2^nd Century Project Capital Campaign Committee

Ike Leggett – Honorary Co-Chair

Joyce Siegel – Honorary Co-Chair

LaTisha Gasaway-Paul

LaTisha is the great-great-great granddaughter of William Dove, the founder of the Scotland Community, which he acquired in March 1880. Dove purchased 36 acres at an auction for $210. Raised in the community her ancestors fought for, LaTisha Jannell Gasaway-Paul is fully invested in strong leadership roles advocating for the Scotland community of Potomac, MD. As a board member of the Scotland Homeowners’ Association, she plays a critical role in the revitalization of the Scotland community through renovations and upgrades. Along with her sisters Teresa Gasaway-Gleaton, and LaTrice Gasaway-Johnson, they made it their mission to be a link to building a stronger community by organizing and executing programs for their underserved population. The State of Maryland has recognized their accomplishments through the Maryland Excels “In the Spotlight!” series.

 In 2010, the Gasaway sisters partnered with the Montgomery County Department of Recreation (MCR) to sponsor a back-to-school drive, a toy drive, and Christmas event for the Scotland community. In 2012, LaTisha and Minds in Motion Child Care, which she co-founded, received an award from Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) for their work in children’s programming. LaTisha co-sponsored the 2015 Scotland Fall Festival with MCR. In 2021, she co-founded the annual Juneteenth Celebration in the Scotland community, in tribute to founder William Dove.

LaTisha firmly believes that “one of the greatest gifts you can give a child is a family.” Named the youngest qualified foster and adoptive parent by the National Center for Children and Families at only 23 years old, LaTisha knew at an early age she was meant to help assist and serve the community. She is married to Kris Paul with five children: Tania Bonilla-Paul, Yenifer Bonilla-Paul, Destiny Funderburk, Kristopher Paul, and Alexus Paul. Her high school course Child Development led her to her very first job at Germantown Children’s Center. Minds In Motion Child Care Center has expanded to three locations, with plans to keep expanding and extending services to communities all around Maryland. She also co-founded and invested in Adam’s Grace Speech Language Pathology and Occupational Therapy Services.

As a passionate philanthropist and community organizer, LaTisha has managed various community outreach projects over the years. In 2012, she co-founded Gasaway Children’s Enrichment Foundation (GCEF), a program giving selected high school seniors college scholarship awards. In 2013, she partnered with MCPS for the Scotland and Bells Mill Elementary Community Annual Black History Program and the Bells Mill Elementary Community Talent Show. In recent years, she co-founded Legacy Performing Arts in Gaithersburg, MD; partnered with a men’s shelter in Washington, DC, delivering backpacks filled with essential items; organized a Christmas campaign supporting the families at Stepping Stones Shelter in Rockville, MD; and co-founded Soup on Wheels, with a mission of feeding the homeless during the cold winter months. LaTisha is inspired by the quote “To whom much is given, much will be required. “(Luke 12:48 NIV)

In 2012 LaTisha served as class leader for the Children’s Education Department at the Scotland AME Zion Church and just two years later, became a Ministry Leader for the Scotland AME Zion Liturgical Dance Ministry. LaTisha credits her grandparents, the Late Melvin L. Crawford Senior, and the Late Rev. Mary E. Crawford with instilling in her the values that draw her to community work. When asked what keeps her motivated, she quotes Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” LaTisha is committed to raising up her community and holds to the belief that by working together, we can accomplish remarkable things. 

Chuck Williams

Chuck joined the Scotland AME Zion Church of Potomac, MD in 2006.  Prior to joining Scotland, Chuck was active in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and worked diligently with the ELCA’s Mission 90; an initiative to build ethnic diversity within the Lutheran denomination. 

In 2010, Chuck was elected President of the Scotland Lay Council, and also was elected Secretary of the Baltimore District Lay Council

In 2016, Chuck was elected president of the Baltimore District Lay Council.  He has spent those years searching for ways to build the laity of the Baltimore District. He is now the past president of the Baltimore District Lay Council. In August 2017, Connectional Lay Council President appointed Chuck to the role of States-side Regional Director for Eastern West Africa (Nigeria) to work alongside of the indigenous Regional Director located in Nigeria.  In August 2021 Chuck was appointed Chairman of the newly formed CLC Communications Commission to upgrade the Connectional Lay Council’s digital and editorial communications.  Chuck has a strong belief that the mission of the church can only be completely fulfilled when the laity steps in to make a difference in the world.  He has confidence that the lay people of the church can accomplish great things for the world in the name of Christ.

Chuck has also conducted financial aid workshops for the past few years at the Baltimore District Lay Council’s Samantha Wormley Scholarship workshop at the district council’s Winter Lay Academy.

Through his vocation, he was formerly associated with a major financial planning firm working as a financial advisor.  He has served his clients for the last 20 years.  Chuck started in the securities and investment industry while working in New York City over 40 years ago.

