Board of Directors

President & Chairperson

Chasity Williams

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.

Secretary

Maureen Bobo

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.

Treasurer

Khadija Ali

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.

Board Member

Markell R. Morris

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.

Board Member

Lisa Nasberg-Berman Knott

Lisa Nasberg-Berman Knott currently works as the Director of Facilities & Administration for a consulting and social policy research firm. Lisa received her JD from Albany Law School, and her BA in Law & Society from SUNY Binghamton (now Binghamton University). She has extensive experience in project management, developing operational procedures, streamlining practices, and process improvement implementation. Lisa’s work experience includes positions in related fields for the U.S. Department of Justice, in Washington DC for almost 20 years. Lisa is involved with several non-profit organizations and also sits on the Board of Directors of the Downtown Sykesville Connection as well as her homeowner’s association.

It took Lisa a long time to find love, and met her husband Joe in 2008 through an online dating site. Their first date was to a brewery, and they spent seven hours together just drinking and talking. Lisa knew right then and there that this was going to be “it” for her. Joe and Lisa married in 2011, and Lisa became a step-mother to two girls who still hold a very special place in her heart. Joe passed away unexpectedly due to a heart attack in September of 2014 at the age of 43. Watching her husband die and being helpless to save him, led to a cascade of issues that Lisa was not prepared for. After finding a support group and connecting with other younger age widows in similar circumstances, Lisa set up a meet up group so that everyone could get together in a casual atmosphere and support each other. These widow sisters have become family, and Lisa is honored to have gotten to know so many women and hear their stories.

Lisa considers herself extremely lucky to have found love again, and have her new husband’s support along this journey. Lisa enjoys volunteering, reading, sporting events, brewery tours, travel and spending time with family and friends. She hopes to help widows in similar circumstances find their path forward. All it takes is turtle steps.