At age 18, Doris Quirós sensed God calling her to preach.

The daughter of an Assemblies of God pastor, Quirós nevertheless followed a different path.

Quirós grew up in public housing in Manhattan, New York. Her Puerto Rican parents, neither of whom finished high school, insisted their children attend college.

All seven Quirós children did just that, earning degrees and pursuing careers in accounting, medicine, business, education, and electrical engineering.

After graduating in 1991 with a business administration degree in banking and finance from Hofstra University on Long Island, Quirós began working as a statistical analyst for the U.S. Federal Reserve. Within a couple of years, she had risen to a management position.

When she was 31, Quirós attended a women’s retreat, where she sensed the Lord reminding her that His calling is irrevocable.

Not long afterward, her husband filed for divorce, leaving Quirós to raise their son and daughter as a single mom.

Despite questioning whether God could still use her, Quirós decided to enroll in a Bible institute. She eventually obtained Assemblies of God credentials, making herself available for ministry while awaiting God’s direction.

After her parents moved to Georgia to pastor Asamblea de Dios of Lilburn, Quirós followed them to the Peach Tree State in 1996. The church was Georgia’s first Spanish-language AG congregation.

Quirós took a position at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

“At the time, banking was a white, male-dominated industry,” Quirós recalls.

Yet Quirós kept ascending the corporate ladder, becoming assistant vice president of financial analysis and structure analysis in 2004. Quirós was the first Latina officer in the organization’s Atlanta branch.

Quirós later rose to assistant vice president of credit and risk management and vice president of supervision and regulation. In 2021, she became senior vice president of supervision, regulation, and credit — the first person of color to fill that position.

Alongside those impressive career accomplishments, Quirós also ministered bivocationally. She served the AG Southern Latin District as assistant youth director, youth director, women’s ministries director, and sectional presbyter.

In 2011, Quirós became associate pastor at Asamblea de Dios of Lilburn, following her father’s retirement. That same year, she stepped into the role of assistant superintendent for the AG Southern Latin District, becoming one of the first women in the Fellowship to hold such a position.

(Migdalia Quiñones served as the first female assistant superintendent in Puerto Rico from 2011–14.)

Quirós has brought to ministry leadership principles she learned in the marketplace, from strategic planning to procedural operations.

During 2024, another AG Hispanic district elected a female assistant superintendent, Isaura Pulido of the South Central Hispanic District.

Quirós suggests there is more of a readiness in some Hispanic districts to elect female leaders because proportionally more women are ordained compared to geographic districts/networks.

Edson Dos Santos, superintendent for the AG Southern Latin District, says Quirós has brought to ministry leadership principles she learned in the marketplace, from strategic planning to procedural operations.

Dos Santos, who has known Quirós for 15 years, calls her an amazing bilingual leader and a role model for women. He says many women in the district — which includes 97 churches in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina — have told him they applied for ministerial credentials because of Quirós. The district’s ratio of credentialed women now stands at an impressive 37%.

Maricela Hernández, secretary/treasurer of the Texas Gulf Hispanic District and an AG executive presbyter, has known Quirós since 2005, when they both served as women’s ministries directors in their districts. Hernández says she admires Quirós for her many talents and willingness to use them in service of others — not only in key leadership positions, but also in less visible areas of ministry.

As an example, she recalls how Quirós joined volunteer teams during four consecutive summers to lead vacation Bible school programs at Christian Assembly, the church Hernández pastored in Penitas, Texas.

“These were all professional people who set aside their vacation time and paid their own way to do missional work,” Hernández says. “They made an extravagant offering.”

Hernández also appreciates that Quirós, despite being a single mom in difficult circumstances, answered God’s calling and waited on His timing to minister.

Quirós notes that the church roles her father thrust upon her growing up, including teaching Sunday School at age 12, helped her develop leadership skills for all the roles she has filled during her bivocational career.

Simultaneously working two executive positions — one secular and one religious — proved challenging.

“I had to rely on the Lord daily to do both roles at the same time,” Quirós says.

In 2023, Quirós retired from the Federal Reserve at age 55. Upon her departure, many co-workers thanked Quirós for demonstrating her faith in the workplace.

“God allowed me to be in certain positions so I could be a witness for Him,” Quirós says.

Since retiring from three decades at the Federal Reserve, Quirós has focused on full-time ministry.

In addition to her district role, Quirós still serves as associate pastor at Lilburn AG, where her brother, Ruben Quirós Jr., is administrative pastor. Her duties include overseeing the church’s English-language ministry, as well as NextGen ministries.

Quirós still marvels that God chose to use her in ministry. She identifies with David, the lowly shepherd boy whom God brought from the fields and turned into a leader.

“God can do great things in our lives if we put ourselves in His hands,” Quirós says.

This article appears in the Winter 2025 issue of Influence magazine.