The dreams became reality. Judith received her bachelor degree and went to work for Covenant House, Ft. Lauderdale before becoming a probation and parole officer. She was promoted to supervisor and managed a unit of Probation officers before accepting her position as a Correctional Services Consultant. In this position she audits cases for compliance with policy and procedures within the Department of Corrections.


She was actively involved in her church with outreach ministries in the jail and juvenile detention center, public relations director for the church, small group leader and licensed evangelist. She was the founder of a support group for people who spouses were not actively involved in the same faith.


For three years she coached and played with a women volleyball team of probation officers, winning gold, silver and bronze medals in various competitions in the Florida Law Enforcement Olympic games.


As a conference speaker and political activist, she became a candidate for the State Legislature in South Florida, blazing the trails for social injustice. She lost the elections twice, but felt that the experience was invaluable. Her passion to learn continued, leading her to  receive a Master degree from St. Thomas University in Miami, Florida in Marriage and Family Therapy.


She completed her internship in Marriage Family Therapy with the Parent Child Behavioral Clinic in Miami, Florida, under the leadership of Dr. Benjamin Isom. Clients with marital problems, depression and young adult issues was assigned to her to counsel. It was rewarding helping others and challenging to overcome many obstacles presented. The working of human dynamic are exciting and interesting to her, and the motivated factors for the writing of her books.

An article about Judith Vowels, MS aka Judith Goode

Christian bookstore, author forge a strong alliance
By Gail Hollenbeck, Times Correspondent
In print: Saturday, May 17, 2008

SPRING HILL — Judith Goode has been writing books for about as long as Joan Poole has
been selling them. Next weekend, the women will join forces to make Goode's latest book
available during a book signing at Poole's store.

In 2003, Goode penned her first book, From Law to Disorder: The Beginning, the first in a
fictional series about a probation and parole officer. Two years ago, her second work, a
nonfiction motivational book called God + Work = Success, was published. Now, the second
in her fictional series has been released.

Goode will be signing copies of that work, From Law to Disorder: The Virus, along with her
other books, at the Christian Living Resource Center in Spring Hill between noon and 2 p.m.
May 24.

A supervisor with the Florida Department of Corrections Probation and Parole in Dade City,
Goode, 49, of Inverness, drew on personal experience as a probation and parole officer in
Miami for her fiction books.

"They are about a probation officer, Justine White, who's interested in moving ahead on the
job and at the same time recognizing that it's a dangerous job that she's involved in," Goode
said.

Though the books are not based on her own life, Goode said that during her years as a
probation officer, she encountered some dangerous situations.

"Once, I went to a home looking for one of my offenders, and I knocked on the door," she
said. "This man came from around the side of the house with a gun on his hip. I just backed
away as I told him who I was looking for. He said they didn't live there, so I backed away
some more and went to my car. As a probation officer, you go out and do your job, but there
are a lot of unknown things out there. God has had his hand on my life."

The author has also worked with Christian ministries in prisons and detention centers,
founded a support group for people whose spouses were not actively involved in the same
faith, made two unsuccessful bids for the state Legislature, coached women's volleyball and
ministered as an evangelist and conference speaker.

"Every experience or hat that I wore over the years, I believe that they were God-given
assignments," Goode said. "And I did my best to honor his name."

That, said Goode, is what she hopes to do with her books.

"My prayer is that the books will be a success," she said.

Poole also sponsored Goode with a book-signing event at her store last month.

"I wanted her to come back, because I think it's good to support a sister in Christ who has
succeeded in getting three books published," Poole said. "I'm proud of her."

While the bookstore has been open for 25 years, Poole and her husband, Chuck, bought it
just five years ago.

Read the St. Petersburg Times Citrus County section, July 22, 2006 for
an additional article about the author, Judith Goode.

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