Chuck has conducted financial workshops and seminars on topics ranging from Basic Financial Management to College Planning, Investment and Portfolio Planning, Estate and Charitable Planning as well as a host of other topics.

Chuck is also:

• Eastern West Africa Regional Co-Director for the Connectional Lay Council
• Chair of the newly created CLC Communications Commission
• Director, Rethinking Church Strategies Economic Empowerment Think Tank
• Co-chair of Baltimore District of Project 100 Voter Engagement Team
• Member of Maryland Alliance for Justice Reform (MA4JR)
• Member of the Montgomery County, MD Police Advisory Board
• Member of Action in Montgomery (AIM) church-based advocacy group
• Former Baltimore District Director of Adult Christian Education (2010-2016).
• Charter member of the Financial Planning Association (FPA)
• Charter member of the African American Association of Financial Advisors (AAAA), a trade organization for financial advisors of African ancestry in the United States.
• Founder of Money Management Mini$tries, a not-for-profit financial empowerment ministry.

Chuck is married to Cathy, and he is the father of two adult sons, Chris, and Wes and has a newly wedded daughter-in-law, Whitney.  His greatest joy these days is strengthening the laity, encouraging discipleship and Christian education along with providing stewardship and financial education to Christian organizations throughout the area as his ministry’s mission.

Kenneth Cummins

Kenneth is a 73-year-old, happily married father and grandfather, born in the northwestern part of Oklahoma that was taken from the Native Americans and opened up to homesteaders in the Cherokee Strip land rush of 1893. His maternal grandfather, a Hungarian immigrant, staked out his 160 acres, which grew to 2,000 acres by the time Kenneth was born.  But his family left in 1951, when he was two years old, and he grew up on a small farm in South Central Kansas.

From an early age, Kenneth developed a desire for writing and journalism, influenced perhaps by paternal uncles and great uncles who were unsuccessful writers (never sold much) but prolific writers of poetry and fiction.  One of those relatives, Orange Scott Cummins, founded at least two small towns in Kansas that still survive, was published in local newspapers, and wrote some of his best poetry on the shoulder blade bones of fallen slain buffaloes (later transcribed onto paper).  At least two of his books are in the Library of Congress.

After graduating from the University of Kansas in 1972, and after a short stint working for the Oklahoma City Times, Kenneth joined a group of enterprising and creative journalists and artists to launch a hard-charging, free, weekly newspaper in Wichita, which managed to publish for nearly five years.  In 1976, he moved to Washington, DC without a job because, in the post-Watergate age of Woodward and Bernstein, this was the place to be for investigative journalists.  During the past 46 years, he has worked for The Washington Post, Capitol Hill News Service, The Chicago Tribune (Washington Bureau), the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel (national reporter) and the Jacksonville Florida Times-Union (Congressional reporter). Kenneth has also written for Washingtonian magazine, Washington Monthly, New Republic, Rolling Stone, and Reader’s Digest, among others. But it was only after his article about cigarette additives and practices appeared in Reader’s Digest that his Oklahoma and Kansas relatives accepted him as a real journalist.  Kenneth was the lead researcher on a book about the CIA’s covert behavioral and mind control experimentations in in the 1950s and ‘60s. That book, The Search for the Manchurian Candidate, was published in 1981.

He was also an original staff member of The Washington City Paper and creator of the Loose Lips column on politics and humor, which – now written by others — continues to appear regularly today (39 years later) and is an influential voice in DC political journalism. It was during the writing of that weekly column that he dubbed Marion Barry Mayor for Life, a moniker that may stick for all time. 

When he first came to Washington, Kenneth fell in with a group leaving journalism to found private investigations and research firms.  Between journalism jobs, he was one of the original investigators for newly formed Investigative Group International (IGI), headed by attorney Terry Lenzner, which continues to operate today.  In 1991, he started his own firm, Capitol Inquiry, Inc, which became known locally, nationally, and internationally for handling difficult and complex legal and business investigations. This past January, he stepped aside to return to a writing career.  Kenneth has lived in the Bethesda-Potomac area since January 2001.

Because of a heavy caseload in real estate related investigations, he spun off a title company in 2001, and became a licensed settlement agent in DC and Maryland.  But running two companies eventually proved too difficult and time consuming, and he closed the title company in 2013.

Kenneth first walked through the doors of Scotland AME Zion Church in the fall of 2003, searching for answers to the many questions being pushed up by the increasing intersection of politics and religion.  His baptism in a small-town Brethren church at the age of eleven occurred more out of acquiescence that devotion, and he quit attending church before high school.  Scotland AME Zion was not the first church he checked out in searching for a religious home; it was the last.  The warmth, acceptance, and humor he received from members of the congregation that first Sunday has kept him coming back almost every Sunday since.  Scotland AME Zion is his church home and his church family. 

He is proud and honored to be able to participate and contribute to preserving this place and its environment for the next 100 years.