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Board of Directors
Founder/Director - Palisia Zakeya Stallworth
The founder of the Uplifting Neighborhood Students Foundation, is a native of Alabama although her mother was born in Washington DC. She is an "army brat" who has experienced living in various locations. She graduated with a BBA and MBA from Howard University, which was started by Army General Oliver Howard. As an undergraduate student at Howard University, she started Project Uplifting Neighborhood Students which provided educational reinforcement and tutoring services for kids K-12 (ages 4-25) in Washington DC . The first tutoring session occurred at Bruce Monroe Elementary School, a school located in the Columbia Heights (Ward 1) neighborhood in DC. Approximately five years later in 2006, the organization obtained its 501(c3) for the project which she decided to turn into a foundation to serve the youth better. The name of the organization became Uplifting Neighborhood Students Foundation (UNS Foundation).
President – DeTania Payne
DeTania Payne is a graduate of Howard University, where she obtained her bachelor's degree in Accounting. She continued her education and graduated with a Masters degree in Business Administration at the University of Phoenix. She is a native of Wisconsin.
Payne's professional background is in healthcare. She has experience with both nonprofit and for profit healthcare. She has worked with many government programs and fundings, as well as many grants.
Payne has always been devoted to working with the community. She has volunteered her time at hospitals, nursing homes, community centers and daycares. Payne decided to be a part of Uplifting Neighborhood Students Foundation because she believes in providing opportunities for youth to learn and grow. She loves what the organization stands for and is grateful to be a part of such an inspiring program.
Vice President – Tauane Araujo
Tauane Araujo currently serves as the Director of Community Health Improvement at Texas Health Resources since 2018. She is responsible for the execution of the Leadership Council strategy across the system and management of reginal leaders assigned to support Community Health Improvement goals. She is a native of Brazil. Previously she was the Program Manager for the Latin America region at Susan G. Komen for the Cure® for 6 years, leading a group of consultants responsible for the implementation and oversight of community-based programs focused on increasing breast cancer awareness and early stage diagnosis, and ultimately down-staging disease.
Her work in the Global Health arena spans over years, where she has supported nonprofit organizations in the development of solutions for complex health issues in 15 countries throughout Africa, Asia and most recently, Latin America. Some of this work includes the study of primary, secondary and tertiary sources of health; population-based health needs assessments; and operations management in the health care supply chain for underdeveloped countries. She received a BBA from Baylor University (2005) with a major in Management and minor in International Business, an MBA from the University of North Texas Health Sciences Center (2007) with an emphasis Health Services Management, and is now pursuing an MSc in Global Health Policy with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Treasurer - Lillie Graham
Ms. Graham has assisted the foundation since its inception. She is very involved in community engagements and continues to be a valuable resource. She is a retired box factory worker, who has always been an advocate for pursuing justice and equality for all. She maintains the books for various other non-profit organizations including her church.
Ms. Graham continues to provide expertise from her various life experiences. She has helped with community initiatives in Alabama through working with the American Red Cross and various community food banks.
Youth Initiative Advocate – C. Maurice Jones
C. Maurice Jones is a young discrete mathematician from Mobile, Al. As an undergraduate he gained early business experience by working for the Walt Disney Company (2000-2001). After which he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in mathematics with a minor in computer science from Alabama State University, Montgomery, Al (2005). He then went on to teach K-12th grade students as department chair of the math and science department of Resurrection Catholic School, Montgomery, Al. (2005-2008) while completing his masters degree in mathematics from Alabama State University, Montgomery, Al (2008) where his research consisted of topics in hypothesis testing in Statistics and Game Theory.
He has obtained his PhD in discrete mathematics at Auburn University, where he was an AU and NSF Fellow. During his PhD work he served as a consultant with both government and private agencies. Some of which include work with AL.D.O.T. and Montgomery Public Schools. He has also worked with several educational grant related projects designed to educate students of varying backgrounds in the STEM fields. At Auburn he has investigated security in graphs by developing deterministic algorithms. He is currently a full professor and Dean of STEM at Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi.