Be paper 2 26 15

Milwaukee Times Weekly Newspaper

The

Milwaukee’s Only “Blue Chip” Community Newspaper

“Journalistic Excellence, Service, Integrity and Objectivity Always”

Vol. 34 • No. 9 •

Thur., Feb. 26, 2015 – Wed., March 4, 2015

•

An NCON Publication Serving The Milwaukee Area

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65¢

The 30 th Annual Black Excellence Awards Special Honorees : “Women of the Military”

Major Michele Carter

Captain Berdie Cowser

U.S. Army Reserve & Nat. Guard

Staff Sergeant Lisa Cross

U.S. Army

Major Dorothy Greer

Master Chief Mary C. Fowlkes

U.S. Army Reserve

U.S. Army

U.S. Coast Guard

Keynote Speaker

Technical Sergeant Linder Jines

Corporal Michelle Lipsey

U.S. Air Force

U.S. Marine Corps

Petty Officer 2nd Class Virdia Ofei

Captain Sedoria Outlaw U.S. Army

U.S. Navy

Master Sergeant Barbara Robinson U.S. Air Force & Army

CLARENCE A. JOHNSON Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity U.S. Dept. of Defense

“Excellence: 30 Years Our Community’s Keeper”

Jonette Arms

Rodney Bourrage, Sr.

Dr. Dessie Levy

Yvonne Kemp

Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Reid, Jr.

Ernest W. Colburn

Dr. Laci Coppins

Sherri Daniels

Cary Edwards

Michael Goodwin

Gina Green-Harris

Annie Jones

Min. Greg Atty. Vada Lewis Waters Lindsey

Demetrius Mack

Martha Miles

Rev. J. Anthony Phillips

Brad Pruitt

Dr. Janice Pugh

LaDora Rabon

Randy Bryant

Atty. Bettie Rodgers

Shaun Robey

Wanda Scruggs

Audrey Sellers

Lilly Simmons

Steven Rev. Robert Tipton, Jr. Sims

Steven Tipton, Sr.

Delbert Utsey, Jr.

Kelly Winfrey

2015 Louvenia Johnson Scholarship Recipients

Nyairah Abdullah

Michah Childs

Tamyra Cooper

Friday, February 27, 2015 6:00 P.M. - 10:00 P.M.

Destiny Dallas

Jamea Hoover

The Italian Conference Center 631 E. Chicago St. Milwaukee, WI

Asiane Jordan

Stephon Roby

Chiara Sanders

Hosted By WISN 12 Anchors PATRICK PAOLANTONIO & MELINDA DAVENPORT

Brittany Smith

Trentyn Shaw

Richard Williams

“Saluting The Best In Our Community”

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The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

The Milwaukee Times Founders

The Late Louvenia Johnson

The Late Luther Golden

Nathan Conyers

I n 1985, a group of Milwaukee citizens initiated the Black Excellence Awards ceremony. With unwavering tenacity and vision, our

group saw the good deeds of people and wanted to praise living unsung heroes and heroines. Today, 30 years later, their vision continues, staunch and steadfast. “Saluting the Best” is what these individuals are all about. Over the past 30 years, the Black Excellence Awards have honored more than 800 individuals who would have gone unnoticed for their outstanding contributions and their great leadership. Still today we often hear that they have flourished to an even higher level of excellence in their personal endeavors and professional careers. The success of the Awards ceremony is due to a dedicated committee who have worked diligently and persistently to spotlight our honorees. We most graciously thank our 30th annual awards Partners in Excellence: Reid’s New Golden Gate Funeral Home, WISN-Channel 12, The Milwaukee Urban League, Johnson Controls, Inc., WE Energies, Mc Donald’s, Northwestern Mutual and Robert W. Baird and Co. We also thank our volunteers, supporters, and The Milwaukee Times Printing and Publishing Company staff for keeping the Awards ceremony at the forefront of Black History throughout the years. As we continue to infuse our efforts and commitment in cultivating a new leadership, let us look forward to a future filled with the excellence of those who continue to persevere. Special thanks to the Black Excellence Committee: Shirley Sharp, Brenda Sheppard-Nelson, Pam Clark and project manager Jacquelyn Heath.

Statement from the Publisher treatment and stereotyping of their race. More importantly, it is abundantly clear from the myriad of individuals being honored, they did not allow events of their past or present circumstance in life to curtail their achievements. They

did not allow the earlier cancers in their lives to kill their motivation, thus robbing them of ambition, determination and the perseverance to make a difference, not only in their lives, but in the lives of countless others.

The Milwaukee Times Weekly Newspaper Lynda J. Jackson Conyers it is to live, work, T he Milwaukee Times place raise families and be proBlack Excellence Awards Program has aged and grown in stature through the years. Many individuals, organizations and businesses have contributed to the popularity and success of this event, which is observed this year on the last Friday of February.

The Black Excellence Awards Program is one of the city’s largest premiere events, which celebrates, honors and pays tribute to scores of African Americans to whom this community owes a heartfelt thanks. These honorees have worked to create an environment which makes this city the wonderful

ductive citizens.

The Black Excellence Awards, for 30 years, has been fascinated with the desire to comprehend what compels African Americans, who have been faced with extreme social injustice, unfairness and abuse, to rise above these conditions and succeed beyond anyone’s expectations. The lives of past honorees and this year’s recipients have been chronicled on the pages of The Milwaukee Times.

One commonality these honorees share is that not a single one is a stranger to abuse, injustice, mis-

NCON Publications welcomes letters to the editor, as a response to subjects reported or analyzed in the newspaper or on other issues of interest to the community. All letters must be legible, and contain a signature and a phone number. Submissions must be received by Friday to be considered for the following Thursday’s publication.

Publisher/President Lynda J. Jackson Conyers

Founders Louvenia Johnson Nathan Conyers Luther Golden

Marketing Manager & Assistant to the President George Neal Graphic Artists William Gooden Michelle Anibas

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Accounting Pat Simmons Printing Manager Angel Reyes

Staff Writer/ Proofreader Jacquelyn Heath The Milwaukee Times email address: miltimes@gmail.com The Milwaukee Times Weekly newspaper is published each Thursday at 1936 N. MLK Dr., Milwaukee, WI 53212 Telephone: 414-263-5088 • Fax: 414-263-4445 Email: miltimes@gmail.com • milwaukeetimesnews.com

Lamar E Dismuke Insurance Agency 8201 W Capitol Dr Milwaukee, WI 53222-1948 www.lamardismukeagency.com (414) 527-1925 Bus

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The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

Thank You To Our Partners in Excellence

The Milwaukee Urban League

Special Thanks to: Richard Rodgers Vice President of Division Administration Center for Veterans Issues, Ltd.

B.G. (Ret.) Robert A. Cocroft President/CEO Center for Veterans Issues, Ltd.

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The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

30 th Annual Black Excellence Awards

In Memoriam...

Mrs. Louvenia Johnson, Milwaukee Times Founder L ouvenia Johnson, one of the founders

of The Milwaukee Times Weekly Newspaper and the benefactor of the journalism college scholarship fund that bears her name, passed away on Wednesday, February 27, 2008, due to complications following a stroke. She had been a resident of the Millway Healthcare Center on West Mill Road for two years. She was 96 years old.

Mrs. Johnson was known in the community as a woman of faith, strength and integrity, always willing and available to offer a kind word of hope and sound advice. She was an astute businesswoman, communicator and grassroots activist who lived her belief of helping others less fortunate than herself.

Trained as a licensed practical nurse, she moved to Milwaukee in 1939 with her husband, the late Paul Johnson, from her hometown of Dermott, Arkansas. In addition to working in healthcare, she also worked in the social service arena, serving as executive director of Project Focal Point, an agency serving both youth and elder adults on Milwaukee’s north side.

In 1981 as a retiree, she and three other Milwaukeeans – Nathan Conyers, Lynda Jackson Conyers, and the late Luther Golden – es-

tablished a bi-weekly newspaper devoted to church news within the city’s African American faith community dubbed, “The Christian Times.” Within its first year of publication, the paper grew in appeal to cover more general community news and was renamed The Milwaukee Times Weekly Newspaper, with The Christian Times remaining as a standing feature section to this day.

In 1985, Mrs. Johnson and her publishing

team launched the Black Excellence Awards program, as a way to pay tribute to the good works of ordinary people from Milwaukee’s black community who were accomplishing extraordinary things, yet going unnoticed. The awards program observes its 30th year on February 27, 2015 and has honored more than 800 local citizens engaged in various endeavors that have benefited all of Milwaukee.

At the third Black Excellence Awards program on February 27, 1988, Mrs. Johnson established The Louvenia Johnson Journalism Scholarship Fund, initially started with her retirement funds from Social Security, to assist college-bound high school graduates who wished to pursue careers in print and broadcast journalism.

To date, more than $500,000 has been awarded to area students by the scholarship, which is now a 501-c-3, nonprofit, charitable organization under the IRS. Scholarship recipients include Jamal Abdul-Alim, former urban affairs reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; and Silvia Acevedo, former news reporter for WTMJ-TV/Channel 4 in Milwaukee.

Mrs. Johnson is survived by her sister, Mrs. Algenora Davenport, as well as a host of nieces, nephews and other loved ones.

Our Hosts

like actress Meg Ryan and Robert Kennedy, Jr. He made a national appearance on ABC's "Good Morning America," while taping a behind-the-scenes news series with hosts Charlie Gibson, Diane Sawyer, Robin Roberts and Tony Perkins.

Patrick came from WOLO-TV, the ABC affiliate in Columbia, News Anchor, SC, where he was a news anchor WISN 12 News This Morning and reporter. He has received several awards from The Associated Patrick joined the WISN 12 Press and the Wisconsin BroadNews team in March 2002 as a news reporter, and is currently casters Association (WBA) for the anchor of the weekday edi- spot news, education and feation of WISN "12 News This ture reporting. Patrick graduated with honors in journalism from Morning."

During his tenure at WISN 12, Northeastern University in BosPatrick has traveled extensively, ton, MA. Patrick enjoys making public providing live reports from the appearances and has emceed such funeral of President Ronald Reanotable events as the American gan and the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. During the 2004 Red Cross Braveheart Awards presidential campaign, Patrick in- and the Small Business Times terviewed numerous candidates, Health Care Hero Awards. He is including Howard Dean and John an avid sports fan and currently Kerry, as well as political activists lives in Milwaukee.

Patrick Paolantonio

Melinda Davenport

Davenport brings multi-market and multi-platform reporting experience to WISN-TV. Prior to joining WMUR, Davenport reported for WCAX-TV in Burlington, VT. She also free-lanced for The New York Times Company, writing and publishing online articles, and worked in the public relations industry.

Breaking News Anchor, A Texas native, WISN 12 News This Morning Davenport received her Bachelor’s deMelinda Davenport is the breakgree from the Uniing news anchor on “WISN 12 versity of Houston. She followed News This Morning.” Melinda that with a master’s degree in joined the station in March 2014 communication from Northeastand brings viewers of southeast- ern University in Boston. Davenern Wisconsin breaking news and port is a member of the National trending stories from the WISN Association of Black Journalists 12 breaking news desk. and the International Association No stranger to cold weather, of Business Communicators.

Melinda comes to WISN-TV Melinda loves to shop and is from its sister station WMUR in a self-professed bargain hunter.

Manchester, NH. Davenport was She absolutely loves bass fishing, an anchor/reporter at the Hearst- a hobby she picked up while livowned ABC affiliate for more ing in New England. Melinda also than two years. Most recently, she enjoys international travel, listing anchored the station’s weekday Hong Kong and Tokyo among noon newscast and weekend eve- her favorite destinations. ning newscasts.

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

5

30th Annual Black Excellence Awards

Keynote Speaker Clarence A. Johnson

Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity U.S. Department of Defense In February 2003, Clarence A. Johnson was selected to the Senior Executive Service and assigned as Principal Director and Director for Civilian Equal Employment Opportunity, Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Equal Opportunity) at the Pentagon; the office was renamed in 2006 to the Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity.

In that capacity, he is responsible for the development and coordination of diversity management and equal opportunities policies and programs affecting all Department of Defense (DoD) civilian employees and military personnel within DoD worldwide. He also provides staff supervision of the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI), a 100-member institution, located at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida, which is the premiere DoD school in equal opportunity and equal employment opportunity training, education and research. Mr. Johnson serves as principal advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel & Readison was again designated as the Acting Deputy ness) on diversity management, equal opporUnder Secretary of Defense.

In October 2010, Mr. Johnson was detailed as the Special Assistant to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army (Diversity and Leadership)to assist the Army in implementing a robust diversity strategy. He stood up a Division, Diversity and EEO Policy and Programs, where he served as its Director until his return in February 2012 to his present position as Director, Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity.

