Our Board of Directors
Sarah Hobson
PRESIDENT
Sarah Hobson PhD. is the founder and president of Community Allies. She supports educators, corporations, and government agencies in doing their part together to advance equity. Drawing on years of researching her youth ethno drama programs, she developed Honoring Stories and Integrating Curriculum®, 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
SECRETARY & BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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.
Parkes Dibble
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Bringing more than 35 years of experience, Mr. Dibble has held various leadership positions within the mortgage industry. Most recently, he was Vice President of Capital Markets Product Development for Charlotte, N.C.-based Deephaven Mortgage, where he was responsible for new product development and existing product positioning. In his current role he is employed by Stride Bank as SVP Capital Markets. He also previously served as Vice President of Counterparty Risk, Servicing and Vendor Management at Deephaven. Before that, he was Senior Vice President of Mortgage Operations for RoundPoint Financial Group, Senior Vice President and Chief Consumer Credit Risk Officer for First Horizon National Corporation and Senior Vice President at HSBC Mortgage Services, among others. He holds a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He sits on the board of The Barnabas Center and the Audit Committee at Montreat Conference Center.
Mysherrii Lard
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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.
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.