BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The YWCA Central Alabama honored Charlena Bray with the 2014 Jeana P. Hosch Woman of Valor award during the Annual Meeting on January 22. The award is presented each year to a YW woman who is an inspirational leader.
Bray, a former YWCA Board president and a minister at The Guiding Light Church, has dedicated her life to serving others. “Charlena is one of the most service-oriented people I have ever known,” said Jenny Gauld, a former Board member who presented Bray with the award. “She is gracious, she is a visionary and she is a leader. She’s always had a clear understanding of what needs to be done. She’s just a woman who gets it.”
A former high school math teacher and higher education administrator, Bray is president of Human Resources Services, Inc. where one of her major focuses is leadership development. She joined the Guiding Light staff in 1989 and has been in full-time ministry since 2001, serving in the areas of health and healing and bereavement. A member of the first class of Leadership Birmingham, she was part of the start-up team for Youth Leadership Forum. She is a graduate of Leadership Alabama and has served on the Brookwood Hospital Board and Women’s Advisory Board, the Women’s Business Ownership Council and with the National Conference for Community and Justice.
Bray volunteered with the YWCA for 18 years, including four years as president. She was instrumental in bringing the Purse & Passion luncheon, the agency’s largest fundraiser, to Birmingham. She also participated in a mission trip to Nairobi, Kenya that was sponsored by the world YWCA and culminated with a meeting at the world headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