Before serving the Department of Defense

as a civil servant, Mr. Johnson was an active duty Air Force colonel serving in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Equal Opportunity as Director, Military Equal Opportunity. In that capacity, he formulated and provided policy guidance to the military components regarding policies and programs which prescribe, promote, coordinate and enforce equal opportunity and treatment of active duty and Reserve component military personnel; oversaw policy implementation and evaluated/monitored the performance of DoD component programs; and provided staff oversight for DEOMI. Mr. Johnson entered active duty service as a C141 navigator. In addition to global airlift and contingency operations, his tours of duty included the Military Airlift Command Plans staff and Air Staff Training (ASTRA). He was a squadron commander three times and a group commander twice.

Additionally, he held increasingly responsible positions at the headquarters and installation level. His decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal (with one Oak Leaf Cluster), the Legion of Merit, and the Meritorious Service Medal (with three oak leaf clusters).

Mr. Johnson earned a master’s degree in human resource management from Webster University, Missouri, and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Tuskegee Institute, Alabama. Mr. Johnson is also a graduate of Air Command and Staff College and the Air War College, Alabama, and the National Security Management Course, National Defense University.

tunity and equal employment opportunity matters.

In January 2009, Mr. Johnson was selected to a special temporary assignment, where he stood up a permanent organization with a key requirement to oversee policies that ensure support for our wounded, ill and injured service members, veterans and their families.

Supporting the Secretary’s priorities, the organization he built, the Executive Secretariat (Senior Oversight Committee and Joint Executive Council)/Office of Strategic Planning and Performance Management (ES), served as the key forcing function for integrating DoD and Veterans Affairs (VA) activities.

From May 2009 until February 2010, Mr. Johnson was chosen to serve as the Acting Deputy Under Secretary of Defense. In that key role, he provided leadership and oversight The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arof all USD (P&R) Plans functions. lington County, Virginia.

From May 2010 until July 2010, Mr. John-

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The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

30 th Annual Black Excellence Awards

Our History...

The History of Women in the Military Written by: Kathryn Sheldon, former Curator, Women In Military Service For America Memorial Foundation, Inc. American women have participated in defense of this nation in both war and peacetime. Their contributions, however, have gone largely unrecognized and unrewarded. While women in the United States Armed Forces share a history of discrimination based on gender, black women have faced both race and gender discrimination. Initially barred from official military status, black women persistently pursued their right to serve.

EARLY PATRIOTS No documented records have been discovered of black women’s military service in the American Revolution.

They may well have served alongside black men.

During the Civil War, black women’s services included nursing or domestic chores in medical settings, laundering and cooking for the soldiers.

Indeed, as the Union Army marched through the South and large numbers of freed black men enlisted, their female family members often obtained employment with the unit. The Union Army paid black women to raise cotton on plantations for the northern government to sell.

Five black nurses served under the direction of Catholic nuns aboard the Navy hospital ship Red Rover. Four of their names—Alice Kennedy, Sarah Kinno, Ellen Campbell and Betsy Young—have been recorded. Black nurses are in the record books of both Union and Confederate hospitals. As many as 181 black nurses—both female and male—served in convalescent and US government hospitals in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina during the war.

Courtesy of: U.S. Army

enlist black women. Finally, shortly after the Armistice, 18 black Red Cross nurses were offered Army Nurse Corps assignments. Assigned to Camp Grant, Illinois, and Camp Sherman, Ohio, they lived in segregated quarters and cared for German prisoners of war and black soldiers.

Cessation of hostilities halted plans to assign black nurses to Camp Dodge, Camp Meade, Fort Riley, and Camp Taylor.

By August 1919, all black nurses had been released from service as the nursing Courtesy of: Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, St. corps were reduced to their Mary’s Notre Dame peacetime levels.

One of these pioneering Following the war, Mrs. King Susie King Taylor, Civil War women, Aileen Cole Stewart, nurse, cook, and laundress, established another school for later wrote: was raised a slave on an island freed slaves. When her husThe Story of the Negro nurse off the coast of Georgia. In band, Sergeant Edward King in World War I is not specApril of 1861, Major General of the First South Carolina tacular. We arrived after the Hunter assaulted Fort Pu- Volunteers, died in 1866, she Armistice was signed, which laski and freed all the slaves collected a widow’s pension. alone was anticlimactic. So we in the area, including Mrs. In 1879, she married Russell had no opportunity for “service King. When Union officers Taylor. For the remainder of above and beyond the call of raised the First South Caro- her life, she continued her duty;” But each one of us... lina Volunteers (an all-black advocacy for black Civil War did contribute quietly and with unit), Mrs. King signed on as troops. dignity to the idea that justice laundress and nurse. Able to Immediately following the demands professional equality read and write, she also set Civil War, William Cathey for all qualified nurses. up a school for black children enlisted in the United States Following the war, demand Regular Army in St. Louis, and soldiers. for a permanent place for Mrs. King’s experiences as a Missouri. William Cathey, black women nurses in the black employee of the Union intending to serve three years military nursing corps continArmy are recounted in her di- with the 38th US Infantry, was ued. In replying to one such ary. She wrote of the unequal described by the recruiting ofrequest from Congressman ficer as 5’9” with black eyes, treatment: Somers, Colonel C.R. DarThe first colored troops did black hair, and a black comnell, Executive Officer, Army not receive any pay for eighteen plexion. The cursory examiMedical Corps, wrote, months, and the men had to de- nation by an Army physician The question of opening the pend wholly on what they received missed the fact that William Nurse Corps to...colored nurses WORLD WAR I from the commissary...their wives was actually Cathay Williams, has from time to time received the At the outset of World War were obliged to support themselves a woman.

“William Cathey” served I, many trained black nurses serious consideration of this ofand children by washing for the officers, and making cakes and from November 15, 1866, enrolled in the American Red fice; but because of the necessity... pies which they sold to the boys until her discharge with a sur- Cross hoping to gain entry of arranging their tours of duty in camp. Finally, in 1863, the geon’s certificate of disability into the Army or Navy Nurse in various regions of the United government decided to give them on October 14, 1868. Despite Corps. As the war escalated, States as well as in our (Continued on pg. 7) half pay, but the men would numerous and often lengthy public pressure increased to accept none of this... They pre- hospital stays during her serferred rather to give their services vice, her sex was not revealed to the state, which they did until until June 1891, when Cathay 1864, when the government Williams applied for an ingranted them full pay, with all valid pension and disclosed her true identity. She did not back due pay.

Susie King was never paid receive the pension, not because she was a woman, but for her service.

I was very happy to know my because her disabilities were efforts were successful in camp, not service related. Cathay and also felt grateful for the ap- was probably the first black preciation of my service. I gave woman to serve in the US my services willingly for four Regular Army. years and three months without SPANISH-AMERICAN receiving a dollar. I was glad, WAR however, to be allowed to go with During the Spanish-Amerithe regiment, to care for the sick can War, black women served and afflicted comrades.

Courtesy of: National Archives as nurses. The yellow fever and typhoid epidemics led Surgeon General Sternberg and Dr. Anita Newcomb McGee, Acting Assistant Surgeon in charge of nurses, to seek out female “immunes”— women who had survived the disease. On July 13, 1898, Namahyoke Curtis (wife of Dr. Austin Curtis, Superintendent of the Freedman’s Hospital in Washington, DC) was asked to recruit immune nurses.

Herself under contract to the Army as an immune nurse, Mrs. Curtis hired 32 black women who were allegedly immune to yellow fever. Most of her recruits went to Santiago, Cuba, in July and August 1898, to serve in the worst of the epidemics. At least two of their number, T.R. Bradford and Minerva Trumbull died from typhoid fever.

Other black graduate nurses received direct contracts from the Surgeon General for service in the Spanish-American War. Tuskegee Institute records reveal five nursing graduates served in Army camps. Black women nurses were also recruited from the Washington, DC; Freedman’s Hospital, Provident of Chicago; Massachusetts General; Charity Hospital in New Orleans; and the Phyllis Wheatley Training School. As many as 80 black women may have served.

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

7

30th Annual Black Excellence Awards

Our History...

The History of Women in the Military (cont’d) (Continued from pg. 6) overseas dependencies[,] and of the difficulty if not impossibility of arranging proper quarters and messing facilities for them[,] their employment has been found impracticable in time of peace.

You may rest assured that when military conditions make it practicable...to utilize colored nurses they will not be overlooked.

Black women served their country in other capacities.

Four black women were among the 3,480 “Y” women volunteers who helped soldiers and sailors overseas. At the request of the Army, the YMCA provided recreation for the American Expeditionary Force by staffing canteens, nursing, sewing, baking, and providing amusement and educational activities for the soldiers.

WORLD WAR II In January 1941, the Army opened its nurse corps to blacks but established a ceil-

Courtesy of: National Archives

ing of 56. On June 25, 1941, President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 8802 created the Fair Employment Practices Commission which led the way in eradicating racial discrimination in the defense program. In June 1943, Frances Payne Bolton, Congresswoman from Ohio, introduced an amendment to the Nurse Training Bill to bar racial bias. Soon 2,000 blacks were enrolled in the Cadet Nurse Corps.

The quota for black Army Nurses was eliminated in July 1944. More than 500 black Army nurses served stateside and overseas during the war.

The Navy dropped its color ban on January 25, 1945, and on March 9, Phyllis Daley became the first black com-

missioned Navy nurse.

Black women also enlisted in the WAAC (Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps) which soon conver ted to the WAC (Women’s Army Corps), the Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), and the Coast Guard SPARS. From its beginning in 1942, black women were part of the WA AC. W h en th e first WAACs arrived at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, there were 400 white and 40 black women. Dubbed “tenpercenters,” recruitment of black women was limited to ten percent of the WAAC population—matching the black proportion of the national population. Enlisted women served in segregated units, participated in segregated training, lived in separate quarters, ate at separate tables in mess halls, and used segregated recreation facilities. Officers received their officer candidate training in integrated units, but lived under segregated conditions. Specialist and technical training schools were integrated in 1943.

During the war, 6,520 black women served in the WAAC/WAC. B l a ck wo m e n we r e barred from the WAVES until October 19, 1944.

The efforts of Director Mildred McAfee and Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune helped Secretary of the Navy Forrestal push through their

Courtesy of: National Archives

admittance. The first two black WAVES officers, Harriet Ida Pikens and Frances Wills, were sworn in December 22, 1944. Of the 80,000 WAVES in the war, a total of 72 black women served, normally under integrated conditions.

The Coast Guard opened the SPARS (from the Coast Guard motto Semper Paratus, “Always Ready”) to black members on October 20, 1944, but only a few actually enlisted.

THE PATH TO FULL INTEGRATION Following World War II, racial and gender discrimination, as well as segregation persisted in the military. Entry quotas and segregation in the WAC deterred many from re-entry between 1946 and 1947. By June 1948, only four black officers and 121 enlisted women remained in the WAC. President Truman eliminated the issues of segregation, quotas and discrimination

in the armed forces by signing Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948. WACs began integrated training and living in April 1950.

Meanwhile, on January 6, 1948, Ensign Edith De Voe was sworn into the Regular Navy Nurse Corps and in March, First Lieutenant Nancy C. Leftenant entered the Regular Army Nurse Corps, becoming the corps’ first black members.

Affirmative action and changing racial policies opened new doors for black women. During the Korean and Vietnam Wars, black women took their places in the war zone.

Chief Warrant Officer Doris Allen recalled: As a senior intelligence analyst in Vietnam, I was recognized as having been responsible through production of one specific intelligence report, for saving the lives of “at least” 101 United States Marines fighting in Quanq Tri Province.... During my years of service I survived many prejudices against me as a woman, as a WAC, me as a soldier with the rank of specialist, me as an intelligence technician and me as a Black woman; but all of the prejudices were overshadowed by a wonderful camaraderie.

On July 15, 1964, Margaret E. Bailey became the first black nurse promoted to lieutenant colonel in the Army Nurse Corps and would later become the first black colonel. Hazel W. Johnson became the first black woman general officer on September 1, 1979, when she assumed the position of Chief of the Army

Courtesy of: National Archives

Nurse Corps.

HONORING BLACK WOMEN’S SERVICE Charity Adams Earley, commander of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion in World War II, summarized the history of women in the military when she wrote in 1989: The future of women in the military seems assured.... What may be lost in time is the story of how it happened. The barriers of sex and race were, and sometimes still are, very difficult to overcome, the second even more than the first. During World War II women in the service were often subject to ridicule and disrespect even as they performed satisfactorily.... Each year the number of people who shared the stress of these accomplishments lessens. In another generation young black women who join the military will have scant record of their predecessors who fought on the two fronts of discrimination—segregation and reluctant acceptance by males.

Brigadier General Hazel W. Johnson-Brown, USA NC (Ret.), a groundbreaker herself, told attendees at the Groundbreaking Ceremony for the Women In Military Service For America Memorial on June 22, 1995: “In the past, women, particularly minority women, have always responded when there was a crisis or need.

We acknowledge all minority women in uniform, both present in this audience and not present. You are the strength of our success. You represent the patchwork quilt of diversity which is America—race, creed, color and ethnicity.”

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The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

30th Annual Black Excellence Awards Special Honorees: “Women in the Military”

Now firmly entrenched in her civilian career as the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program Chief at the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT), US Army veteran Michele Carter served 23 years of enlisted and commissioned military service in the US Army Reserve and the Wisconsin Army National Guard. She started her civilian career at WisDOT in 2004 and retired from the military in 2008. In both careers, she has been recognized for innovation, achievement and leadership.

“My strategic thinking, leadership skills and hands-on approach helped implement innovative stakeholder-inclusion practices within WisDOT’s road construction industry resulting in the highest DBE and minority construction workforce participation levels in its history,” Michele said.

Born, raised and educated in Milwaukee, Michele graduated from Hamilton High School in 1984. In 1988, Michele initiated into Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority through the Omicron Xi Chapter at Cardinal Stritch College. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in psychology in 1991 and 34 graduate level credits toward a master of arts in clinical psychology from Cardinal Stritch College.

Michele’s military career began with Army Basic Training at Fort Jackson, SC in 1984 and assignment to the 757th Transportation Battalion in Milwaukee. As an enlisted soldier, Michele completed primary leadership development and basic non-commissioned officer courses in addition to training for the following military occupational specialties: personnel administration (75B), administration specialist (71L) and military law (71D).

She advanced through the ranks from private to staff sergeant working in the personnel section of the 757th. With her commanding officer’s recom-

Captain Berdie Cowser U.S. Army Retired Army Captain Berdie L. Cowser is Director of the Bureau of Milwaukee Transitional Housing Programs and Services and forged side-by-side military and academic careers until 2009, when she ended her military career. “I stand on the shoulders of the people who came before me – my parents Deacon Robert and Mother Dorothy Cowser; plus my grandparents Elder John (WW1 veteran) and Mother Birdie Cowser, and Mr. Levi and Mrs. Minnie Miller,” she said.

A Milwaukee native, Berdie graduated from Washington High School in 1994. She attended Alabama State University, earning a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice with a minor in Military Science, graduating with highest honors in 1999. She earned a master’s degree in organization development

Major Michele Carter U.S. Army Reserve & Nat. Guard mendation for commissioned service, she attended Officer Candidate School at the Wisconsin Military Academy and transitioned from an enlisted soldier to a commissioned officer in 1993.

Her decision to join a combat arms unit and pursue training in the Chemical Corps set the course for her progression from second lieutenant to major.

The US Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) School at Fort Leonard Wood, MO trained Michele in CBRN warfare and defense in 1994 and 2001. Her commissioned military service included assignments as signal platoon leader, battery commander, and executive officer. Her final military assignment was as a chemical staff officer in the 57th Field Artillery Brigade where she was the only African American female in a leadership position among more than 1,800 soldiers.

and leadership, in 2002, from Springfield University. A master of business administration degree followed in 2007 from Cardinal Stritch University.

She joined the Army Reserve in 1993 in high school and attended basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, MO, completing her advanced individual training at Fort Lee, VA. After earning her first degree, Berdie was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and completed the U.S. Army Quartermaster Officer Basic Course in 2000.

Honors, awards and recognitions began in college and continued from both Army and community service. She received an Army Achievement Medal, a Meritorious Service Medal, an Army Service Medal, a Wisconsin First Jurisdiction Church of God in Christ 2009 Women of Distinction Community Service Award and a 2011 National Assn. of Black Veterans (NABVETS) Community Service Award.

Berdie began her civilian career as a safety services case manager for the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare in 2000. She then moved to the Center for Veterans Issues, Ltd, in 2001. She was promoted from case manager to supportive services supervisor in 2004. After retiring from the military in 2009, she continued her tenure with the Center for Veterans Issues, Ltd., serving veterans “who need a hand up and not a hand out,” she explained. “Being with CVI is my life’s work and I believe that God has appointed me here for a reason. As a servant leader, it is my duty and my obligation to ensure

During her military career, Michele received more than ten awards for exemplary service and distinguished achievement including the Army Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal and numerous Army Achievement Medals.

Her WisDOT career has been dedicated to the implementation of civil rights principles in government programs. Under Michele’s leadership, the WisDOT DBE Program has earned national recognition for its innovation with megaproject strategies and labor development initiatives. Her awards and recognitions from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) include the National Civil Rights Achievement Award in 2005 and the National Civil Rights Symposium Recognition for Excellence in Program Administration in 2010. She also received the US DOT Federal Highway Administration’s Award for Civil Rights Partnership in 2008 and a State of Wisconsin Certificate of Honorable Mention for the Virginia Hart Award in 2009.

Michele credits her mother and grandmother as her role models and motivators. Her mother insisted that ‘doing nothing’ was not an option. Her 86-year old grandmother reminds her of their legacy and traditon of fortitude, responsibility and respect.

the safety and wellbeing of any and all vets who are placed in our care at CVI.” Her present responsibilities as bureau director include providing oversight and control for more than 50 personnel -- staff, transitional job participants, interns, volunteers and the supervision of wrap around services for more than 200 veterans on any given night.

“My parents raised me the right way by instilling loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, personal courage, honor and integrity. Their foundation is what helped me to dedicate my talents and skills to serving in the military and now serving others.

My upbringing and military foundation is what has made me who I am today. I am a person who is committed to a life of service,“ Berdie explained.

‘Committed to serve’, Berdie’s tagline, compels her to say, “I have put these values into action by doing what I do every day and that is coming to work to serve the men and women who have served our country unselfishly. Service and excellence have in common perseverance, never quitting and following through to the very end.”

Berdie is a single parent of two adopted children and has many nieces, who all consider Berdie as their “mom.” Berdie co-leads the Alabama State University Alumni Association and spearheads fundraising events that assists Milwaukee students to attend college. A board member and financial administrator of St. John Church of God in Christ, she sings in the local, district and state choirs.

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

9

30th Annual Black Excellence Awards Special Honorees: “Women in the Military”

Staff Sergeant Lisa Cross U.S. Army Reserve Serving her country for sixteen years Army Staff Sergent Lisa C. Cross joined the United States Army Reserve in high school, in 1980. She received a Bronze Star Medal in 1991 for acts of meritorious service in a combat zone. Artistically accomplished, personable and confident, she served as the only soldier with advanced AutoCAD training and Special Background Investigation (SBI) clearances during her tour of duty.

“During my deployment to Saudi Arabia for Desert Storm, I got along with everybody, enlisted soldiers and officers alike. I was the go-between often taking the concerns of enlisted soldiers to “The importance of education was always stressed growing up in my home,” said retired educator and military veteran Mary C. Fowlkes.

She effectively pursued both education and military service as dual careers. During her first teaching assignment, she joined the United States Coast Guard Reserve in 1983.

Successfully moving through the ranks, in 2008, she became the first African American female U.S. Coast Guard reservist, as a Storekeeper, to obtain the rank of U.S. Coast Guard Reserve Master Chief (E- 9) and the second African American female reservist to obtain the rank of Master Chief.

Particularly notable, Mary was the first African American female deployed to Desert Shield/Storm by the U.S. Coast Guard in 1990. “In my life I always wanted to accomplish two things, to be an educator and to serve my country. I did not have to compromise my goals to achieve either,” she explained.

Born in Milwaukee, Mary is a 1971 Riverside University High School (RUHS) graduate. That same year,

officers and also taking the concerns of officers to enlisted soldiers. Everyone knew that I would always do the right thing,” she said.

With networking skills, early in her career, she received SBI top-secret clearance to enter top secret military vaults and access highly secret and confidential military information. Additionally, she completed back-up computer training for the Worldwide Command and Control System.

She became part of a team responsible for Chemical Warfare Detection training. While in Saudi Arabia from December, 1990 until April, 1991, Lisa was the only fully trained AutoCAD specialist. AutoCAD is the acronym for a software program for computer aided design and drafting (CAD). In charge of computer mapping, Lisa designed documents and created drawings for Army unit locations, for roads to travel on, for foam domes and for contracts to rebuild, among other assignments.

Born in Chicago in 1962, Lisa was employed at Motorola Corp. in Illinois while serving in the Army Reserve until 1997.

Her valiant service resulted in numerous medals.

Occupying special shelves in her curio with her Bronze Star Medal are a Saudi Arabia-Kuwait Liberation Medal, a Kuwait-Kuwait Liberation Medal, a Southwest Asia Service – Persian Gulf Medal, an Army Service Ribbon, an Army Reserve Components Achievement Medal, two NonCommissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbons, a National Defense Service Medal and an Army Lapel Button.

Lisa moved to Milwaukee in 2000, living briefly with her mother before purchasing her present

she enrolled in the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh and earned a bachelor of science degree with honors in education in 1975. She earned a master of science degree in education from National Louis University in 1985.

Mary’s mother and two sisters are retired educators and one of her career paths aligned perfectly with theirs when she became a teacher, in 1975 at Horlick High School in Racine. In 1986, she began teaching in Milwaukee Public Schools at Jackie Robinson Middle School and transferred to Riverside University High School, her alma mater, in 1991.

Displaying a wealth of dedication and involvement with RUHS students, in 2012, Mary assisted Habitat for Humanity in building a home with funds raised by the RUHS student council. She chaperoned students for tours to historically black colleges and universities and, even now, continues chaperoning field trips.

Rewards resulted from both her educator and military career commitments. Selected for the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program in 2006, Mary and other United States educators and administrators participated in a study tour of Japan. Most importantly, she received the Coast Guard Achievement Medal in 2009 before retiring from the military in 2011 after 23 years of service. “You cannot be the very best in serving unless you require excellence of yourself,” she said. “Performing at a level of

home in 2001. “I was just passing through with my beloved dog, Kado, - but stayed,” she said.

Now as a civilian and member of the National Association for Black Veterans, Inc., for more than 10 years, Lisa assists other veterans as she volunteers in her local community. Beneficiaries of her selfless service have included the Center for Veterans Issues and two other community organizations, Common Ground and WINGS. Her motivation lies in loving to see people prosper. To that end, she wrote a letter to President Barack Obama suggesting a number of ideas to better the United States of America, to which he responded.

A member of Progressive Baptist Church, Lisa believes its imperative to concentrate on her health.

This includes some well-deserved time for herself, which she uses to personally redesign selected areas of her home, adding special touches with hands-on mosaic tile installation. Lisa credits her mother for playing a great role in her life and providing support, training and direction; and stated that the military service definitely added finishing touches, too.

excellence allows you to realize full potential and reap benefits.”

In retirement, Mary continues to serve by contributing both expertise and funds. She financially contributes to the USO and the Women Veterans Foundation. A member of the Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO) Council, she has participated with the military honor guard at parades and other military functions and has served on the Coast Guard Reserve Awards Panel. Working through Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan, located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, she developed leadership activities for active duty and reserve members, produced displays on diversity, participated in college and job fairs representing the Coast Guard, and accompanied the Sector Commander to a Girl Scout Career Fair educating scouts on opportunities in the Coast Guard.

As a member of the Chief Petty Officers Association, she seeks out needy families to receive Holiday Gift Cards. Most recently, she began pursuing volunteer work for Sojourner Family Peace Center and the Jewish Community Food Pantry.

Although Mary credits the military with affording her the opportunity to learn and demonstrate leadership skills, to serve her country, take advantage of its many benefits and meet great people, she acknowledges a higher power at work in her life by affirming, “I could not be where I am today without God’s mercy and grace.” Mary attends Holy Redeemer Church of God in Christ.

Master Chief Mary Catherine Fowlkes U.S. Coast Guard

10

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

30th Annual Black Excellence Awards Special Honorees: “Women in the Military”

A Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) clinical nurse instructor, Dorothy Greer attained the rank of Major after entering the United States Army Reserve as a direct commissioned officer. Dual career paths, exemplifying excellence and dedication, evolved from her 24-year military service and her passion for nursing.

Dorothy said, “I am determined and motivated in any situation to do my best, because the quality of service I give is important to me. My impact on the health, education and safety of others can change lives and impact the great City of Milwaukee.”

