Meet Our Founders

---

Professional Background:
Chosen Jae Mathews serves as Executive Director of Blessings Under Disguise and provides strategic leadership, operational oversight, and vision alignment across all organizational initiatives. She brings extensive experience in community mobilization, nonprofit program development, crisis response coordination, and grassroots advocacy.

Jae has led large-scale community outreach efforts, coordinated multi-stakeholder engagement initiatives, and overseen the implementation of structured service delivery models addressing health equity, housing instability, and behavioral health access. Her leadership approach blends compassionate engagement with disciplined operational structure, ensuring that programs are both dignity-centered and results-driven.

She has experience managing budgets, guiding compliance processes, cultivating donor relationships, securing community partnerships, and implementing accountability measures to ensure measurable impact. Jae’s work reflects a strong understanding of social determinants of health and the intersection of sanitation access, climate vulnerability, and mental health stabilization.

Community Experience:
Rooted in Kansas City, Jae has been deeply engaged in initiatives that support vulnerable families, youth development programs, and housing-insecure populations. She has successfully built trust within underserved communities through direct engagement, advocacy, and collaborative problem-solving. Her leadership is informed by real-world community insights and a commitment to equitable access to resources.

Relevant Expertise:

• PLTI graduate and community leader dedicated to advocacy, stabilization initiatives, and creating supportive resources that strengthen youth, families, and underserved communities.
• Program design and implementation for vulnerable populations
• Community outreach 
• Health equity advocacy
• Operational oversight and compliance
• Partnership cultivation and interagency collaboration
• Strategic planning and implementation

Under her direction, the Mobile Climate Relief & Hygiene Health Equity Initiative reflects a responsive, dignity-centered model designed to reduce health disparities and strengthen community resilience.

Professional Background:

Nisha McConnell serves as Co-Executive Director of Blessings Under Disguise, where she provides executive-level oversight in organizational management, program operations, and strategic implementation. She plays a central role in ensuring fiscal integrity, regulatory compliance, and disciplined program execution across all initiatives.

Stenisha applies a structured, systems-oriented approach to leadership, overseeing financial stewardship, operational workflow development, and performance monitoring mechanisms. Her expertise in data-informed decision-making and accountability frameworks strengthens program sustainability and ensures responsible management of public and private funding resources.

Community Experience:
Stenisha has demonstrated a sustained commitment to advancing equity and strengthening families throughout Kansas City. Her work focuses on stabilization services, advocacy, and the removal of systemic barriers affecting individuals experiencing housing instability and behavioral health vulnerability.

She actively cultivates collaborative partnerships with local agencies, service providers, and community stakeholders to support coordinated, solutions-based interventions. Through strategic engagement and community-aligned leadership, she contributes to the development of responsive programming that addresses the complex social determinants of health impacting underserved populations.

Relevant Expertise:

• Nonprofit leadership and program development
• Community outreach 
• Program coordination and systems oversight
• Fiscal stewardship and accountability
• Community-based partnership development
• Health equity programming
• Evaluation and performance tracking
• Policy awareness and compliance alignment

Through her leadership, the initiative’s integrated model combining climate response, hygiene access, and mental health navigation remains structured, accountable, and outcome-focused.