Program Director

She sets her heart upon a nation and takes it as her own, carrying it within her. She labors there to plant the living vines. Proverbs 31: 16-18 (TPT)

Born and raised in the Washington Metropolitan area, Tonja Rice has a heart to help, advocate, educate, and serve the needs of others. Throughout the years, she has championed humanitarian efforts in Tanzania, Ghana, and in her own backyard. Some of these efforts include raising money to provide areas with access to water, assisting with securing funding for the building of a primary school, fundraising to provide meals for students, and providing health education to disadvantaged communities.

Tonja has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Master of Public Health with a focus in Behavioral and Community Health. Her volunteer efforts led to a 2019 Martin Luther King Jr. Service Award Nomination from Johns Hopkins HealthCare.

BOARD CHAIR

Patty Rice is a branding strategist with a thriving boutique marketing firm. She is also founder of Christian Culture Entertainment, a faith-based media company committed to developing faith and family content and products. Ms. Rice is a national best-selling author and was nominated for an NAACP award for her book, “Reinventing the Woman.” She mentors authors and has worked tirelessly with organizations that serve and support the homeless and other disadvantaged groups.

VICE CHAIR

Arielle McDonald is passionate about eliminating health disparities and improving health outcomes through clinician education. She is currently the Associate Scientific Director at the American College of Cardiology where she identifies knowledge gaps to define the educational and training needs of the cardiovascular care team. Arielle is a certified Project Management Professional who received her Master of Public Health degree in Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

TREASURER

Adeoti Anibaba is an award winning Project Manager with over 7 years of experience managing small to medium sized IT projects. She is an advocate for maternal health and childhood nutrition and is passionate about helping mothers , infants and families to break through the poverty gap.

Ms. Anibaba also serves as a Sunday school teacher and enjoys spreading and teaching the gospel to young children. 

SECRETARY

Lakeia Lemons is an author and entrepreneur. Her background is in childhood education where she has worked endlessly to educate children and continues to serve as a mentor to youth.

Ms. Lemons is passionate about utilizing her gifts and knowledge to serve her community and using her life experiences to minister to others. 

BOARD MEMBER

Pamela Cherry is a Senior Systems Engineer and entrepreneur. Ms. Cherry has played a vital role in creating marketing concepts within companies through digital & in-person marketing. She owns a marketing and media company, Cherry on Top, and travel agency, Luxe Journey Lifestyle. In the past, Ms. Cherry has led fundraising efforts and has supported organizations helping women, children, and the homeless.

BOARD MEMBER

Pastor Daniel McElroy, a certified educator, and pastoral life coach for more than eight years, motivates and counsels clients based on the word of God. The prophetic anointing in Pastor McElroy’s life uniquely positions him to help people get clear on their vision and purpose, heal from trauma, and get unstuck so that they can align with God’s plans for them and move forward in life. Pastor McElroy is a father of a beautiful daughter whose name is Nalia and is also the Pastor of Overcoming Church in Cleveland, OH. 

BOARD MEMBER

Sharice Chigwada is the Founder and Creative Director of Proclaim Greetings a Christian-based greeting card and decor company based in Richmond Virginia. After 20-plus years in the music industry as a platinum songwriter and singer, Sharice devoted her life to helping women build brands that enable them to live out their purpose.

BOARD MEMBER

Krisa Haggins is Senior Vice President of Meetings, Conferences and Educational Technology at the American Dental Education Association (ADEA). She leads a team of seasoned managers to produce nearly 20 meetings per year including the marquis event—the ADEA Annual Session and Exhibition. She previously taught hospitality management at Howard University’s School of Business. She spent 11 years at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc. in various roles that included vice president of external affairs where she led the events team and created the program design for many high-profile events. She launched several successful events which included the organization’s first franchise series that developed a lucrative new revenue stream and increased conference registration by 400 attendees to 5,400. Under her leadership, attendance for the flagship events of the Annual Legislative Conference (the Phoenix Awards Dinner and Annual Prayer Breakfast) grew by 33% to 4,000 and 2,800 attendees respectively. She was instrumental in conceptualizing an on-going two-week study abroad opportunity in China for nearly 100 American students.

Ms. Haggins’ diverse background includes six years at Maryland Public is Television, as a writer, video editor, producer and occasional on-camera talent, where she won numerous awards culminating in her 1998 Emmy Award win. She then spent several years leading the American College of Cardiology’s 350,000 net square foot exhibit ranked by Tradeshow Week as one of the nation’s “Top 200 Shows”. Krisa has earned the CMP designation, her B.S. degree from Towson University; and an executive M.B.A. from Loyal University of Maryland Sellinger School of Business.

REPRESENTATIVE IN GHANA

Bright Mensah oversees our operations in the field, meets with stakeholders, and assists with program planning and implementation. He is passionate about childhood education and has played a major role in implementing The Nutrition Initiative in Ghana and the launch of Mission: Spread Hope, Give Love - Ghana.