Attesting to her quality of service, her awards include an Army Commendation Medal, four Army Reserve Components Achievement Medals, and two National Defense Service Medals, an Armed Forces Reserve Achievement Medal, an Army Service Ribbon, two Overseas Service Ribbons and an Army Reserve Component Overseas Training Ribbon.

Dorothy was born and raised in Milwaukee and educated through the public school system. With a strong desire to become a nurse and help people, she joined the Rufus King High School pre-nursing program and volunteered as a candy striper at the former Mount Sinai Hospital (now Aurora Sinai) before graduating in

was promoted to 1971.

1st lieutenant in D o r o t h y ’s 1988, captain in employment op1992 and to major portunities exin 2000. In 2003, panded through she and her unit education and were activated to her commitment serve during Opto nursing. She eration Enduring earned an assoFreedom for a peciate degree in riod of one year. nu r s i n g f r o m Her duty as a nurse MATC in 1983. and soldier, utilized In 1984, she beall acquired skills, gan employment Instead of being in the operating deployed to Afroom of the Milghanistan, howevwaukee County er, Dorothy’s unit Eye Institute.

Major Dorothy Greer was sent to CaliforDesiring a more U.S. Army nia to assist combat challenging nursing job led her to the Milwaukee units that were returning from their County Sheriff ’s Department (MCSD) overseas missions. She retired from in 1989. Later attending the National the Army Reserve as a major in 2012.

Dorothy became a clinical instructor Commission on Correctional Health Care, she earned a Certified Correc- in the Licensed Practical Nurse Protional Health Professional certificate gram at MATC in 2004, while serving in 1993. After attending Milwaukee’s in the Army Reserve and being emAlverno College, she received a bach- ployed with the Sheriff ’s Department Soon after retirement from MCSD elor of science in nursing in 1994.

Dorothy started her military career in 2004, wanting to care for those in in 1985. Resulting from her entry sta- difficult situations, she returned to tus as a nurse with a college degree, MCSD to work the “in-house pool” she was awarded a direct commission until 2014.

Dorothy often worked under very as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve with the rank of 2nd lieutenant. She stressful conditions in the military, en-

Technical Sergeant Linder L. Jines U.S. Air Force A budget analyst for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), retired Technical Sergeant Linder L. Jines served in the 440th Airlift Wing of the Air Force Reserve for 21 years. She retired in 2007 when the unit relocated from its installation at the Air Reserve Station at Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport to Pope Air Force Base in Fayetteville, NC. Her military career began in 1986, with a decision made after she and three friends viewed a military recruitment film. Of the three girls, Linder was the only one who stayed and was assigned to the 95th Aerial Port Squadron (APS) as an air cargo specialist and eventually transferred to the 34th APS unit as an air transportation specialist.

In these very physically demanding positions, Linder was responsible for loading and unloading

aircraft using forklifts and other heavy loading equipment in support of troops in combat zones, on overseas bases and those involved with humanitarian missions. “Load anything, to go anywhere, at anytime” was the motto at the 34th APS. Utilizing administrative skills, her next and less strenuous position, passenger services technician, involved checking passengers (troops) and baggage onto military aircraft.

While at the 440th, Linder volunteered as a Base Honor/Color Guard member. She marched in parades for July 4th, Veterans Day and Memorial Day celebrations; performed honors at military funerals (including folding and presenting flags to families of lost loved ones); fired rifles for 21 gun salutes; and stood guard for fallen comrades until they reached their final resting places. As a civilian, Linder volunteered for the Convergence Resources Center, assisting female survivors of human trafficking.

Upon reflection, the main skill Linder said she learned from the military is teamwork. “Learning teamwork skills assisted throughout my education and professional career paths. I believe teamwork is vital in our community and to the lives of our children.” If the 440th had not relocated to North Carolina, she believes she would most likely still be working there.

During her formative years, the Milwaukee native attended 9th Street School, Roosevelt Middle School, and in 1983 graduated from Bradley Trade and Technical High School. Linder began her civil-

hancing her ability to work with others. “Developing the ability to adapt to just about any situation, I learned to be more flexible. My communication skills improved greatly, enabling me to do a better job of caring for those assigned to me. Communicating effectively in tense challenges at the Sheriff ’s Department was critical to my job performance and more importantly, critical to the lives of the people I cared for at the county jail.”

Dorothy is the widow of turner and wood artisan Calvin Greer. She has two sons, Calvin Ashanti Greer, who is married to Kimberly Greer; and Christopher Greer, along with 6 grandchildren. Dorothy attends the Central Church of Christ and serves on the Northcott Neighborhood House Board.

Dorothy knows, “Pride in how you do things is important in achieving excellence. If you take pride in what you do, no matter the situation, your skills, combined with the desire to succeed will almost always end with an outcome of excellence.”

ian career path working for the federal government at the Defense Logistics Agency, then transferred to the 440th Airlift Wing working in the accounting and finance department.

After the 440th closed, Linder enrolled in the University of Phoenix and earned a bachelor of science degree in management in 2009 and a master of business administration degree in 2013.

Motivated by God and family, Linder’s meditation, “God gives grace to the humble,” guides her as an active member of New Testament Church of Milwaukee. She has served in the bookstore and usher ministries and currently volunteers in the sound and media ministry. Her solid religious convictions are evident in her statement, “I believe God is my source of everything and nothing would be possible without Him.” Linder is a single mom and her daughter, Lindsay L. Jines, is her number one supporter. “I always tell my daughter that the next generation should do better than the one before.” Linder is well on her way to fulfilling her desired legacy by demonstrating another belief: “No matter how or where one begins or comes from, all things are possible.”

As the youngest of 11 children, Linder was the first in her family to earn advanced college degrees, obviously influenced by the values of her nowdeceased parents. Her father, Frank Jines Sr., a very humble man, died when Linder was 16 and her mother, Bertha Lee Jines, a strong and proud woman, became a single parent. Linder walks a fine line between pride and humility to manifest excellence in her own life.

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

11

30th Annual Black Excellence Awards Special Honorees: “Women in the Military”

Corporal Michelle Lipsey U.S. Marine Corps Michelle D. Smith Lipsey served in the United States Marine Corps, attaining the rank of corporal. Currently she successfully pursues a civilian career as a administrative assistant to the Clerk of Court for the United State District Court Eastern District of Wisconsin, a position that reflects her accumulated wealth of experience, values and dedication to excellence.

The Milwaukee native graduated from Riverside University High School in 1988 and enlisted with the United States Marine Corps in 1989.

Stationed with the 1st Supply Bat-

talion, 1st Force Service Support Group at Camp Pendleton, CA, she served as a supply administration and operations clerk with the Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) Code 3043 and completed active duty in 1993.

“The United States Marine Corps motto Semper Fidelis, Latin for Always Faithful, means a lot and I strive to reflect it daily. Being a Marine taught me the importance of loyalty, integrity and honor. There is a greater cause than my personal desires and well being.

“Shortcuts lead to substandard results. I learned to perform every task to the best of my ability and do it right the first time, because there may not be a second time,” she said.

Her decorations include Rifle Marksman Badge, National Defense Service Medal, Good Conduct Medal, Certificate of Commendation and Certificate of Achievement.

After military life, Michelle earned an associate degree in accounting from Bryant and Stratton College in 1996. From 1996 through 1997, she worked for the Marcus Corporation in the Accounting Division.

She advanced through different Milwaukee County departments, beginning with the Milwaukee County Child Support Enforcement Financial Division in 1997 to 2000 as account clerk; then to the Department of

“There is a great big world out there that isn’t so scary,” said US Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class, Virdia Afi Ofei, She decided long before enlisting 7 years ago at age 32, she wanted to serve her country, reach her full potential and see the world. “Though my family adamantly opposed my decision for a military career, I wanted to be a leader and a military career is a calling that very few people receive and can actually do,” she said.

Born and raised in Chicago, IL, where she graduated from high school in 1994, she is grateful for her well-meaning protective family and their desire to shield her from “bad things in the world,” Virdia eventually concluded protection from adversity was impossible.

Virdia feels that parents must learn, “What you want for your children and what children want for themselves may be different. It is impossible to know the future; so children must be encouraged to be brave and live their own lives.” Presently living in Franklin, WI, she wanted to be near her Chicago

Health and Human Services Business Office from 2000 to 2005 as financial assistant; next to the Milwaukee County Clerk of Courts Civil Division 2005 to 2006 as payroll clerk and to Milwaukee County Clerk of Courts Administrative Services as clerical specialist from 2006 to 2008.

In her present position at the United States Federal Courthouse in Milwaukee, Michelle maintains the Clerk of Court’s daily activities, schedules appointments, arranges meetings and coordinates travel and the monthly Naturalization Ceremonies with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. Additionally, her responsibilities include processing attorney disciplinary actions, maintaining attorney disciplinary records and assisting in the operations, court services, finance and information technology departments.

Formerly married, Michelle has four children: Xavier Clark, Carlos Clark, Breanna Lipsey and Juanita Lipsey. Breanna, a Rufus King High School 2014 graduate, now pursues a military career as a Howard University freshman and Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (Marine Corps Option) student in Washington, DC. She received the 2014 Frederick C. Branch Marine Corps Leadership Scholarship.

Michelle said, “I always wanted one of my children to become a Marine officer, but I never thought it would

family and at the same time live somewhere new.

She chose the Milwaukee area, and since 2013 has worked at the Chicago District Navy Recruiting Station, in Greenfield, WI. “I think of myself as the bridge between what the Navy needs and what individuals need. Through the Navy’s core values of honor, courage and commitment, I take care of future sailors like family, as I teach them they represent the Navy and their family members back home. They learn discipline, the benefit of hard work and to depend on themselves, rather than their parents.“ Her own inspiration to pursue a Navy career comes from the strong black women in her family.

They picked cotton, sewed their own clothing; and her grandmother, after who she is named, plus her aunt, Dorris Bibbs, loved her enough to discipline and teach her. That foundation allowed her to meet and work with different types of people.

Virdia recalls major adjustments during the first days in Recruit Training Command, a “boot camp” at Great Lakes, IL, followed with training for Ship Services in Meridian, MS in 2007.

With schooling under her belt, she jump-started her desire to travel the world. In 2008 flying to the U.S. Naval Base in Sasebo, Japan on Kyushu Island, she met up with the USS Tortuga, a ship where she was stationed for four years. As part of the ship’s mission, in 2010, she spent time at Iwo Jima celebrating the anniversary of the World War II battle fought there; followed by deployment to Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines. In 2011, on the LSD 45 Comstock, she docked in San Diego, CA. She advanced in rank to E4, Petty Officer 3rd class in 2009; to E5 Petty Officer 2nd class 2012; and now works on achieving E6, Petty Officer 1st class. Her service awards include: Navy Marine

be one of my daughters.”

Michelle recently made a healthy lifestyle change with her decision to reclaim the fitness she enjoyed in the Marine Corps. After years of weight gain challenges, she became an Independent Herbalife Distributor and health coach. “When I started this journey to lose weight, I had a moment of doubt, but then remembered that I spent thirteen weeks training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot on Parris Island, SC and earned the title United States Marine!”

Michelle is an active member of Isom Memorial Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, and serves as Missionary President. “I approach every situation in my life with an ‘I am going to give it my all’ attitude. I know I have held nothing back. I am willing to help in any way possible. There is no ‘I’ in team. Teamwork is required for dreams to work,” she said.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Virdia Ofei U.S. Navy

Corps Achievement Medal, two Good Conduct Medals and three Recruiting Gold Wreaths.

Virdia said, “I learned that excellence is doing the right thing for the right reasons. I am constantly changing for the better - more determined, much stronger, and making a difference in the world. I learned how to communicate better and express myself.” She attends the Jubilee Christian Family Church in Franklin, Wisconsin where Reverend Wayne E. Rohde presides. Living in Franklin, her hobbies are baking, singing and playing the piano.

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The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

30th Annual Black Excellence Awards Special Honorees: “Women in the Military”

Army Captain Sedoria L. Outlaw accomplished extraordinary military and civilian careers simultaneously. In 2013-2014 she deployed to the Middle East in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Upon returning to civilian life, her 21-year Army and mental health career paths merged, resulting in a promotion to Director of Education and Training at the Center for Veterans Issues in Milwaukee.

An Army mantra, “Never leave a fallen comrade” shapes her strong values. As the firstborn in her family, desiring to establish a path of success which her siblings could follow, she believed, “Success is turning challenges and barriers into stepping stones.

True success is not evident when one reaches the mountain top alone, but when a path has been created allowing others to reach the top with you.”

