Meet Our Board
Dawn Brown
Dawn Brown, Board President, began serving with WEN in 2009 as our Director of Programs. This position allowed Dawn to touch and impact girls’ lives through service, while also inspiring them to be leaders that will transform their communities. In addition, she has served as a leader on past WEN travel leadership conferences to Gambia, Amsterdam, Tanzania, and Ghana.
Dawn is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor of science degree in Biochemistry & holds a Masters of Engineering from Prairie View A&M University. After working in the Oil & Gas industry in Midland, TX, Dawn returned to Houston to start her business, Math-A-Matics Tutoring, LLC which offers math tutoring, campus intervention, and STEM enrichment services. Math-A-Matics Tutoring has enabled Dawn and her team to help low performing schools improve while igniting students’ love for math. Furthermore, she is proud to employ minority STEM professionals and create programming to help encourage more girls to pursue STEM related fields.
Lordly Beard
Lordly Beard serves as the Director of Next Gen at Transformation Church. Lordly has over a decade of experience in working with non profit organizations whose focus is serving the next generation in both education and social services.
Lordly is a proud native of Tulsa, OK. His passion for education and creating opportunities for young minds began while serving many successful years at KIPP Tulsa. Lordly became part of the onboarding and recruiting team with Tulsa Public Schools to bring excellent teachers to the district. He later worked in recruitment with Reading Partners and City Year. While serving in various roles, Lordly also served as a Youth Pastor at Met Church Tulsa and eventually became a full time employee as the Pastor of Discipleship.
As a Pastor, Lordly’s desire is to continue to influence young minds to believe in themselves. Lordly believes that there are endless possibilities for every young person when we believe in them and the power of educational equity.
Mercedes Harris
Mercedes is a resourceful professional often looking to bridge the gap between those in need and resources. She began her career at United Technologies as a systems engineer designing hydrogen fuel cells. She transitioned from engineering to a career in business and has been in technology sales for the past 13 years at organizations such as IBM & Microsoft. In addition, Mercedes is the co-founder of a cultural events site (MerlexPicks) where she is increasing the diversity of patrons of the Houston cultural art scene.
Mercedes is active in organizations such as Rotary Club of Houston, Houston City Breakfast Club, Pipeline Angels, Microsoft Houston Council, 8 Million Stories, Harris County Youth Justice Coalition and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Mercedes holds a BS in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from Spelman College and Georgia Institute of Technology, respectively. She also holds an MBA from Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business.
Crystal Aryee
Crystal Aryee is the Managing Director and co-owner of Jane Deux Event Management and Consulting, a full-service event planning firm that has crafted experiences worldwide for esteemed community leaders, professional athletes, and notable corporations. Over the past 14 years, Crystal has planned virtual events and traveled to various captivating locations to organize award shows, family festivals, training sessions, global workshops, weddings, sports camps, brand activations, birthday celebrations, holiday parties, and much more. Crystal’s work has been featured in publications such as Black Bride, Grace Ormonde, The Knot, and Weddings in Houston.
In 2016, Crystal founded Jane Deux Cares (@janedeuxcares), a 501(c)(3) organization that began as an effort to provide necessities to Houston’s unhoused community. It has since evolved into a nonprofit dedicated to increasing access and improving the well-being of displaced Black youth in the U.S. and Ghana.
Cherae Nash
Cherae is currently the Director of Assessment at FullBloom, a company that serves thousands of students, across forty states, by using data to inform the implementation of academic intervention services. With a decade of experience in the education sector, she has a resolve to make education synonymous with empowerment, efficacy, equity, and agency.
She has previously partnered with Women Empowering Nations, providing operations support during our Girls Leading Our World summits. Through these experiences, she recognized the power of community and exposure to indelibly change the lives of Black girls.
Cherae holds a Master’s in Education Policy from Vanderbilt University, Peabody College where she specifically studied special education policy. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, with a minor in Education Studies at Emory University. She currently resides in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a constant learner, who enjoys reading, ruminating, and watching documentaries in her free time.
Allison Thomas
Allison A. Thomas serves as the Deputy Administrator for Trade Policy at the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) and oversees the trade policy agenda for U.S. agricultural exports. An international advocate and proponent for trade, Allison has spent the last 20+ years working to expand the global footprint for American agriculture. Allison began her career at USDA as a summer intern and served in several capacities within USDA-FAS including Managing Director, Assistant Deputy Administrator, FAS Chief of Staff, Director, and International Economist. Allison also worked at the U.S. Embassies in Canada, Kenya, and Afghanistan to foster and strengthen trade relations.
A Louisiana native, Allison obtained a B.S. and M.S. in agricultural economics from Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas, respectively. She also studied abroad at Scotland’s Rural College in Aberdeen, Scotland. Allison is the recipient of the 2015 “Distinguished Young Alumni” Award from the University of Arkansas. She is also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and serves as a mentor to undergraduate and graduate students.
Allysa Ware
Allysa Ware is a proud Tulsa, Oklahoma native who now resides in Oklahoma City. She is a 2021 graduate from Prairie View A&M University where she earned her Bachelors of Science in Psychology. She currently serves as the Director of Development for KIPP Oklahoma.
Allysa was first introduced to Women Empowering Nations through the Girls Leading Our World program which she was part of in middle school at KIPP Tulsa College Prep. This ignited her passion for mentorship and advocacy. She is honored to have a seat on the board and is excited to put the work in to keep Women Empowering Nations thriving.