Our Team

Ilham Askia serves as the President & CEO of the East Lake Foundation where she is responsible for leading the Foundation’s strategic vision and ongoing work with East Lake Initiative partners to ensure progress towards the Foundation’s mission. The East Lake Foundation was established in 1995 to revitalize the East Lake neighborhood in Atlanta, GA by generating new opportunities for families living there and creating a vibrant community where all residents thrive. The Foundation’s goal is to support programming that addresses mixed-income housing, cradle-to-college education, community wellness, and economic vitality.

Askia is a seasoned nonprofit leader with a deep commitment to advancing social justice and equity.As Co-Founder and former Executive Director of Gideon’s Promise, a national, nonprofit public defender organization whose mission is to transform the criminal legal system by building a movement of public defenders who provide equal justice for marginalized communities, Askia spent 15 years changing the culture of indigent defense representation in America. Before her role as Executive Director, she served as Program Director, where she worked with and helped to recruit new public defenders, as well as develop relationships with public defender offices throughout the Southeast.

Prior to her work with Gideon’s Promise, she served as an educator. Her career began in early childhood education as a Teach for America Fellow in the District of Columbia Public Schools and then she later taught and facilitated teacher training in the charter school system before moving to Georgia. She served as a first-grade teacher, chaired the First Grade Team, and wrote Math curriculum for Fulton County Schools. During her tenure in education, her students were routine examples of the effects of over-policing in marginalized communities, the school-to-prison pipeline, as well as the negative outcomes derived from legal representation provided by poorly trained public defenders with overwhelming caseloads. The latter being a lesson she learned earlier in life when both her father and brother were sentenced to prison.

Askia has been featured by media outlets that include Essence, Black Enterprise, Atlanta Magazine, Share International Magazine, Atlanta’s NPR, and the legal podcast Service Roads: Conversations on the Law and Social Justice. Under her leadership, Gideon’s Promise was also the subject of award winning, HBO Documentary, Gideon’s Army. She regularly speaks at law schools, community organizations and national criminal justice conferences to discuss the critical role of public defenders in the legal system. Notably, Askia has been a speaker at the SMART on Crime Innovations Conference, National Association for Public Defense Conference, Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy Annual Conference, Social Justice Community Foundations, Federal Defenders Conference, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense Fund Capital Training Conference, Public Defender Service for District of Columbia, Mercer Law Review Conference, and Southern Christian Leadership Conference Summit.

She has been honored with the Southern Center for Human Right’s Gideon’s Award, Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Inspiring Woman Award, the Atlanta Hawks Most Notable Atlantan, and Atlanta Magazine’s Women Making a Mark Award.

Askia holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in City/Urban, Community, and Regional Planning, and a master’s degree in Elementary Education and Teaching from Trinity Washington University. She currently serves as a committee member of Leadership Atlanta, a post she has held since 2017, and serves on the Board of Directors for the Society of International Business Fellows (SIBF), which she joined in January 2021. She also serves on the Charles R. Drew Charter School Board and the National Head Start HSN Board.

She resides in Atlanta, Georgia with husband Jonathan and children Aaliyah and Lucas.

Catherine Woodling serves as the Chief Operating Officer for the East Lake Foundation. Catherine is responsible for operations, finance, development and ongoing work with partners to ensure progress towards the Foundation’s mission. She also oversees marketing, communications, and media relations for the East Lake Initiative, working primarily with the East Lake Foundation, Drew Charter School and East Lake Golf Club. Most recently, Catherine served as Corporate Communications Manager for The Home Depot where she was responsible for crisis/issues and human resources communications. Previously, she served as the Public Relations and Communications Manager for The Home Depot Foundation. Prior to joining The Home Depot, Catherine served as the Media Relations Officer for Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.

As a native Atlantan, Catherine enjoys being involved in the community. She serves as a board member for Charles R. Drew Charter School, a board member and Secretary of the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, and as a board member of First Tee — Metro Atlanta. She serves as Secretary of the East Lake Housing Corporation’s Board. She is the Immediate Past Chair of the City of Atlanta’s NPU-N, the former President of the Reynoldstown Civic Improvement League and is a member of the LEAD Atlanta Class of 2010. She has been recognized as one of Atlanta’s Power 30 Under 30(2007), Georgia Trend Magazine’s 40 Under 40 (2016) and Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 40 Under 40 (2017).

She graduated from the University of Arizona Honors College with a degree in Political Science. She is also a graduate of the Arizona Blue Chip Leadership Program, a formal four-year leadership program that emphasizes community involvement.

She and her husband live in the historic Reynoldstown neighborhood in southeast Atlanta with their two children.

Meisha White was named the East Lake Foundation’s Director of Finance and Operations in 2019. In her role, she is responsible for the overall financial management of the organization, its financial reporting, budgeting, audit, tax, and investment management. She also oversees the foundation’s Human Resources and Information Technology functions.

