The History of Zenobia's Promise Foundation
The Zenobia's Promise Foundation was founded in 2019 by the Upsilon Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, an organization with a rich and distinguished history of service that spans over 112 years. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, is America’s first Black Greek-letter sorority. One key mission of the sorority is to be of “Service to All Mankind.”
The Upsilon Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, was chartered on October 24, 1925 in the city of Richmond, Virginia by Sydney Mayo Brown, Zenobia Gilpin Henderson, Ruth Thomas Hargrave, Leah Virginia Lewis, and Gladys Powell.
Upsilon Omega’s signature projects include: The Debutante Project, Future Young Leaders, and The Shoe Bank. The Upsilon Omega Chapter also supports Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated’s national initiatives including: HBCU for Life: A Call to Action; Women’s Healthcare and Wellness; Building Your Economic Legacy; The Arts!; and Global Impact.
Zenobia's Promise Foundation is a non-profit corporation operated exclusively for charitable and educational purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The Foundation is named in honor of Zenobia Henderson Gilpin, who served as the first president of the Upsilon Omega Chapter from 1925 to 1927.
In November of 2017 at the executive board meeting of Upsilon Omega, the creation of a task force was approved. The first meeting of the task force was February 20, 2018. The task force was comprised of members of the Upsilon Omega Chapter that included Chapter President Audrey Swann, Task Force Chairperson Sandra Taylor, Gina Burgin, Allison Coles-Johnson, Forrestiner Dickerson, Mary Hicks, Carlotta Jackson, Cheyenne Moss, and Jean Williams.
Members of the Foundation’s Initial Board of Directors, serving from January 2019 to March 2020, included Chapter President Mary Hicks, Task Force Chairperson Sandra Taylor, Melody Bourne-Jackson, Allison Coles-Johnson, Forrestiner Dickerson, Daisy Greene, Gloria Green, Carlotta Jackson, Cheyenne Moss, Janet Palmer, Sydney Shavers, and Tabatha Spurlock.
The officers of the Initial Board of Directors were Chairman: Sandra Taylor; Vice Chair: Gloria Green; Secretary: Janet Palmer; Financial Secretary: Cheyenne Moss; and Treasurer: Allison Coles-Johnson.
The members of the original task force and the Initial Board of Directors, collectively, are the Founders of Zenobia’s Promise Foundation.
In 2019, membership in the Foundation included all active members of Upsilon Omega Chapter. The first Foundation meeting was held on November 2, 2019, at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia.
In March 2020, the membership of Zenobia’s Promise Foundation selected its first elected Board of Directors. It is noteworthy that due to the Coronavirus pandemic, voting was electronic and due by March 30, 2020. Members were notified of the results by email and calling post. Members without emails were sent paper ballots, mailed on March 21, 2020. Completed paper ballots were due and needed to be post-marked by March 28, 2020. Members without email were called with the results.
The members of the first elected Board of Directors were Melody Bourne-Jackson, Janice Brown-Corbett, Andrea Coleman, Kwanza Downs, Betty Waller Gray, Velma Jackson-Williams, Janet Palmer, Sydney Shavers, Sonya Shaw, Johnelle Torbert, and Gwendolyn Whiting.
The officers of the first elected Board are as follows:
-
Chair: Kwanza Downs
-
Vice-Chair: Janice Robinson
-
Treasurer: Oscarina Pollard
-
Financial Secretary: Sherry Hayes
-
Secretary: Lisa Overton
-
Parliamentarian: RoxAnn Battise
-
UO President: Lisa Townes
-
UO Vice-President: Melody Bourne-Jackson
-
UO Treasurer: Calsine Pitt-Jones
-
Linda Jackson-Shaw
-
Melicent Miller
-
Tiffany Owens
-
Brenda Walton
-
Sandra Taylor
-
Mary Hicks
-
Ex-Officio: Josefa Bethea Wall
All money raised through Zenobia's Promise Foundation supports programs and community service in the Richmond metropolitan area, nationally and internationally.
About Zenobia Gustava Gilpin
Dr. Zenobia Gustava Gilpin, an acknowledged Agent of Change in the Richmond Community, was born in Richmond Virginia and is the inspiration for Zenobia’s Promise Foundation. It is on her shoulders that we stand.
She graduated from Howard University in 1920 and from Howard’s College of Medicine in 1923. Facing both sexism and racism in the Jim Crow South, Dr. Gilpin rose to national prominence dedicating her career and life to providing medical services to Richmond’s black communities. In addition to her own practice, she developed a program of health clinics at Black churches at a time when most city hospitals did not treat black patients. This program became a model across the nation. She was an outspoken critic of racial disparities in health care.
In Richmond, she was the head of Obstetrics at Richmond Community Hospital, secretary of the Virginia State Medical Association, and President of the Richmond Medical Society in 1930, just 7 years after graduating from medical school. Dr. Gilpin served on the board of directors of the Phillis Wheatly branch of the YWCA and chaired the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood, founded in 1940. At that time, the League focused on education and advocacy for family planning the women’s health. During World War II, she organized fundraising and a nutrition program for Richmond homemakers, to maximize healthy meals under rationing.
She was the first president of Upsilon Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated and has left a legacy of community service that the members of Zenobia’s Promise Foundation will carry on.
She married Welton Hamlet Henderson in 1943. The marriage was short-lived. Dr. Gilpin died in 1948 at her Richmond home. Her grave is located at Woodland Cemetery.
