"Rotary Project with Sierra Leone"

Masah S. SamForay is the 2020-2021 President of Rotary Club of Chicago Southeast. Finally, as a first-generation American, Atty. SamForay is the Founder of Villages Youth and Family Services 501(c)(3), a non-profit that focuses on childhood hunger and education in Sierra Leone, West Africa. She attributes her drive to her family’s humble beginnings and strong emphasis on the value of education.

The hallmark of Ms. SamForay’s Rotary year will be a focus on childhood literacy and the gift of a school library in Sierra Leone. With one of the lowest literacy rates in the world, Sierra Leone has a illiteracy rate of over 40%. In 2017 National Geographic declared the country to be “The worst place in the world to be born a girl.” Ms. SamForay originally planned on taking a delegation of Rotarians and friends to Sierra Leone in December 2020 for the library project. Due to COVID-19 precautions the trip has been postponed to December 2021.

Professionally, Ms. SamForay’s classification is attorney. She is Founder of The Foray Firm, a boutique family law firm. She is a double alumna of Indiana University– Bloomington. With over a decade spent protecting families, Atty. SamForay has earned national recognition and many awards. After having opened three offices in the Chicagoland area, Atty. SamForay acquired another firm in 2018. Then in 2019, Atty. SamForay merged with yet another firm and expanded operations to the Greater Houston area. This is a part of a strategic expansion plan which will make The Foray Firm the largest African-American owned family law firm in the nation. 

Atty. SamForay is currently the youngest African-American appointed to the Board of Governors of the Illinois State Bar Association, which is the largest volunteer bar association in the country with a membership of nearly 30,000 attorneys.  She was the 2019-2020 chair of the Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the Law Committee. She was the 2018-2019 treasurer for the National Bar Association Young Lawyers Division. Atty. SamForay is a Co-Founder of the Black Bar Association of Will County. She is a past board member of the Black Women Lawyers’ Association of Greater Chicago, and served as the 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 Co-Chair of the Small and Solo Firm Committee. And, she is active in the Cook County Bar Association, where she is currently serving in her fourth term as the Chair of the Family Law Section.

Aside from bar membership, Atty. SamForay is active in her beloved Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority,  Incorporated. She was appointed by Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner to the Board of Trustees of Governor’s State University in 2017-2019. And she is the mother to three amazing children.