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.

Chief Executive of Public Relations

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.

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.

Treasurer

Paula Gleicher Greenstreet

Paula Gleicher Greenstreet started her career as a Software Engineer in the video manufacturing industry. After receiving her MBA from the University of Phoenix in 1993, she went into management, and then marketing. She met her soulmate, Joe, in 1997 when work moved her from Salt Lake City, Utah to Nevada City, California. They married three years later.

The Dot Com bust forced Paula to reinvent herself. With help, guidance, and support from Joe, she became a Real Estate Broker. In 2004, she and Joe merged businesses to form BroadStreet Financial Group. Ten years later, she realized she liked accounting more and became an Enrolled Agent. With Joe’s passing from Neuroendocrine Cancer on August 29, 2018, she pledged to carry on their accounting business in his honor and has continued to grow it with her five female employees.

Paula is no stranger to volunteer work. She was event chair for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life for four years and served on the steering committee for an additional four years. She was a Community Ambassador for the American Cancer Society and has traveled the country speaking to lawmakers about the importance of cancer research funding.

Paula joined Early Risers Toastmasters in 2000 and achieved Distinguished Toastmaster status in 2011. She is still an active member. She served as Toastmasters District 39 Treasurer in 2011 and has served all the officers’ roles in her club – President, Vice President Education, Vice President Membership, Secretary, Treasurer, and Sergeant at Arms.

Paula has two Rottweilers named Freddy and Barney, and two cats named Pebbles and Bam Bam. She loves visiting with her bonus family of three stepdaughters, three sons-in-law, and six grandchildren. She also enjoys gardening, reading, and more recently rediscovered her love of jigsaw puzzles.

When asked what most people do not know about her – she shared that even though she loved going Jeeping with Joe and their friends, she was usually scared spitless!