Our Board of Directors
Elisa Hyman
President & Founder
Growing up with a parent in the military and then marrying a sailor, Elisa has traveled the globe and become a master of adapting to various cultures and learning to build community fast. She is a certified teacher, entrepreneur, and has a decade of nonprofit leadership experience. Elisa has been traveling to Uganda since 2011. Not being introduced to missions until later in life, she sought to introduce others to the world of cross cultural service. While serving with a short term mission sending organization, Elisa strived to create a healthy model of short term missions and introduced missionary care to their short term teams. Elisa has been building relationships with missionaries for almost a decade. Through those relationships, the Lord made it clear that serving missionaries and global workers was where her family needing to be . Elisa's family currently reside in Jinja, Uganda.
Sarah Morrison
Secretary
Sarah grew up in the church but her heart for missions grew after she met Elisa in 2012. She is an Army wife, currently living in DC, and loves the military lifestyle. She and her husband adopted their son in 2016 following a mission trip she took with Elisa to Uganda. Her formal education includes a BA in Administrative Management and a Masters in Public Administration. God has always called her to be a sender, to serve those who go. Serving others brings her the most fulfillment and joy!
Travis Lathrop
Board Member
Travis was born and raised in Nevada, Missouri, where he attended Nevada High School and was actively involved in 4-H, FFA, and Basketball. After graduation, he attended the University of Missouri in Columbia, where he was highly involved in the College of Agriculture and held several leadership positions. After college, he was selected by Caterpillar INC, to be a part of their Global Market Talent division and spent five years moving across the country in various roles. Following his desire to live closer to his family, Travis moved back to the Midwest and accepted a position with Fabick Cat as a regional manager for several years. Since then, he’s also worked for Universal Technical Institute as a regional director and currently serves as the leader of Keller Williams Greater Springfield, one of the largest Real Estate offices in the Midwest.
Travis is a student of business and leadership and holds an MBA from the Jack Welch management institute, is a certified John Maxwell instructor, and serves as the Vice President of the Strafford School Board of Education. He’s married to Shannon, and they have two daughters, Kennedy and Bristol, who are actively involved in sports.
When he’s not working or spending time with his family, you can find him spending time in the great outdoors.
Ryan King
Board Member
Ryan grew up in the church but didn’t became involved with missions until becoming friends with Brandon and Elisa. He is a husband to a beautiful wife, a father to 5 wonderful children and is recently retired from the U.S. Navy. Ryan currently lives in Northern Virginia where he has begun his second career. He intends to serve his Lord and his friends wholeheartedly!
Adria Tate
Board Member
Adria Tate is a lifelong educator, who is currently working in Denver Public Schools. She and her husband, Scott, live in Arvada, Colorado. They have one son, Adam, who they adopted from Uganda in 2012, when Adam was just 2 years old. Together, they love to hike, mountain bike, camp, and ride motorcycles.
She and her family served with Amazima Ministries, in Jinja, Uganda, for two years, in 2018 and 2019. She served as the Head Teacher for the Amazima Secondary School, and oversaw its growth from 72 students to 216 students. She collaborated with both a Ugandan and Western staff. She is most proud of the fact that she worked to empower several Ugandan educators to take on the role of Head of Department, promoted her Ugandan colleague to Director of Studies, and oversaw the hiring and training of 25 Ugandan staff members.
She continues to stay connected to Uganda through Adam, and through the many friendships she made while living and serving in Uganda.
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Eric Emory
Treasurer
Eric Emory is a native of Denver, Colorado where he attended Lakewood High School and was actively involved in baseball. In 1993, Eric enlisted in the U.S. Navy where he served for over 23 years, stationed in Yokosuka, Japan, Stuttgart, Germany and many other locations throughout the United States. While stationed in Tinker AFB, Oklahoma City in 1999, he met his favorite person in the world, his wife Amber. Following retirement from the Navy, Eric and his family moved to Bossier City, Louisiana where he currently works as a Department of Defense Civilian for the U.S. Air Force at Barksdale Air Force Base.
Eric holds a Master’s of Science degree in Intelligence Management from the University of Maryland University College, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Intelligence Studies from the American Military University.
Eric is married, has four children, one grandchild and another one on the way. His two oldest children, Jacob and Colton both serve in the military. Eric’s oldest daughter is in college and his youngest daughter is a senior in High School. Eric is also a volunteer football coach for the local church and the community. In his free time, Eric loves fishing, doing improvements on his home, and watching sports.