systematically exclude, demonstrating its commitment to practical, dignified solutions as well as providing individuals with a work value and employment readiness training that they might otherwise not receive under their current living situation so that they can re-enter the workforce successfully.
Recently , Dr Pringle collaborated with St. Vincent’s College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, to help her clients at Pringle’s Pit Stop continue their academic careers to attend college outside of an urban area with the direct assistance of her son serving as a college admissions officer.St. Vincent College will guide interested individuals through the admissions process, opening doors to higher education for those who might never have imagined such a possibility. She provided dedicated Gap assistance providing care packages guidance and being available to students who may have had some difficulties navigating the college experience.She is also a licensed minister focusing on intensive family restoration, adding a spiritual dimension to her holistic approach to human flourishing.
Dr Pringle’s civic contributions have been widely recognised. She served as the community liaison for the City of Newark Homelessness Coalition and as one of the commissioners of Newark’s Homelessness Commission. She is an active member and for the National Alliance to End Homelessness and has served as a panelist and presenter for the National Shelter Housing Data Conference and serves on the Statewide Advisory Board.Currently, Dr.Pringle serves on her local COC/CEAS (Continuum of Care/Comprehensive Emergency Assistance System) as an executive board member for the GALE / Essex County Advisory Board and other subcommittees within the COC. Dr Pringle’s continued endeavors extend as a certified mediator helping tenants navigate landlord tenant matters to avoid eviction.World Central Kitchen, along with other community organisations on local, county, and state levels. has recognised her efforts in meal delivery doing the height of covid delivering 900 meals per week,and for helping offset the costs of electricity bills during the critical time.
What distinguishes Dr Theresa Pringle is not simply her impressive list of board positions and collaborations, but her lived expertise the very struggles she now helps others overcome. She acknowledges the value in everyone and creates leaders who can look through the lens of others to foster both professional and personal growth that increases a healthy work environment. She believes that to overcome adversity, you must ask for and accept help from those willing to offer it, a lesson she learned through her own darkest days and now shares as a gift to others.
With her two mission-driven organisations, her innovative case management training, her social enterprise cleaning service that employs the homeless and formerly incarcerated, her collaboration with St. Vincent College, her numerous board and commission roles, her ordained ministry, and her family-centred approach to service, her nomination for Visionary Impact Leader of the Year at IMA 2026 celebrates not only her extraordinary achievements in helping individuals and families escape homelessness, but her ongoing mission to see more people become productive, contributing members of society, one changed mindset at a time.
