Our Team

Beatrice Williamson

Founder and Director

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 McFee

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. 

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.

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.

Dr. Kevin McFee

Member

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. 

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.

Emily Bernhard

Operations & Administration

Emily is a Texas Native, who came to Oklahoma for school, and never looked back! A graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Emily studied journalism, public relations, and nonprofit management. Before joining staff at Maisha, Emily served as resident manager for HopeHouse OKC, and worked with Novo Ministries to mobilize churches and volunteers in inner-city ministry.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead

“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” – Mother Teresa

Monica Miller

Fundraising and Special Projects

A life-long Oklahoman, Monica Miller Collison has spent her entire professional life moving Oklahoma forward. Growing up on her family’s farming and ranching operation in rural southwestern Oklahoma, Monica began advocating for rural interests at a young age. It was through these experiences that her passion for Oklahomans and representing people from all walks of life, ignited her desire to pursue a career in law and the public policy arena.

Raised in a family of educators, upon graduation from Grandfield High School, Monica attended Oklahoma State University and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Family Relations and Child Development from the college of Human Environmental Sciences. While attending OSU, Monica clerked for the Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, the Honorable Lloyd Benson and spent time in Washington DC working for Senator Don Nickles.

Thereafter, she attended the University of Oklahoma School of Law in Norman, OK, where she 
was a member of the Phi Delta Phi Honorary Legal Fraternity and participated in an interdisciplinary study at the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine for child maltreatment and neglect. While attending law school, Monica also worked in the Cleveland County District Attorney’s Office and the Oklahoma Insurance Department, thus furthering her career in public service.

Currently, Monica owns and operates Monica Miller & Associates and serves as Of Counsel to the law firm of Lee, Goodwin, Lee, Lewis and Dobson in Edmond, OK. With her unique background
in the non-profit sector, government and business, Monica’s consulting firm is focused on association and organizational matters, executive coaching and consulting, and fundraising and business transactions. Her legal practice focuses primarily on family law matters, business law, employment law and political and regulatory compliance issues. She also spends her time serving as the President and Executive Director of the Oklahoma Rural Association, whose mission is to develop and advance policies and initiatives that promote growth, development and opportunity in rural Oklahoma’s communities and regions.

Monica resides in Edmond, OK, with her husband John, and their blended family of six children. She loves traveling with her family, snow skiing and attending youth sports and activities.

Mark Nehrenz

Videographer

If you have seen a video about Maisha, Mark probably made it.

Mark has been Maisha’s videographer since the first Team Maisha mission trip in 2008. He met Bea in Oklahoma City in 2007 at a prayer service for the post-election violence in Kenya, decided to go on the mission trip and hasn’t looked back since. Mark has been to Maisha five times and many people in the village consider him a member of the community. He has also spent a lot of time in South Africa. As a result of his connections in South Africa and his deep love of Maisha, three mission trips of South African students have travelled to Maisha to serve.

Mark is a graduate student at the University of Oklahoma, getting his master’s degree in journalism. He spent nearly a year in South Africa on a Fulbright Grant making documentaries, wishing he could be at Maisha doing the same with the kids there!!

In his own words: “Maisha has made Kenya a home away from home for me. I find incredible joy in telling the story of what God is doing at Maisha through the videos that I make. When Bea and I are at Maisha and reflect on how much growth has happened since 2008, we are just blown away and humbled at how much has happened because of our incredible supporters around the world. My experiences at Maisha have forever changed me into someone who has life- long connections with my brothers and sisters in Africa. I look forward to telling their stories in the best way I know how for as long as I can! The people of Maisha are changing Kenya, and I think they can change the world!”