Hope for Widows is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. We are guided by the board of directors who create initiatives and make decisions for the good of our community.
Chasity Williams, President & Chairperson
Chasity Williams is currently a Senior Practice Coordinator for a Leadership Advisory Firm in Dallas, TX. Chasity has been employed in the Administrative field with several leading companies where she supported Executive level leaders and managed office practices in diverse industries. Her extensive background includes C-Suite/Executive Level Assistant, Operations, Corporate Event Planning, Human Resources , Client Relations and Project Management. Chasity is also involved with several volunteer organizations that include grief facilitation, bereavement support at local hospices and leading several online grief resources. Her passion and heart is to serve and help others.
Chasity is two time published author that shares a collection of stories by widows across the globe. Each shares their own personal insight into the hidden and often unspoken challenges of losing a husband, including the emotional, mental and social shifts we are forced to reckon with in the aftermath. Visit here to read more and order a copy: Grief Diares: Through the Eyes of a Widow and The Unwelcome Committee
Chasity met her late husband at the young age of eighteen. In June of 2009, her life would forever change when she lost her husband suddenly in a lake drowning at the age of thirty four years old. Finding out who she was again, raising her son and living life to the fullest even after this tragedy was a mission she was eager to accomplish. Darrell and Chasity have one son together who is a recent college graduate that is now working full-time and choreographing his next big adventure.
Chasity enjoys volunteering, traveling, sporting events, writing and spending time with her family and friends..
Maureen Bobo, Secretary
Maureen Bobo is a Social Worker, Christ Follower, Love Advocate, International Speaker, Author and Entrepreneur. Maureen is a single parent of two daughters and their life forever changed on April 2010, when her husband of thirteen years, Martin Quinn Bobo, passed away of chronic heart disease at the age of forty five years old. The children at that time were ages eight years and two months old. From that tragedy, Maureen’s ministry to serve others began.
Maureen is a co-author of The Unwelcome Committee the story of three young widows with children and their navigation through the processes of grief. Maureen is also the coauthor/contributor to 3 other books: Grief Diaries: Poetry, Prose and More, Widowed But Not Wounded:The Hustle and Flow of 13 Resilient Black Widowed Women, and You Are Unstoppable: Moving From Past To Purpose.
Maureen speaks across the world to encourage others on similar grief journeys. Maureen has ministered the gospel in the churches, schools, and neighborhoods of Belize, Central America.
Her passion is for the Singles Ministry, Health and Wellness and Women’s Empowerment. Maureen shares that you CAN go from “Tragedy to Triumph” and hopes that her life story will be an inspiration for others to heal.
Khadija Ali, Treasurer
Khadija Ali is an author, speaker, and entrepreneur. She has a passion to empower women and assist them in finding their life’s purpose after triumphing over tragedy in her own life. In 2007, she found herself a solo parent to five children after losing her husband, affectionately known as ‘Ali’, to colon cancer. Overnight, she found herself settling her husband’s estate and finding a ‘new normal’ for her and her five children.
In 2012, Khadija asked ten other young widows to write a book about their experiences. Only two women continued with the project, Maureen Bobo and Chasity Williams. Together the three authors published The Unwelcome Committee in 2016. She is currently spearheading another anthology about children with special needs entitled, ‘Mothers of Exceptional Children: The Journey, The Joy, and the Plight of Real Advocacy’ soon to be released in Spring 2020.
Khadija is also the owner of The Evelyn Rose Collection, a plus size online boutique for the everyday but extraordinary woman. You can learn more by following her on Instagram: @theevelynrosecollection.
Markell R. Morris, Board Member
Markell is an international speaker, career counselor and job search coach who helps career changers figure out their career goals after loss and personal challenges through her company Futures in Motion, Inc. She has created career information resources and programs that educate, guide and mentor people in support of pursuing meaningful careers from a place of possibility and abundance. Clients say she inspires, encourages and empowers them to go after their goals and live their best life.
In 2013, Markell unexpectedly became a widow when her husband, Mark, died suddenly weeks before their first anniversary. She had to figure out how to reestablish her employment and reinvent her career. On the journey, Hope for Widows was an organization she turned to for support and community. Markell hopes that by joining the Board she can use her career coaching and organizational development background to support Hope for Widows Foundation’s vision to plant seeds of hope in the hearts of widows, so they can go from grieving to surviving to thriving.
Markell is also an associate faculty member at Santa Monica College Transfer/Counseling Center and Adjunct Career Counselor at Cypress College. She is the President of the California Career Development Association and Volunteer Grief Group Facilitator at New Hope Grief Support Community.
She received her Master’s degree in Counseling from the University of San Diego, and her Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara (Go Gauchos!).
You can learn more about how Markell helps career changers discover meaningful career paths after loss and personal challenges, and request her guide, 5 Steps for Launching Your Career Transition at her website http://www.futures-in-motion.com.