Born in Memphis, TN in 1974, Sedoria’s family moved to Milwaukee in 1986. She attended Walt Whitman Elementary, Alexander Graham Bell Middle School and Bradley Trade and Technical High School; then joined the Army Reserve in 1993, immediately following high school graduation.

Beginning her Army career as a bath and laundry specialist, Sedoria reclassified to combat medic in 1996 and to operating room specialist in 1997.

Promotions followed to sergeant in 1999, to staff sergeant and squad leader with responsibility for seven

Service to country and community are the cornerstone of the productive military and civilian careers of Barbara Robinson. Beginning her 23year military career in 1982, she achieved the rank of U.S. Air Force Reserve Master Sergeant (E-7), transferred to the Army, and then re-enlisted in the Air Force Reserve. She excels knowing “With Christ all things are possible,” a strong family foundation, core Air Force values and the Air

soldiers in 2001 an Army Service (during mobilizaRibbon and an tion to support Overseas Service Operation Iraqi Ribbon.

Freedom); and to In her civilian platoon sergeant career, Sedoria in 2005 with reearned a BA in sponsibility for 25 clinical psycholsoldiers. ogy from Alverno A non-commisCollege and was sioned officer, she accepted into the attended and gradNational Psychouated with honors logical Honor from two Basic Society in 1998.

Non-CommisHer masters desioned Officer gree in clinical Courses in 2006 psychology foland 2007. In 2009, lowed from CarCaptain Sedoria Outlaw Sedoria received a dinal Stitch Unidirect commission versity in 2006. In U.S. Army into the Officer between degrees, Corps from Presithere were career dent Barack Obama in 2009. More opportunities. She moved in 1998 to training led to positions as battalion Washington, DC, to join the Public operation and intelligence officer and Defender’s Office as an intern into human resource manager providing vestigator and in 1999, she returned support to more than 900 soldiers and to Milwaukee to begin work with 10 combat support units.

Wraparound Milwaukee as a care Sedoria has earned three Army coordinator for children living with Achievement Medals, two Army severe mental illness and emotional Accommodation Medals, two Army disturbances.

Forces Reserve Medals, nine Army Sedoria, a skilled mental health Reserve Achievement Medals, a Na- clinician, has extensive experience in tional Defense Service Medal, a Mili- professional counseling. Her clientele tary Outstanding Volunteer Service consists of underserved, at-risk popuMedal, a Global War on Terrorism lations of adults and juveniles living Service Medal, and a Global War with mental illness; adults living with on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, HIV/AIDS; and pregnant women

living with alcohol and other dr ug abuse iss u e s. S h e has worked in prisons, group h o m e s , treatment facilities, and numerous community agencies. In 2010, she became lead worker for the Incarcerated Veterans Program at Wraparound. A promotion followed in 2012 to supervisor and state coordinator for the Incarcerated Veterans Program, she also began assisting with the implementation of Milwaukee County’s first Veterans’ Court.

A mentor and licensed minister at Milwaukee’s Bethel Apostolic Church, Sedoria promotes spiritual health and wellness through education and community service by guiding youth and adults locally, nationally and internationally, including overseas in Africa, Honduras, and the Middle East. She said, “Excellence to me is summed up through this Army motto, ‘Never accept defeat.’ Barriers are eliminated with hard work, determination and education. Nothing beats a failure accept a try. Put God first in everything and excellence will follow.”

Her Air Force Force’s embracing Master Sergeant contract honof the French adage Barbara G. Robinson ored, Barbara “esprit de corps,” U.S. Air Force & U.S. Army immediately enmeaning “a sense of listed in the U.S. unity.”

Army for active Born in Camden, she worked simultaneously AR, two-year old Barbara in data processing at Gimbels duty in 1988 to gain moved with her family to Department store and the access to career opMilwaukee, WI. She suc- Marine Bank and took classes portunities in law encessfully completed the at Milwaukee Area Technical forcement, an area Milwaukee Public School College. She also got mar- then not available to System (MPS), insist- ried to her high school sweet Air Force women. ing on graduating from heart. She received an associ- In 1991 she left the Rufus King High School ate degree in data processing Army, returning to in 1972, even though her in 1974 and worked at the Milwaukee to assist father had built a home Internal Revenue Service, with the family bowlin suburban Glendale and the United States Postal ing businesses, after and she could have trans- Service before she made a her father, an Army ferred to their school career change to the military. veteran, became very district.

Barbara’s military service ill. She re-enlisted in the Air Being the first African began in 1974. In 1982, she Force Reserve in 1992, servAmerican family to integrate listened to the Air Force ing until her retirement as a into the new neighborhood recruiters strive to convince Master Sergeant in 2007. Durprovided challenges and Bar- her then-husband to enlist. ing that time, in 1995, she bara’s mother provided this Instead Barbara boldly signed began a civilian career as a perspective: “People are going the enlistment papers, after Milwaukee Police Departto stare at you, because you becoming convinced herself ment officer and retired in are stars.” Her father sup- of the opportunity’s benefits. 2012.

Barbara currently volunported them in other ways; for Leaving Milwaukee to comexample, he facilitated family plete basic training and tech teers for the Center for Vetvisits to 42 states by her high school, she left the couple’s erans Issues, for her Masonic school graduation, expand- home and three sons to her Chapter of the Order of ing their education and life husband’s care. Stationed Eastern Star and for the Milexperiences. at Milwaukee’s 440th Gen- waukee Innercity CongregaBarbara earned several col- eral Mitchell Air Base, she tions Allied for Hope (MIlege degrees and numerous rejoined the family in 1983, CAH), an agency known for certificates of completion in and completed three deploy- their work with prison issues.

Barbara has three sons from diverse disciplines. She began ments to Qatar in the Middle college at Southern Arkansas East in support of Opera- her first marriage, which University in Magnolia, AR in tion Enduring Freedom in ended in divorce, and a grand1972. In 1973, she decided to Afghanistan during her 6-year daughter. While serving in the Army, she met Robert return to Milwaukee, where service requirement.

Robinson, also a retired Army Sergeant and MPD police officer. They married in 1992.

“Choosing Christ” leads her to feel blessed with knowledge that wasn’t found in history books; rather it came from traveling the world and living her life with purpose.

“When I accomplish something, I feel just as grateful when I can share or contribute to others who aren’t as fortunate,” she said.

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

Louvenia Johnson Scholarship Recipients 1988 - 2015

27

th

Over $550,000 has been provided to area youths to pursue a higher education.

13

14

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

2015 Louvenia Johnson Scholarship Recipients Presented By:

& Nyairah Abdullah

Riverside University High School

Nyairah Abdullah is a senior at Riverside High School who has earned a 3.1 GPA. She is regarded by her teachers as a caring student who is dedicated to her studies and to community service. In her spare time, Nyairah volunteers at the Ronald McDonald House and works part-time at the Milwaukee County Zoo. She is also a member of the AAU track & field team at her school. Nyairah is planning to attend the University of Minnesota – Mankato and major in psychology. She aspires to become a behavioral analysis psychologist.

Michah Childs

Brookfield East High School

Michah Childs is a senior at Brookfield East High School with a 3.16 GPA. He is a linebacker on the school’s football team. Michah credits his parents with instilling in him the will to succeed and the energy to persevere to accomplish a goal. He encourages his fellow students to get a handle on time management and to develop good study habits to succeed in school and in life. Michah plans to attend the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he will major in either process engineering or physical therapy.

Tamyra Cooper

Rufus King International High School

Tamyra Cooper is a senior at Rufus King International High School with a 3.3 GPA. Tamyra is recognized by her teachers as a strong student who prepares her work well and displays excellent analytical and communications skills. She participates in several community activities, including as a tutor and teachers’ assistant at Brown Street Academy Community Learning Center; and PEARLS for Teen Girls youth leadership development program. Tamyra is interested in a career in some aspect of medicine and plans to attend either Hampton University or Alverno College in the fall.

Destiny Dallas

Wauwatosa East High School

Destiny Dallas is a 3.3 honor student at Wauwatosa East High School. She excels in both academics and athletics. Destiny is a member of the National Honors Society, is captain of the girls’ varsity basketball team, and also plays rugby. She serves as a student athletic trainer at school and is active in her church in praise dancing and in the youth choir. Destiny has set her sights on a career in medicine and plans to attend either Spelman College or Howard University in the fall.

Jamea Hoover

Riverside University High School

Jamea Hoover is a honor student at Riverside University High School with a 3.6 GPA. She plans to attend University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in the fall and major in biology. Jamea is a member of the National Honors Society and Riverside’s Link Crew – a student initiative that allows upperclassmen to mentor incoming freshmen and help them navigate the transition to high school. Jamea is also a member of Upward Bound Math & Science at University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. She aspires to become an obstetrics and gynecology physician.

Mrs. Johnson’s legacy has awarded more than $500,000 to Milwaukee area students to assist them in their pursuit of college careers.

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

15

2015 Louvenia Johnson Scholarship Recipients Presented By:

& Asiane Jordan

North Division High School

Asiane Jordan is a senior at North Division High School. A 3.4 GPA honor student and self-described leader, Asiane hones her community leadership skills as the president of North Division’s student council government. She is recognized as a student who gives her best effort in whatever she undertakes. Asiane is very involved in her church and serves as a steward and choir director. In the fall of 2015, Asiane will attend Alverno College. She plans to study medicine and become a pediatric physician.

Stephon Roby

Riverside University High School

Stephon Roby is a senior at Riverside University High School with a 3.1 GPA. He is treasurer of the student council government. Stephon is a diligent student who has used his musical talent as the bass drum captain on the school’s drumline ensemble. When he is not participating in drumline performances, Stephon teaches martial arts to children. He has earned a black belt in karate. Stephon plans to attend University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and major in business management in the fall of 2015.

Chiara Sanders

Shorewood High School

Chiara Sanders is a 4.0 honor student at Shorewood High School. She is a member of the school track team and Milwaukee Mustang track organization. As a talented musician, she plays the viola with skill and passion. Chiara is a member of the Shorewood High School Orchestra. She also enjoys writing poetry and working with her school publication. Chiara is employed part-time as a canine assistant for Shorewood Animal Hospital. She has been accepted at Marquette University and University of Wisconsin-Madison. Chiara plans to become a biomedical engineer.

Trentyn Shaw

Waukesha West High School

Trentyn Shaw is a senior at Waukesha West High School with a 3.89 GPA. Trentyn is known by both his teachers and his peers as a hard worker with a polite and respectful demeanor. He competes on his school’s varsity wrestling team, of which he is also captain; and regularly participates in volunteer activities that benefit both his school and the community. At school, he provides companionship to special needs students during lunch hour. Trentyn plans to attend either the University of Minnesota or the University of Alabama in the fall, where he will major in biology/pre-med.

Brittany Smith

Bradley Technology & Trade High School

Brittany Smith is senior at Bradley Technology & Trade High School with a 3.1 GPA. She is planning to attend Mount Mary University in the fall of 2015. Brittany enjoys designing fashions and being a trendsetter. Starting her own clothing business is her dream. Brittany is involved in numerous activities at school such as homecoming, senior clothing leadership development and volleyball. She plans to major in business management.

Richard Williams

Milwaukee High School of the Arts

Richard Williams is a senior at Milwaukee High School of the Arts with a 3.0 GPA. One of his favorite school activities is forensics, as he says it has helped him develop analytical skills and better understand and appreciate people’s diverse personalities. Richard states that it was his uncle’s expertise as a computer programmer that inspired his interest in video games and how they work. Richard aspires to study video game design and development at the University of Wisconsin-Stout in the fall.

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The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

30 th Annual Black Excellence Awards Arts

writer and created art reviews for English-language readers.

Laci returned to Milwaukee after her international experience, grounded in a new sense of herself as an artist and accepted a two-year residency at Redline Milwaukee Community Art Studio, which offered studio space, an art mentor and exhibition space. She took a job as the part-time coordinator of school programs at the Milwaukee Art Museum just as she was considering applying for a third year of the RedLine program.

She is the creator of several pieces of public art in Milwaukee in Bronzeville, Sherman Park Senior Living Center and Curative Care Network.

She has partnered with the Voices and Visions project and worked with teens in the Fond du Lac Avenue corridor between 13th and 27th Streets to beautify boarded-up and abandoned properties. “It was more than putting art on the outside of buildings” said Laci. “It was more like Dr. Laci Coppins instilling a sense of pride and Milwaukee Art Museum ownership in the community.”