Meisha comes with many years of accounting and management experience, holding senior roles in companies ranging from manufacturing to nonprofits. Before joining the team, she served as Director of Finance and Accounting with the City of Atlanta where she oversaw the administration of agency grant funds and successfully led the city’s distribution of labor costs through its ERP system.

She has been recognized as a school Star Volunteer and is a two-time recipient of the Leadership Award. She has fulfilled the role as Treasurer for both the PTA board and her local Toastmasters club. She previously served as a reading mentor for Everybody Wins Atlanta, a program dedicated to enhancing children’s literacy skills.

Upon relocating to Atlanta from North Carolina, she developed a love for tennis and competes regularly in singles and doubles matches. When not playing tennis, she is either watching tennis, running, or watching football. She and her husband have two daughters.

Jennifer W. McCrary serves as the Director of Outreach and Engagement. Jennifer is an experienced workforce and community engagement professional who is passionate about people who want to improve themselves through personal and professional transformation. Her leadership and commitment has been nurtured through her work experience in higher education and non-profit leadership. She has always been a guiding force in her personal and professional relationships. Her optimistic and encouraging spirit has made her a positive agent of change.

Jennifer has over 20 years of experience in higher education, workforce development, and community redevelopment where she seeks to help transform and impact the lives of others. Jennifer has been with the East Lake Foundation for the last 10 years moving the mission forward. She serves as a community board member for the East Lake Family YMCA, The Marcell Anderson Foundation, United Way VIP – Class of 2012, Legacy of Pearls Foundation, and recipient of proclamations from DeKalb County Commissioners (2017) and the State of Georgia (2022) for her commitment to community development.

Jennifer is a native Atlantan, and a proud product of the Atlanta Public School System and University System of Georgia. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Georgia, a Master of Arts in Education from Clark Atlanta University, and is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Educational Leadership.

Sharon Hall-Thomas is Operations and Special Initiatives Manager for the Foundation. Before joining the Foundation in 2000 as Executive Assistant, she served as an administrative assistant for the law firm of Rubin, Winter, Rapoport and Hall. She also worked as an administrative assistant for the Child Support Enforcement Agency, acting as liaison between the agency and the court system. She attended Georgia State University and volunteers regularly at Charles R. Drew Charter School in East Lake.

Tywonia Orum serves as the Senior Program Manager, leading the Resident and Community Support Program efforts in The Villages of East Lake.

After 11 years of working with State Farm, Tywonia decided to transition into a career that would allow her to work with families and communities in a different way. Although not a stranger to humanitarian work, she decided to leave the corporate sector and follow her passion. She worked for several years with the Atlanta Housing Authority where she worked with special programs such as the family reunification and the disabled. Her service continued with The Housing Authority of DeKalb supporting families with housing stabilization. She served as executive assistant for the International Institute of Deaf Services, Inc. for more than 15 years and also worked with National Alliance of Black Interpreters, Inc. (NAOBI). She commutes to Birmingham weekly; where she has been a staff/contract interpreter for the deaf since 1997. Most recently, Tywonia was a Pathway Coach with The Center for Working Families where she worked with families to connect them with employment, job readiness supports, career coaching and other social supports.

Tywonia holds a Bachelor of Arts in Counseling from Samford University and brings a variety of career development training and housing experience to the families in The Villages of East Lake.

Wigasi Brant (he/him) believes his gifts only manifests excellence when he is in service to others. Wigasi’s decision to pursue a career in Community Development is directly connected to the story of his own beginnings. As the son of a teenage single mother from the inner city of Newark, NJ, his passion for finding or creating opportunities to provide life-enhancing possibilities to individuals who, in some cases, would otherwise be overlooked and/or passed over is deeply personal.

Wigasi brings with him to the East Lake community a background which combines a myriad of experience including Talent Acquisition, Performing Arts, and Community Service. During his HR career, Wigasi teamed with globally recognized brands such as Delta, Amazon, and Rivian where he worked in various Talent Acquisition capacities. While at Delta, he was awarded Boston’s PIC Achiever Award and Ohio’s SWORHIB Awards; both are recognitions for high impact on the reduction of unemployment and commitment to the delivery of opportunities for underserved persons.

A creative and lover of the performing arts, Wigasi can been in seen numerous Film/TV productions and has performed on stages both local to Atlanta and across the country. He has worked alongside greats such as Cicely Tyson, Blair Underwood and Queen Latifah to name a few. A service driven individual, Wigasi uses his performing arts background to introduce recovering addicts, formerly & currently incarcerated individuals, and folks who have been impacted by housing instability, to the therapeutic value of the performing arts and then produces shows using only that community. He is currently teaching Acting and producing theatre with justice involved inmates, who are currently incarcerated at Burress State Prison.

Wigasi holds a BA from Morehouse College and an MFA from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. He is also a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.