Meet our Board Members

1705 Westchester Drive, Dalton, GA 30720

≡

Home

Projects

Be a Sponsor

Opportunities

Contact

Our Board Members:

Kerry Neall MD, MPH, FACEP
Board Chairman

Dr. Neall is a practicing emergency physician in Orlando, FL. He served as the ER medical director for 20 years. He has been leading medical relief teams to our mission in the Lascahobas area of Haiti for the past 8 years. He was asked to serve on the board in 2018. In September of 2020, he was voted board chair. His greatest joy is in serving the many needs of the Haitian Community surrounding our school, in seeing our 300+ school children thriving and learning, and in promoting the love of Jesus to our community. He counts himself very blessed to be a part of this Ministry.

Larry Rahn MD

Dr. Rahn is a family physician who practices in eastern Tennessee. He has worked in numerous capacities including private practice, urgent care and hospital settings. He has been involved with UBM since shortly after it’s inception in 2013 and served as our board chairman from 2013 until 2020. He and his wife have made countless trips to Haiti, leading teams of volunteers to perform clinics and ministry support over the years. His capable leadership enabled our school to flourish from a three grade school to what it is now of Nursery through 9th grade. His heart is in Haiti and in seeing Christ’s message of love shared with all people. We are grateful he continues to serve on our board providing sage advice and God inspired counsel.

Remy Ballais

Pastor Ballais is the Speaker and Director of "il est ecrit", an International French Evangelistic Telecast based in Montreal, Canada. He also serves as Coordinator of the French Media Advisory for the General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists. His warm and engaging presentation style has garnered a large following and many decisions to follow Christ. Pastor Ballais participated in several trips in Haiti to assist in evangelism and give a hand to our Medical Relief Teams. He is intimately aware of the Ministry. He has served on our board since 2016.

Kent Van Arsdell (left)

Dr. Kent is an internist practicing with AdventHealth Gordon in Calhoun, Georgia. The son of a missionary physician, he was born in Thailand and spent the first few years of his life on the island of Phuket. After his own medical school training at Loma Linda University and residency at Kettering Medical Center, he had the privilege of serving in Southeast Asia (Thailand & Singapore) for two years. Since then, he also has been involved in Medical & Evangelistic Mission Trips to India, and most recently to our Mission in Haiti. His love for God is manifested by his dedicated service and unending prayers for and with his patients, both in his outpatient practice and in the hospital. After the tragic death of their 14-year-old son, Lane, in a 2017 motorbike accident, Kent and his wife helped to complete a Boarding School in Vizianagaram, India in Lane's memory. They also established a Memorial Fund that has been able to provide dozens of motorcycles for Pastors in India and other Southeast Asian countries. From that tremendous heartache, Kent has developed an amazingly compassionate spirit and a longing to spread God’s love to others, so the great reunion day will be hastened!

Ronald Magloire, COO

Ronald along with his wife Marjorie, is the God directed Founder of Upward Bound Ministries in 2013. His background is in the US financial sector. He worked for many years in the banking industry and is currently a service consultant. While he is physically currently in Delhi, NY, his heart is in Haiti. As our COO, he coordinates all our on the ground Programs, Trips and Evangelistic Outreach. He spends countless hours on the phone weekly with our staff in Haiti, keeping the operations running smoothly. As a Haitian American, his knowledge of the Haitian culture, fluency and love for God are an invaluable asset to the Board. His vision and drive continue to inspire all of us to work harder for God, to hasten Jesus’ soon return.

Norma Zaiback Nashed

Norma is the President and Founder of Restore a Child, formerly known as Reaching Hearts for Kids. Throughout her childhood she experienced extreme poverty as an orphan. She believes this has prepared her heart to be sensitive to the needs of economically-disadvantaged children and those orphaned due to HIV/AIDS and living on the streets in Africa and elsewhere. She started the organization in 1999 working alone from a small home office. Through Norma’s guidance, Restore a Child has been a critically important partner with UBM in the building of our school and mission house. She brings a wealth of non-profit organizational skills by serving on our board. She has a heart of love for all children and truly manifests that love through practical ways..

Steve Nicholas

Steve Nicholas and his family reside in the Orlando area. He is an electrical engineer employed by an Aerospace company for the last 21 years. While engineering is his profession, his passion is in serving others in Christian ministry, especially those suffering extreme hardship in other countries around the world. He has participated in numerous short term mission trips to multiple countries in both Central and South America, Kenya and the Philippines. He and his wife Danette also had the privilege of joining one of the team trips to the Haiti mission in 2018. Steve began serving on the board in 2021.
“My mission experiences, while bringing tremendous personal enrichment and spiritual blessings, have given me sobering clarity to both the great humanitarian needs of our time and the solemn obligations we have as co-workers with Christ in fulfilling the gospel commission.

Margareth Webb

Margareth Webb is a native of Port-au-Prince, Haiti where she spent her formative years. At the age of 17 she migrated to the USA and has been living in Chicago for the last 48 years. Though she lives in the cold North, her heart is in her warm homeland. She has earned her nursing degree and has worked as a Public Health nurse for 33 years. After a short retirement (6 weeks), she returned to the workforce and for the last 3 years she has been working for a large insurance company.
Her love for her people has led her to return to her country as a “missionary” since the earthquake in 2010, and she has been actively involved with UBM since 2015. She has made countless trips to Haiti and to UBM, assisting in our school development, clinics with medical teams and loving on our children and school.
She loves the ministry, the children, the school and provides support as needed through the mission trips, working in any capacity where she is needed: (translator, nurse and VBS).
Her expertise with the Haitian culture, her multilingual skills and self-sacrificial support have been invaluable assets to our board where she has been a member since 2015.

Becky L. Cheever, Treasurer

Becky Cheever is a retired certified public accountant who is serving as our treasurer. She founded the "Chilson & Cheever CPA’s LLC” firm based in Dalton, GA which provided accounting services to corporations and individuals. She also brings us a wealth of charitable organization treasurer experience, having served as a church treasurer, school treasurer and computer lab director as well as international charity treasurer. Her expertise is bringing our organization to a new level of accountability and financial stewardship. She has a passion to keep our finances straight and timely. She along with her physician husband have participated in a number of international mission trips to Africa and the eastern block countries of Europe. She brings our board a heart of service for the love of God.

Dr. Hooper, MD (right)

Dr Hooper is a full time Family Practitioner in a small town along the Northern California Coast. A beautiful place to live but, like much of rural America, a place where need exceeds resources. "Hooper" as he likes to be called, realizes the good fortune of his life and absolute need to work to improve the lives of others. He first traveled to Haiti to be a physician volunteer in the immediate aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake that leveled Port-au-Prince. He was moved by the resilience of the people and motivated by the systemic injustice that Haiti has endured for centuries. Working with various organizations in Haiti he eventually met up with Ronald Maglorie and became involved in UBM. He has made countless medical relief trips to Los Cahobas and always ( until recently) found a way to return. He began serving on our board in 2014. He has great appreciation for the opportunity to work with all the mission volunteers, the Haitian people and the UBM staff. He finds that the spirit truly is in this project