Laci has served as a guest Laci Coppins, Ph.D., is a to determine how she would artist and lecturer with Alphotographic, mixed media use her knowledge and gifts to verno College, the Milwauand installation artist. She is give back to her community. kee Art Museum, Marquette currently the full-time manLaci graduated from Rufus ager of school and teacher King High School and went to programs for the Milwaukee Fisk University in Nashville, Art Museum and spends her TN, where she earned a dedays working with educators, gree in English before pursucreating lessons plans that ing a master’s and doctorate help make art more palatable in Education from Trevecca to children.

Nazarene University, also in Born in Tucson, AZ, Laci Nashville. She became a moved to Milwaukee at age teacher and school principal nine when her family relo- in Nashville and later earned cated to be closer to their sup- a post graduate degree in port network. An extended art from Studio Art Centers family of teachers, preachers International in Florence, and servicemen became Laci’s Italy, where she also worked “village” and encouraged her for The Florentine as a staff

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University and Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. She was an artist-in-residence with RedLine, Milwaukee and was named the 2014 Robert S. Duncanson Artist in Residence at the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati, OH. Laci has exhibited in multiple cities across the United States and Italy. Her work is in several public collections including Fisk University, RedLine Milwaukee Community Art Studio, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and numerous private collections.

Even though Laci works primarily with teachers and school programs, she is an avid booster of the Milwaukee Art Museum’s other happenings. The Museum is cur-

rently hosting Inspiring Beauty: Fifty Years of Ebony Fashion Fair. The exhibit features the true story of Chicago’s Eunice and John Johnson, owners and publishers of Ebony and Jet magazines. It features more than 80 dresses that were exhibited by the traveling Fashion Fair over the years.

“Although this is about the Johnsons, it’s a classic American Dream story,” said Laci.

“We’re going to show dresses from their collection made by every top fashion designer you can imagine. We’re very excited.”

Laci is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and the Holy Cathedral Church of God in Christ.

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

17

30 th Annual Black Excellence Awards Community Leadership

Rodney Bourrage, Sr., is Founder and CEO of Operation Dream, Inc. learned that he was the recipient of the Black Excellence Award for Community Leadership, he humbly responded, “It’s a good feeling, and it feels good to be acknowledged. I didn’t know I was receiving this award until I got the letter in the mail. You see, I don’t do things for recognition I do them for the kids, for the community because I want to.” According to Rodney, Operation Dream, Inc. is a mentoring program for boys from ages 4 to 19 years old that started with 2 boys and has grown to 200 and picks up these boys and young men in 12 zip codes throughout the City of Milwaukee that provides transportation, provides food, provides free programming serving over 200 boys through a workplace program, a sports program (including soccer, baseball, basketball, swimming and tennis), a theater program, summer camp, and an academic program that runs during the school year.

They star t the day by picking up the boys from

many different zip codes and go to a community restaurant,” Coffee Makes You Black,” where the wonderful owners feed our boys, and then Rodney and his mentors take the young men and boys down the street to “Handsome Barber Shop” where Harry and his crew trim them up. “By 9 a.m.,” Rodney said, “We head over to LaVarne Way Boys and Girls Club where we rent space and the boys meet with their mentors where the high school boys are in the work training program, they talk with their mentors about what happened in their week and any current events happening in their lives that they want to share with their mentors. Additionally, we have a guest speaker to address the older boys and have a chance for questions and answers, and they go to their jobs or visit college campuses. The younger boys also meet with their mentors and do a little marching for discipline and structure, kindergarten kids have their own curriculum, and we pair up first and second grade, third and fourth, and seventh and eighth to rotate from life skills to cultural awareness to health and fitness, then play time. At the end of the day, around 2:15 p.m., we take them home. On Sunday, we partner with University

Rodney Bourrage, Sr. Operation Dream, Inc. School of Milwaukee in River Hills for tutoring.”

Operation Dream, Inc. has a staff of about 25 people and work from their in-kind office space located in Schlitz Park. Everything they have is donated. They have a budget that has grown rapidly and dramatically. Growing up in Milwaukee, Rodney marched with his older brothers and sisters at the young age of eight for civil rights and housing with Father Groppi. Rodney has been a part of Milwaukee’s urban community where

he remembers they always had a sense of community from the preachers, the teachers, the parents, the business leaders who cared deeply and watched out for them. Even though Rodney’s family grew up poor, they always had Love from their parents. Back then, they were able to provide for their family, own a home, and buy a car whereas today Milwaukee doesn’t have those good paying factory jobs for workers and they have to go out and find the few jobs the City has and hustle a little

here and there and jobs that aren’t always legal to make ends meet.

“I’m definitely trying to make a difference in my community. We have to stop this vicious cycle of incarceration of Black boys and men. We have to find new avenues for educating and providing job skills for young boys and men in a difficult area that has the highest jobless rates and that doesn’t include the path to incarceration,” said Rodney.

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The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

30 th Annual Black Excellence Awards Community Leadership

Kelly Winfrey has been a firefighter with the Milwaukee Fire Department (MFD) since 2003. As a firefighter, Kelly serves the public by educating people in preventing fire hazards and coming to their aid to minimize the disastrous outcomes that result when a fire breaks out, whether in an industrial or residential setting.

When Kelly is not on duty at the firehouse on West Mill Road on the city’s northwest side, he and his business partner, Jared Triplett, are making a difference in the community in another way – namely, by providing a safe haven to persons suffering from mental impairments.

Their enterprise, Flag g Street Manor, LLC, currently provides beds for about 10 residents, with plans to expand. The partners own and manage two adult family homes where persons with developmental disabilities, traumatic brain injuries, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia can find a clean, safe place to live. Care is provided 24 hours a day by trained,

licensed staff.

Kelly and his two brothers grew up on 15th Street on the city’s northwest side during the 1970s. As a firefighter for the past 11 years, Kelly said he has seen a lot of tragedy; and as a man who feels he has been blessed with much, the lack of opportunities he sees for youth growing up now in his old neighborhood was something that increasingly bothered him.

“I saw places where there was a severe need for a change,” Kelly said. “I started with what my business partner and I thought could make a difference. Hire people to serve a growing need and give others a safe place to live.” It was from combining a demonstrated need with a desire to serve that Flagg Street Manor was born.

Kelly graduated from Milwaukee Custer High School in 1989. He earned an associate degree in medical assistance and business from Bryant and Stratton College in 1995.

He said it felt as if he had won the lottery in 2003 when informed that he was one of

fewer than 100 applicants chosen out of more than 3,000 for the job of Milwaukee firefighter.

“Growing up initially, I wanted to be an emergency medical technician (EMT), because I wanted to be right on the front line helping to save lives after a disaster,” he said. “But then I realized that firemen arrive at the scene of most disasters before the ambulances. I was 31 years old when MFD first hired me, so I was a little worried that my age would count against me, but it didn’t. Joining MFD has turned out to be the decision I ever made in my life. Every day is like a new adventure.”

Kelly is known as ‘chef ’ by his colleagues. Firefighters usually work a 24-hour shift, so that means three meals must be prepared. Kelly said he first learned how to cook watching his mother and grandmother working at home in the kitchen. He then spent the first few years on the job watching how the veteran firefighters made the meals. Now meals prepared by ‘Chef Kelly’ are in high demand by his hungry colleagues.

Kelly also makes presentations on fire safety at area schools and gives motivational talks. Six years ago he made a bigger commitment to community outreach when he agreed to provide on-site medical care for a free week-

Kelly Winfrey Milwaukee Brotherhood of Firefighters long basketball clinic at North Division High School which was sponsored by 34 Ways to Assist, a not-for-profit basketball and education program sponsored by Devin Harris, a professional basketball player with the Dallas Mavericks.

Kelly enjoyed the event so much that he signed up the next year to help out.

He also began assisting with other programs sponsored

by Mr. Harris’ organization.

For instance at Christmas, Kelly arrived at the Parklawn

YMCA in a fire engine packed with presents and decorated to look like Santa’s sleigh.

The presents were distributed to children from the area.

Kelly also helps distribute free turkeys for needy families at Thanksgiving.

Kelly and his wife, LaVonda, attend Christian Faith Fellowship Church on 86th and Good Hope Road. The couple will celebrate their 19th wedding anniversary in July. They have one son, Kelly Jr., who is 15.

Congratulates Minister Greg Lewis on his 2015 Black Excellence Award for Community Service!

“As every man hath received the gift, [even so] minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” - 1 Peter 4:10

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

19

30 th Annual Black Excellence Awards Community Service

Sherri Daniels Pathfinders Sherri L. Daniels, program coordinator for Pathfinders, a Milwaukee organization that serves at-risk youth, believes in the practicality of introducing sex education instruction to junior-high school age students before begin experimenting and potentially engaging in unsafe behavior.

“No one wants to talk about this, but someone has to,” said Sherri. Teen pregnancy always results in poverty. “It often takes new parents until their 30s to recover from an unplanned pregnancy,” she said.

Growing up in the projects, Sherri saw first-hand how unplanned pregnancies could

defer or even terminate the chance for a college degree and a better job.

Sherri grew up in Hillside Terrace Housing project, the fourth child of a mother who pretty much raised Sherri and her siblings on her own.

“My mom was by far the one who made sure that the homework got done,” Sherri said. “She was the one who taught us about honesty and character. She worked in different jobs at the Post Office and sometimes that meant we went to church on Saturday instead of Sunday, but she was a very active parent.

She was our neighborhood Brownie troop leader and did

Greg Lewis is a Milwaukee native who began community organizing after attending a community organizing workshop directed by the Industrial Areas Foundation at North Division High School when he was 16 years old.

He worked for more than 20 years with Prudential Insurance, coached basketball for MATC and was involved with many local organizations when it occurred to him, “I don’t want to die with Milwaukee being in the state it is now. I have to do something new,” he said.

He founded Pastors United in 2012 to be an advocate for the voiceless and to fight against negative influences in the city of Milwaukee. “The church used to be the pillar of communities. Then, people

started driving to church.

And the people living right nearby our churches had never been inside.”

Greg set out to change that by hosting the first meeting of Pastors United and asking the 64 pastor assembled what most needed attention in the community. The group came up with 15 issues--family structure; health and wellness; economic development; crime and incarceration; and evangelism and prayer.

The group has made those areas the focus of their work and it has grown to 360 members who are clergy, civic leaders, business professionals and faith leaders. Their work is based in Milwaukee and they plan to expand to other cities. Currently they are working in Milwaukee to reha-

a lot of other volunteering.

After school we never went home to an empty house.”

Sherri graduated from Lincoln High School in 1972. After moving away from Hillside for a while, she returned in the late 1970s. She soon became interested in community organizing projects designed to better the neighborhood.

Things like summer day camp and field trips to museums or the beach “exposed us to things outside of our neighborhood and experience,” she said recalling her own childhood in Hillside.

“Even though there wasn’t a lot of money in the house we had toys and did fun things.

Someone has always been willing to help me and so I just have a passion for helping people.”

From 1988-1995, Sherri worked with a coalition of educators and concerned parents, serving as parent coordinator for Maryland Avenue School. During that time, she conducted presentations to inform parents of federal regulations and programming. She also served on the planning committee for regional and national conferences, facilitated and presented workshops.

One of Sherri’s most enduring volunteer projects has been her work with Hillside Terrace Resident Organization to which she was first bilitate and occupy homes in the central city and to prepare neighbors for home ownership. Works h o p s c o ve r i n g credit restoration and homeowner’s education are held once a month at one of the member churches.

After graduating from North Division, Greg earned a bachelor’s degree from Charles Harrison Mason System of Bible Colleges at Marquette University and a master’s deg ree from the Wisconsin University of Theology.

Currently he is the assistant pastor at St. Gabriel Church of God in Christ.

Lewis and his wife Annette, are parents of two children.

elected in 1992. She became president in 1995. She also serves on the board of commissioners for the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee and as city-wide advisory board chair of that agency.

She lists among her skills in those positions: community organizing; developing orientations and training; coordinating healthcare and human services for clients, and monitoring government Housing and Urban Development regulations.

When asked for an example of how the resident organization had improved the lives of others, Sherri mentioned how the organization had sponsored a program using a small sum of money to help some deserving residents obtain a driver license. Some of those who successfully completed the program went on

to become Milwaukee County Transit Authority drivers, Sherri said.

Her work with Pathfinders is not just about preventing pregnancy. “It is very important to reach men who have sex with men to help educate them on how to stop the spread of AIDS and HIV,” Sherri said. “Even though there have been advances in treatment, there is no cure. It is a serious lifelong disease.”

Some people mistakenly believe that it is no longer all that important to guard against the spread of the disease. Those people are mistaken, she said.

Sherri is proud of her 25year work as a coordinator and community organizer and is humbled to be honored for things that sometimes came down to practical improvements for the local neighborhood where she has lived most of her life.

