Fr. Hoower Cajicá

About Him

Father Hoower Cajica leads with heart and vision as our President and CEO.

Fr. Hoower Cajicá is the President and Founder of Renacer en Vida Nueva, Inc., a Roman Catholic priest originally from Bucaramanga, Colombia, and a trained psychologist who serves as the architect of Renacer’s model of faith-driven community health. Father Hoower holds a degree in psychology from the Pontifical Salesian University of Rome, one of the foremost Catholic academic institutions, where he developed his grounding in human development, trauma, and the pastoral dimensions of mental health. Before founding Renacer, Father Hoower served as Vice Chancellor of a major Colombian university, where he led academic operations and institutional development, and as director of a Colombian government agency for child welfare. He provided mental health support to communities in Chicago and Central Florida before formally founding Renacer en Vida Nueva in Colombia in 2015, moving operations to Chicago in 2019, establishing the organization in Orlando in 2020, and incorporating it as a Florida 501(c)(3) in 2021. Under his leadership, Renacer has grown to serve over 8,500 clients annually with a team of 20 to 30, almost all bilingual, and has built partnerships with over 90 organizations. Father Hoower led Renacer’s rapid response during the COVID-19 pandemic, partnering with the Florida Department of Health, the Florida Department of Emergency Management, and the Central Florida Black Nurses Association to provide testing site support, vaccine education, and resource distribution.

Recognitions

Father Hoower’s service has been acknowledged through an entry in the Congressional Record of the 118th Congress by Rep. Darren Soto of Florida (June 16, 2023, Vol. 169 No. 106, Extensions of Remarks E582) during National Immigrant Heritage Month, and through the City of Orlando’s 2025 Community Forest of Faith Day Proclamation issued by Mayor Buddy Dyer and Commissioner Tony Ortiz, acknowledging his contributions to community resilience, mental health and well-being, and the integration of faith with community and economic development.