Our Board of Directors
Sarah Hobson
PRESIDENT
Sarah Hobson Ph.D. is the founder and president of Community Allies. Drawing on years of researching her youth ethnodrama programs, she developed Honoring Stories and Integrating Curriculum® to help businesses work together with governments, non-profits, and schools to strengthen local, regional, and national community growth initiatives that create pathways out of homelessness and into affordable housing, quality healthcare, youth development, workforce development, entrepreneurship, small business development, wealth-building, and talent pipelines for all. Honoring Stories and Integrating Curriculum® is a systematic way for educators to design culturally responsive trauma-informed instruction that engages students as regional and national change-makers. Honoring Stories and Integrating Curriculum® helps organizations streamline internal operations, strengthen bridge-building and collaboration within and across departments, maximize learning about processes that foster sustained cultural competence, and yield products, services and instructional designs that align with broader demographics and that contribute to thriving communities.
Bethany Gilpin
Chief Operating Officer
Bethany Gilpin comes to Wider Path with a rich background spanning education, healthcare, and community service. She earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Dartmouth College before pursuing a nursing degree. Bethany’s extensive experience in education, tutoring, and administration underscores her versatile skill set.
Bethany has dedicated over two decades to community service, serving on boards of youth sports and educational organizations, volunteering in churches and the public health sector, and co-founding an epilepsy support group for parents. In addition to her volunteer work, Bethany has played a key role in developing and managing the Wider Path Down Payment Assistance Grant Program, which has significantly improved home ownership accessibility for many. As a pediatric triage nurse, she uses her expertise and compassion to contribute to the well-being of children and their families.
Mysherrii Lard
Treasurer
Mysherrii Lard is the founder of Pinnacle Disability Services. For over 20 years, she has been dedicated to helping people in the community access a range of resources, starting with social security disability income. She has extensive leadership experience in providing health education community enrichment seminars and team building workshops which ensure people with disabilities can build a normal productive life. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, she then had the privilege to reside in Jackson, Mississippi; Atlanta, Georgia; Houston, Texas and Baltimore, Maryland. She worked at the Men’s Wearhouse corporate office as the Operations Manager, and as a Grant Analyst at the Maryland Energy Administration, where she provided grants to homeowners who wanted to install solar panels and clean energy stoves in their homes. She worked at Richard Schwartz & Associates as the Director of the Social Security Disability department, where she was able to establish and launch a Social Security Department which eventually generated over $1 million dollars in annual revenue with hardly any overhead.
She currently lives near Baltimore, Maryland where she purchased her first home with down payment assistance from Wider Path. She understands the needs of the community and what it is like to dream of owning a home without believing that dream can really come true. Her passion is educating homebuyers about our available resources and bringing hope and awareness to the communities we serve.
Our Staff
Sheila Coleman-Castells
Director of External Relations and Development
Sheila Coleman-Castells is a multi-lingual Educator, Nonprofit Executive, and Political Advocate who has spent her entire career in the pursuit of helping people of color and those in need of better education, better housing, or better employment, in addition to greater access to the power structures of our country.
She has over 30 years of experience in K-12, Higher Education, and business, both in the US and abroad, having taught Special Education students bilingually in Spanish in all 12 grades, and later in her career, trained both elementary and secondary teachers on the bachelor’s through doctoral levels in seven colleges and universities. She has presented research in the field of second language acquisition to national and international conferences in both English and French languages. She has also developed teacher education programs for university students in the United Arab Emirates where she was a professor of English, and where she founded (and served as first President of) the first professional organization for English language teachers in the Arabian Gulf (TESOL Arabia).
Sheila has also served two US Presidents (Clinton and the second Bush administrations) as a Senior Officer in the US. Department of Education and the US Department of Labor, respectively, where she conducted research in the fields of Educational Testing and Student Achievement for mainstream students and those with disabilities, Workforce Training, Community and Economic Development and Community Revitalization via Minority Entrepreneurship and new markets. She gained housing expertise through her tenure as the Executive Director of the West Virginia Home Builders Association Foundation, assisting them with raising federal funding and doing federal research with Pacific Northwest National Laboratories in Washington state to improve Energy efficient home building and safety for the residents of the Mountain State.
She has been an executive director of five nonprofits, and has served on many boards of directors, and is a recognized expert on nonprofit governance and fiscal management. She has raised almost 50 million dollars+ for educational and nonprofit organizations over 24 years, which she does as a Consultant to States, Municipalities, School Districts, Universities, Nonprofits and religious organizations whose missions are community focused, and who need her to help develop program models and raise the critical funds to endow them.
She is a graduate twice over (Bachelor’s and Master’s) from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA; Did a second Masters at the Universite de Neuchâtel in Switzerland; Two certificates (Undergraduate and graduate) from Université Laval in Quebec City, Canada, and finally, doctoral work at the University of Virginia.
Kya Thames
Marketing & Administrative Specialist
Kya Thames is the Marketing & Administrative Specialist for Wider Path Home Foundation, where she brings both strategic insight and heartfelt commitment to supporting individuals through transformative life changes. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Kya earned her degree in Psychology with a Minor in Education in the Spring of 2023.
With over two years of hands-on experience in social media marketing, Kya combines analytical skill with creative storytelling to elevate the Foundation’s mission and expand its reach. Her work is grounded in a deep understanding of how race and social structures shape individual experiences—a perspective that informs her approach to inclusive and impactful marketing.
Since joining Wider Path Home Foundation, Kya has been instrumental in driving engagement and building meaningful connections with the communities the organization serves. Passionate about helping others achieve their goals, she brings empathy, dedication, and a strong sense of purpose to every initiative she supports.
Board Member Application
We are seeking board members in Baltimore and NYC to help us grow our community impact and our funds. Learn more here and apply below if interested.