Beatrice Williamson is a distinguished leader known for her warmth, humor and commitment to learning. She was born January 19, 1976 in Kisumu, the third largest city in Kenya. From the age of nine years old until her second year of college, Beatrice received a scholarship for education from Swedish missionary Anna Lanson. Education was what Beatrice needed to rise above her circumstances and realize her potential.
“Aunty Bea” as the Maisha children affectionately call her, came to The United States in 2001. She founded Pamoja International Ministry to provide outreach services to international students in Oklahoma. She also consults regularly with international executives from a variety of fields to help create synergistic solutions to impacting problems these students face.
In the meantime, Beatrice’s family, living in the village of Kano, just outside of Kisumu, expressed the need and dire situation of the orphans and widows living in their community. The fruition of Beatrice’s dream began in 2006, when she founded Maisha in response to this call for help. Now, her passion is to reach out to orphaned and destitute children and provide them with the same opportunity Anna Lanson gave her. By making a difference in the lives of the children from her home village, Beatrice strives to create a brighter future for the next generation. Her passion is to reach out to orphaned and destitute children and continue the Legacy of Hope Anna Lanson began.
Dr. Kevin McAfee
Board Chairman
Kevin is a native Oklahoman where his family was raised. Attending college at OU, OBU and earning degrees from the University of Central Oklahoma he invested his life in the field of Intellectual Properties. His journey began at the Council Road Baptist Church in Bethany, Oklahoma. Kevin served as an intern and on staff in Burbank at Buena Vista and worked in the Home Entertainment Center prior to the launching of the Disney Channel. Later he was recruited in senior management to run another film studio, NEST ENTERTAINMENT where he served as Senior Vice President and President working with NEW LINE CINEMA. This brought him to the CEO position of the film studio created by the Hobby Lobby Corporation, EVERY TRIBE ENTERTAINMENT where he made to motion pictures for FOX. While in this role, he worked with the non-profit BEARING FRUIT COMMUNICATIONS and later became the founder of VERITAS MISSION FILM ASSOCIATION. He is an award winning filmmaker with over three dozen international film festival awards and is serving on the board for the Film Advisory Board of Directors at Lipscomb University. Kevin is a writer, producer and director with his latest film, LAST OUNCE OF COURAGE endorsed by Chuck Norris. He has made films in forty nations with his mission based company VERITAS and is currently serving as Chairman of the Maisha Project.
Heather Olive
Board Vice Chair
Heather is a graduate of the University of Central Oklahoma and a former Miss UCO of Edmond.
She was a Co-Owner of Stagestruck Studios where she trained and managed talent for both regional and national markets. She directed and choregraphed numerous productions. She worked for Bearing Fruit Entertainment and was a part of the film crew that traveled to the Jungles of Ecuador to produce the documentary Beyond the Gates of Splendor and feature film, End of the Spear. Heather taught at Christian Heritage Academy and worked as program director. Heather along with her husband and two children live in Norman.
Humphrey Munai
Board Treasurer
My name is Humphreys Munai I arrived in the United States in 1992 for college. In 1997 I graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration. In 2002 I earned his MBA with a concentration on Project and Operations Management. In 2014, I received an MB.Agric. Certificate from Texas A&M.
Along the way I have taken short term courses here and there on coaching and feedback, financial management, grant management, USAID Rules and Regulations, US Federal Contracts, USAID Procurement Planning and Execution, Budgeting for Results, Agriculture value chain and PMD Pro non certification Training.
I have over 18 years’ experience in Non Profit and For Profit Operations Management, Finance, Human Resource, Budgets, Projects, Organizational Setup, Strategic Planning and Management, Process Improvement, Engineering & Technology Management as well as Institutional Funding or Grant Management.
My career journey has taken me through service, transportation, retail, county government, communications and marketing industries. This also included a small stint as a business owner mainly working with small business owners in areas of bookkeeping and later in marketing through advertising in which I owned a small magazine right before the recession.
My international NGO experience began in 2007 at World Neighbors Inc. as its first International Operations Coordinator and then role was combined with finance and renamed International Finance Coordinator. In this role I was successful in transforming and migrating country offices accounting from desktop to online Quickbooks.
In 2011 I joined Heifer international as its Finance Manager for Africa area program. I was later promoted to Director of Finance & Administration (Africa) and later renamed to Director of Global Finance Operations – Africa. Key success from this role is implementation of ERP and standardization of processes and procedures across the countries while implementing major multimillion, multi country projects. In 2016, I joined 350.Org as a Chief Operations Officer, a position I still hold.
What keeps me going is a personal life goal – to help as many people as possible, ensure my family is financially secure, grow in my faith.
I am fluent in English and Swahili and is still trying to learning Spanish and French. I love dancing, playing soccer and traveling; driving is like therapy for me. Outside of Africa where I have been to I have been to Nepal, India, Jamaica, Guatemala, Dominican Republic and Haiti(wherever I survived the Jan 2010 earthquake). In my downtime I would sit down and watch sports all day, but I enjoy traveling and meeting new people and embracing new experiences.
Amy Booth
Board Secretary
Amy Booth is a 1994 graduate of Oklahoma State University and has served the people of Oklahoma as a Certified Public Accountant since 1997. She maintains a practice with an office in Mustang, Oklahoma. Her clientele has always included multiple non-profits and she has been on staff as the head of finances for four different Oklahoma based non-profits and large churches. She enjoys using the gifts God has given her in conjunction with the non-profit community.
Amy loves the world view that short-term mission trips provide, and so has traveled to Haiti and Kenya with her family to gain such a view. A trip to see The Maisha Project in Kenya was extra special, as her family has been involved in this ministry since it began. She is excited and greatly anticipating what is next for the Maisha family and is glad to serve the ministry on the board.
Representative Mark McBride
Member
Representative McBride was elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 2012. A lifelong conservative Republican, Mark represents House District 53, which encompasses most of Moore, Oklahoma, the state’s seventh largest city. He is a local business owner of McBride Construction and Roofing, LLC and McBride Homes, LLC. He is married to his beautiful wife, Jennifer, and welcomed her daughter and two sons into his family of two daughters, two sons and six grandchildren.
Currently, Representative McBride is the Chair of Appropriations and Budget on Education Committee, a member of the Business, Commerce and Tourism Committee and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He also serves as the Assistant Majority Floor Leader. Mark was appointed to the Capitol Restoration Oversight Committee.
Previously, Mark served as the Vice-Chair of the House Utility and Environmental Regulation Committee 2013-2015, Vice-Chair of Energy and Natural Resources 2015-2019. He also is an Executive Board Member of the Energy Council and serves on the Board of Directors of the Southern States Energy Board.
Mark has been involved in several areas of mission ministry and humanitarian aid. He is the Founder and President of Thousand Hills Mission, which is dedicated to providing agricultural and veterinary assistance to the people of developing and Third World countries. He has consulted with mission projects in Central America, Eastern Europe (Bosnia-Herzegovina) and Africa. Since 2003, Mark has personally led mission teams to remote village areas of Nicaragua and Africa where they help with agricultural, veterinarian and humanitarian aid projects.
Julie Spencer
Member
Julie Spencer, serves as Executive Assistant to Dr. McAfee for decades in making the feature films LAST OUNCE OF COURAGE, award winning documentary THROUGH THE VALLEY, and most recently Co-Produced #butGOD. Julie also helps her husband Gary Spencer in their Commercial & Home Development business.