Minister Greg Lewis Pastors United

20

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

30 th Annual Black Excellence Awards Corporate Trailblazers

Randy Bryant is passionate about architecture and the preservation of historic places. He visited the Charles Allis Museum in Milwaukee as a little boy and was hooked. Later, while attending what is now Bradley Trade and Technical High School, Bryant took classes in cabinet making and found himself drawn to the lines and feel of wood. He went to University Wisconsin-Parkside and completed a degree in labor and industrial relations and cultural anthropology.

His career took him far and wide, sending him to Eastern Europe to work in Russia, Hungary and the Baltics, to develop on licensing agreements for Motorola Corporation. He later served in South America as the first African American president of a Motorola subsidiary in Brazil and Argentina. He continued to work for Motorola in London and South Africa on labor relations and equity investment before finally returning to Brazil again.

When he returned to the United States, he found that his passion for architecture remained, and he started purchasing and leasing prominent singlefamily homes on the east side of Milwaukee. It was then that he was introduced to The Ten Chimneys Foundation located in Genesee Depot, WI, a small unincorporated community on the Wisconsin and

Demetrius Mack ProHealth Care

Southern Railway line in Waukesha County. “The ex-pat bug was still in me,” Bryant said. “So I moved back to complete some business in Argentina, and then came back to Milwaukee for good.”

The first thing Randy said he wanted to do when he got back was to visit schools. He said he believes it vital for children to be exposed to a variety of ways to be successful and to have a variety of role models.

Randy became president and CEO of the Ten Chimneys FoundaRandy Bryant tion in Genesee Depot and is thrilled to not only Ten Chimneys Foundation preserve the museum home of legendary Broadway actors Alfred Lunt capism of it,” he said. “The place is beautiful, there and Lynn Fontanne, but further the mission of are 60 acres and it’s a nice respite from regular life.”

Randy is president of the Milwaukee County Histhe Foundation to restore the estate while keeping torical Society and a member of the boards of the it open to the public as a world class museum and resource for theater and arts education. “These Milwaukee Art Museum, the Milwaukee Repertory grounds are a national treasure,” he said. The Lunts Theater, and the Buildings and Institution Commitwere renowned method actors who kept a summer tee for the Water Tower Landmark Trust. Bryant home in Wisconsin and hosted some of the biggest is the recipient of the Milwaukee County Fredrick names of the stage such as Katharine Hepburn and I. Olsen award for preservation excellence and the Cream of Cream City Award by the Milwaukee Carol Channing as their guests.

Since Randy has been at Ten Chimneys, the home Historic Preservation Commission.

He and his wife of 14 years, Cecelia Gore, live in and grounds have been restored to their prior glory and a reinvigorated Alfred’s Garden cultivates fresh Milwaukee. Bryant said, “It’s important not only to produce and eggs for food pantries in Milwaukee give back, but to be around; to let people see you and Waukesha. “Many people come out for the es- as part of the community.”

Demetrius Mack might never have become a Milwaukee resident were it not for the sudden death of his father in 1992 and his mother the following year, Demetrius decided to make a leap of faith and contact his biological mother who happened to be living in Milwaukee at the time.

“My father was a minister,” he said. “I had no more blood ties to where I was living. That was really tough for me. My father did not have the opportunity to obtain an education himself, but he and my mother

both continually stressed how important it was that I get one.”

As a child, Demetrius said he was a dreamer who loved school and missed attending it during the summer vacations.

After graduating from Central High School in Tuscaloosa, AL in 1982, Demetrius studied one year at the University of Alabama. He left after being offered a scholarship to play saxophone at Jackson State University. He stuck it out at Jackson State for a year, but decided he did not want to pursue a career in music. He spent two more years studying at Alabama before concluding that his vocation was in nursing. He earned his Licensed Practical Nurse(LPN) degree in 1988 from Shelton State Community College.

Then the opportunity to move to Milwaukee beckoned.

“Moving to Milwaukee not only gave me a chance to stretch my wings it also gave me a chance to get to know myself and the other members of my family.

“This was a step out in faith for me,” Demetrius said. “It was a chance for me to put to use all of the lessons that my mom and dad had taught me. I did not know anyone from my biological mother’s side of the family at all.”

Raised as if he were an only

child, Demetrius met and started to get to know his biological mother along with five sisters and brother he had never known once he arrived in Milwaukee.

Demetrius already had work experience by the time he moved to Milwaukee and he quickly found employment at a nursing home.

Demetrius made a transition from active nursing to health administration in 2000 when he became administrative assistant at Summit Women’s Health.

He accepted his first position with ProHealth Care Medical Associates as laboratory team leader in 2005. In 2014 he was promoted to Site Supervisor of Lab and Medical Staff, at one of the local walk-in clinic sites of ProHealth Care Medical Associates, which is headquartered in Waukesha.

His transition from active nursing to health administration has also coincided with his growing desire to give more back to the local community.

Last year he helped organize a dialogue between students and

adult representatives attending the national convention of Black and White Men Together held in Milwaukee.

“There is a new generation and I have a responsibility to at least try and give some of them the same kind of opportunities that were given to me,” he said. “I think that the ball has been dropped to an extent, in that the current generation of high school students does not have the same type of support systems that I had. I am sure that people’s lives would be very different if they did. All I can do is plant a seed. Hopefully with some rain and sunshine it will grow.”

Last year Demetrius also organized an opportunity for amateur artists to have their work displayed at Ayzha Gallery in the Grand Avenue Mall in downtown Milwaukee.

“I thought this might be a way for someone to express a lot of inner pain in a constructive way,” he said. “It could also give some local talent a chance to build some name recognition.”

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

21

30 th Annual Black Excellence Awards Corporate Trailblazers

Ernest W. Colburn Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare Audrey Sellers is currently a vice president at Tri-City Bank. Rising in the ranks in the banking industry, Audrey has worked with US Bank, Wells Fargo, North West Financial, and GE Medical (Finance division) and started her career at North Milwaukee State Bank.

Working in banking as soon as she finished her degree in finance and economics from Carroll University, Audrey began setting her example right away. In practicing her belief of service and imparting this lesson to others, Audrey serves on the board of the Riverside High School Foundation that is currently in place at her alma mater. The foundation is responsible for raising additional funds for the school for extracurricular activities and mentors the

students as they prepare for college or job searches.

Audrey also serves as the chair of the Finance and Personnel Committee for the board of Milwaukee Health Services.

She is concerned about and contributes to the management of finances for the organization which often finds that its clients are budgeting carefully to pay for health care costs.

She is also board chair for the African American Chamber of Commerce Revolving Loan funds. The fund is designed to offer “access to capital” opportunities to underserved businesses, especially those unable to secure traditional bank loans.

They provide loans up to $25,000.00. “I see money management in every element

Ernest Colburn is lead patient care supervisor for Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare System. It was the early 1980s in Chicago and Lorraine Colburn, a single mother of three, was growing increasingly concerned about the growing negative influences in the neighborhood in which she was raising her children.

“I was starting to hang around a little with people who were in gangs. Then my friend got shot in the head.

My mom moved us all to Milwaukee the next day.

“When we came to Milwaukee, we lived with my mother’s friend at first,” Ernest said.

“I didn’t know anyone, so I got into the habit of studying. I also began following the Lord about that time too.” Eventually his love of singing prompted him to join the choir at North Division High School. “Ever since I was young I loved to sing,” he said. “The whole family loves to sing.”

Once he became a member of the choir, he started making friends. These people were different from the ones he had known in the Chicago housing project he had left.

“The kids I started hanging

around with in Milwaukee were always talking about what college they were going to get into,” he said. “That was the first time I ever thought about the possibility of attending college.”

Ernest received some scholarship assistance from the University of WisconsinWhitewater, but he was concerned with the amount of debt that he was accumulating, so after one year of credits, he joined the Army. His three-year enlistment from 1989-1992 offered him the opportunity to avoid incurring a crushing debt load by helping finance his education as a veteran through the GI Bill.

Ernest served as a howitzer operator with a field artillery unit. “My military service provided me with the discipline I needed to finish school

and graduate,” he said. “I probably wouldn’t have been able to finish school without the training I received in the Army.”

After receiving an honorable discharge from the Army, Ernest initially decided to pursue a degree in nursing from Milwaukee Area Technical College. Later after observing four young men all in their 30s die of strokes in the emergency room within the same week, he decided to return to school and become certified as a trauma center nurse. He has since gone back to school several other times, receiving a bachelor’s degree from Concordia College. He is currently completing a masters degree in public health.

Ernest continues to live in the mid-town Milwaukee neighborhood where his mother first moved the family. He has been repeatedly recognized for his volunteer contributions, especially for his work mentoring young African American persons starting out in the corporate world.

Ernest is a member of the Interdenominational Church of the One Lost Sheep on Milwaukee’s north side.

Audrey Sellers Tri City National Bank of life,” Audrey said. “Health care is expensive; and so is college. If you can manage the money you have, you can meet your goals.”

Audrey believes in giving back to her community and “building relationships based on trust which make a positive impact on the lives of others.” She has found that one useful gift she can share with her community has been money management. “I want to be a living example to others, including my children, and my community.” She has two daughters - - Simone, a freshman at Alabama State University, and Shelby, a sophomore at Brown Deer High School.

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The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

30 th Annual Black Excellence Awards Education

Martha S. Miles Milwaukee Public Schools Martha Miles is a kindergarten teacher at Parkview Elementary School on Milwaukee’s far northwest side.

Martha was born and spent the first four years of her life in Muskegon, MI. The family relocated to Milwaukee to find work. At first Martha’s father worked for American Motors.

Later he was killed while on the job as a meter reader.

“We did not have our father for long,” Martha said. “He was killed at the age of 38, leaving my mom with six children to raise. Two of us were already in college, [but] things could have been so much worse. She was blessed with a job at Harley Davidson and we were able to go on. God was with us.”

As a young girl Martha encouraged her five siblings to play Dr. Janice R. Pugh grew up in poverty in Milwaukee during the 1970s, one of seven children raised by Jimmie and Tressie Pugh. Jimmie usually worked long hours on a second shift as a piece maker for Briggs & Stratton, which meant he contributed to the financial stability of the family, but left Tressie to provide the majority of the discipline.

For the five boys, Tressie would buy small, often broken electronic devices or household appliances and encourage them to take them apart.

Two of those young men now hold patents. For Janice, the older of her two daughters, Tressie instilled a love of teaching and the courage to believe in your dreams.

“My mom pretty much had everyone from the neighborhood at our house so she could keep a better eye on all of us,” Janice said. “She worked as a social worker with the Milwaukee Public School system while we were growing up. She chose to take that job so she could be home when the children were.”

One area where Jimmy took the

“school.” Since she was the oldest, she would usually be the teacher.

“My mom liked this, because it kept the children quiet.” Martha said.

Martha graduated from North Division High School in 1969. While she was a young woman, she raised four children as a stay-at-home mom, deferring her dream of teaching until her youngest child turned 18.

“When my children were younger, I felt they were at an age were they needed someone around to emphasize the importance of getting a good education and going to college,” she said.

Martha took her first step toward her dream of teaching in 1990 by volunteering to help kindergartners. Her obvious love for the profession and her students led to a position as a paraprofessional while she pursued a bachelor of science degree in education from Alverno College.

She earned her degree in 1997. She received a master’s degree in school guidance counseling from Concordia University in 2006.

“As part of our training, we were encouraged to take on the role of a grandmother

lead was in church attendance. He served as an usher at St. Matthew CME Church for more than 30 years, continuing to fulfill his responsibilities even after he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Janice said she still considers St. Matthew her church home.

Janice has a Ph.D. in education from National Louis University. She has taught a number of elementary grade school age children, but said her favorite are third graders, students she has taught at Frances Starms Discovery Learning Center since 2012.

“I have always had an ear for kids,” she said. “Believing in the value of education is one of the core reasons why I became a teacher,” she wrote in her dissertation. “You have to have a strong constitution to work in a classroom full of 30-plus students with 30-plus different personalities.”

Her quest to become a teacher was deferred for a while when she left school and went to work for a custodial company for nine years.

She volunteered with MPS as a paraprofessional, filling in when

figure,” Martha said. “I have high expectations of my students, but we also have fun.

I look for fun ways to build their self esteem.”

This year is the 25th kindergarten class that Martha has greeted. She said she her favorite time of the year is the fall when the new students arrive.

“I love watching them come in at the beginning of the year,” she said. “Most don’t know their letters or maybe they know just a few. By the time the school year ends, some are reading at the second-grade level and most are beginning readers.

Martha’s teaching methods must be working. According to the recently administered standardized tests, 80 percent of Martha’s kindergartners met or exceeded grade-level expectations and 75 percent met or exceeded grade-levels targetst in reading. They scored the highest of all the classes in any grade at the school, which goes up to fifth

substitutes were needed. After earning her bachelor of arts in education from the University of WisconsinMilwaukee in 2000, she began teaching in the Milwaukee Public School System.

Janice realized that her own up bringing, with both parents married and living together, and raising their children together, is not what the majority of her students experience.

A lot of her interest began in 2004 after she asked one of her third-grade classes to describe their neighborhood.

“I was overwhelmed by the responses to my question,” she said.

“None of the students talked about the positives, but the majority of the students made comments about the violence and how their neighborhoods were drug infested. As I listened to my student’s voices, I was stunned and shocked with disbelief.

I did not want to believe that the children had seen and been through so much. Only one out of 15 students had seen the shores of Lake Michigan.”

Janice helped organize and oversee a student-devised fundraising effort which eventually raised more than $300. The students eventually voted to use the money to rent a limousine and ride around some of the other areas of their hometown, including the Milwaukee lakefront.

grade.

“It enlivens me to see the new growth,” she said. “They are very innocent and if they learn to trust you, they will respond and grow in ways that you won’t believe.”

In addition to encouraging her efforts to play schoolteacher with her brothers and sisters, Martha’s own parents strongly emphasized the importance of getting an education. It was a tradition deeply ingrained in the family ancestry.

“My great aunt was an educator in the south, Martha said. “She sent our family a copy of my great, great grandfather’s diploma who graduated from college in the late 1800’s,” she said Martha attends Gospel Lutheran Church. She helps out as secretary, serves on the food pantry organizing committee, has served as a church youth choir leader for more than 20 years and has taught vacation bible school.

Dr. Janice Pugh Milwaukee Public Schools

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

23

30 th Annual Black Excellence Awards Extraordinary Achievement

Steven Tipton, Sr. & Steven Tipton, Jr. Step-Up Shoe Drive

It’s not every day that a 10-year-old boy wakes up and wants to put shoes on poor Haitians, but Steven Tipton, Jr., did, and with the help of his dad, Steven, Sr., 15,000 more pairs of shoes are now running around that economically challenged Caribbean island.

The idea to collect shoes for people in Haiti came to the younger Tipton on a family cruise to the Caribbean. “When we stopped in Haiti, I noticed the kids playing with only rocks as if they were playing soccer and basketball with no shoes on,” he said. “We also went on an expedition through the woods, and I asked the kids around why don’t they have shoes on and they replied they didn’t have any.” That image of children playing with rocks and climbing barefoot stayed with them, and when the family returned to Wisconsin young Steven got busy.

“It feels good to receive this award because it says I did something good. I can go to sleep at night knowing I did a good thing for people,” the Brookfield Elementary School fifth-grader said.

Steven Tipton, Sr., is an entrepreneur and a professor who teaches business and finance at the University of Phoenix and teaches fourth grade at Greater Holy Temple Christian Academy. He also hosts, “The Empowerment Radio Broadcast” from 2:30 - 3:00 p.m. every Friday on WJOY 1340-AM He was born and raised on 15th and Capitol Drive and moved to Brookfield eleven years ago, got bit by the entrepreneurial bug when he was in college and wanted to share it with his son. “It feels great

to be able to help someone else who is in need and to realize how blessed you are and to look at someone else’s life and give the sacrifice of time and that someone recognized that,” Steven, Sr. said.

Within a few weeks after getting back from Haiti, the family began approaching churches for their help to collect shoes. Their original goal was 1,000 pairs. Baptist churches, the local Sikh Temple, universities, businesses, and everyday people helped out to collect shoes.

After several months, a semi tractor-trailer arrived and 15,000 pairs of shoes were then shipped to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti where an adoption organization who helps those in need distributed the shoes. The shipping was donated

by FedEx. “God was truly with us every step of the way,” Steven, Jr. said. “We thought about the children, but the community thought about everybody including the adults, so we had shoes of every size and style imaginable.”

The fifth-grader also is involved in basketball, bible study, and soccer, runs track, and plays drums and trumpet. The family belongs to Holy Cathedral Church of God in Christ in Milwaukee.

The Tipton men count on Dr. Marica Tipton for support and inspiration. In addition to being a psychology instructor at MATC and a clinical psychologist in private practice. Marica supports Steven, Sr., and Steven, Jr. as wife and mother.

Health Gena Green-Harris is Director of the Milwaukee Outreach and Education and Research Program for the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Association of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health/Center for Urban Population Health. One of her key goals at her current position is to bring African Americans information about the impact of Alzheimer’s and help them educated themselves. “It’s important that we dispel the myths that exist about Alzheimer’s. It’s not a psychological problem, it’s a physical disease. When people understand that they have a disease, or love someone with a disease that is the most important thing to know,”said Gena.

Since Gina has joined the Institute, the program has more than doubled the number of African Americans enrolled in the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention (WRAP). She was instrumental in collaboration between the University and Milwaukee Health Services, Inc. (a federally qualified health center) to establish a minorityspecific memory clinic in the heart of Milwaukee.

This is the first of its kind and is being established as a national model for other FQHC’s to replicate.

She works with a Community Advisory Board which helps make decisions about the priorities of the community. She has worked to push for diversity in hiring among researchers, and more post doctoral researchers among those working in the community. This allows people to be principal investigators when collecting data from communities of color and brings compassion to a clinical environment. When people are having

college, pretty much working as a janitor. And then she was the director of one of the first child care centers in Milwaukee. She taught me that there is no reason to fail, and when you do succeed, it’s important to bring someone along with you,” Gina said.

Gina went to Central State University in Wilberforce, OH after graduating from Washington High School here in Milwaukee. She found her passion in working to fight HIV / AIDS in the African American community in her senior year of college, due to the impact of a good friend contracting the disease. She was offered a job at the organization she worked for, and came to see her passion as a calling – minority health. She later earned a master’s in business administration from Franklin University in Columbus, OH. Gina is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and serves on the Executive Board of Milwaukee Health Services Incorporated ( MHSI). She also serves and engages the community by working with AARP Public Policy Institute Multicultural Advisory Committee, the Federal Office of Minority Health’s Health Equity Council Region V Representative, State of WI Dementia Capable WI Work group –Professional Education Team, Alzheimer’s Foundation of America’s (AFA) National Alzheimer’s Advisory Council, and the Wisconsin Institute on Healthy Aging(WiHA) as a cultural competence exGina Green-Harris pert. She is co-chair of the Milwaukee County on Aging, Advisory Committee University of Wisconsin-Madison Department and the Milwaukee County Underserved Populations Committee. She also serves as conversations with researchers that look like them, chair of the human resources committee for the the pain of the stigma of Alzheimer’s is lessened. Interfaith Older Adult Services board.

“My role model is my grandmother, who passed away when I was 16. She worked her way through

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The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

30 th Annual Black Excellence Awards Health

When she was appointed to her current position as Dean of the School of Health Sciences at Milwaukee Area Technical College in 2005, Dr. Dessie Levy became the first African American to attain that position in the state of Wisconsin.

Dessie found her vocation while having her tonsils removed at around age 12.

“Jestine McCord was one of the first black nurses in Milwaukee and she took me under her wing and made me her protégé,” Dessie said. Jestine and Dessie’s parents went to great lengths to emphasize the importance of getting a good education.

“Jestine used to say to me: ‘It is not enough to want to be a nurse. You have to earn your degree’.”

A Milwaukee native, Dessie is the third of five children. She graduated from North Division High School and became the first member of her family to graduate from a four-year college. Her mother was a teacher and her father was a crane operator

for Bucyrus Erie.

“My parents taught us children that no matter what job we had, we should perform it well enough to be proud of our work,” she said. I’ve always been a studious type of individual. When the other children were out playing, I was happiest inside reading, studying or doing experiments.”

When Dessie began her career in health care the staff in Milwaukee area hospital wards looked a lot different than they do today. Dr. Levy was the first black nurse in Milwaukee assigned to work in a burn unit, a position for which only the most highly skilled nurses are even considered.

Throughout her career, Dessie has continued to pursue additional educational degrees while working full time.

She has an earned Ph.D. in Education and Leadership from Cardinal Stritch University. She is a registered nurse and earned a bachelor and master of science degrees in nursing (Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner) and a master of science degree in health administration.

Recognizing the importance that an adult mentor played in the development of her own early career, Dr. Levy continues to “investigate the retention and matriculation challenges of African Americans applying to health career educational programs without

the sufficient math, science and critical thinking skills that are a necessity to provide safe, quality patient care,” she said. She is committed to advocating for the needs of the community and the health care industry by assuring that MATC graduates are safe and highly qualified practitioners.

Dessie is married to the Rev. Dr. Garry Levy, pastor of True Love Missionary Baptist Church and President of the General Baptist State Convention of WI, Inc. She is active in Sunday school and Bible study, church administration, counseling, mission and Christian education. Together the Rev. and Mrs. Levy have three children and five grandchildren.

In addition to her church work, Dr. Levy has been deeply committed to community service including: President Elect - Administrators of Nursing Educators of Wisconsin, Past President and Life-Time Member - Milwaukee Chapter National Black Nurses Association, Board Member - Milwaukee Center for Independence New Health Services, Milwaukee Area Workforce Investment Board - Employer Com-

Dr. Dessie Levy Milwaukee Area Technical College mittee, Wisconsin Lutheran College of Nursing Advisory Board Executive Board (treasurer) Wisconsin Center for Nursing Cardinal Stritch University - Alumni Board

Law

Atty. Bettie Rodgers Attorney-At-Law Bettie Rodgers is an attorney with a vested interest in the community. She received her Juris Doctor degree from Marquette University in May, 1990. Attorney Rodgers also earned her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in social welfare from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and is a licensed clinical social worker. She received her early education through the Milwaukee Public Schools,

graduating from North Division High School.

From her Glendale office, Bettie provides legal representation in the areas of estate planning, elder law, probate practice, guardianships for adults, Chapter 7 and 13 bankruptcy, family law, and personal injuries.

Bettie is a member of the State Bar of Wisconsin, the Thomas F. Fairchild Inns of Court, the American Bar As-

sociation, and the National Association of Elder Law Attorneys.

Bettie was born in Indianola, MS and came to Milwaukee at age three when her father was recruited here for a factory job.

Although she loved being with her family and school, Bettie did not (“and still does not,” she said laughing) like Milwaukee winters. She said she fulfilled a dream of escaping snow when she moved to the San Francisco Bay area after finishing graduate school.

Eventually she accepted a position as a social worker for the Mentally Disordered Offender unit of the California Dept. of Health and Human Services.

“In California you have to come before a committee to determine if you will be a danger to the community if released from custody,” she explained. “I was kind of like a parole officer.”

Bettie said she loved the West Coast weather, but she missed her family, all of whom were still in Milwaukee. She stuck it out in California for about five years before deciding that having family nearby was better than a nice climate. After

Bettie returned, she began working as director of medical and social services for We Care Nursing Services, Inc. Her job required her to, among other responsibilities, develop medical and social service resources for “frail, elderly adults and incapacitated children.” She also helped to organize a caregiver support group and helped prepare several successful grant proposals.

“Working for WeCare showed me how I could really improve life for someone,” Bettie said. “I have also found that to be true with the law.

It can be a helping service, too. Social service can only go so far.”

While still in California, Bettie closely followed a local case in 1977 brought against Huey Newton, co-founder of

the Black Panther Party. During the trial Bettie remembers thinking there was no reason she couldn’t become a lawyer.

Eventually her passion led her to apply some years later at Marquette University and earn a law degree.

“The law has to work for everyone,” Bettie said, “even those who can’t afford to pay.

A number of my clients are people who are being taken advantage of unfairly, often by family members.”

When she is not practicing law, Bettie volunteers with a variety of organizations and causes that combine her knowledge of the law and health and human services.

She has facilitated support groups for domestic violence victims at Sojourner Truth House and does presentations on advanced planning for the elderly. She has served on the boards of several state and local groups, including the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute; and the Milwaukee Life Initiative for Healthy Families Project, which was dedicated to closing the black-white gap in birth outcomes in Milwaukee.

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

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30 th Annual Black Excellence Awards Law

Being a tax attorney may not seem like one of the more glamorous aspects of legal practices, but Vada Waters Lindsey said after an epiphany in law school at DePaul University in Chicago, “I was hooked and developed a lifelong passion for tax law. I took every possible tax class at DePaul.”

Not only was she thrilled with tax law, but the idea of becoming a tax professor as well. She’s doing just that now at Marquette University after originally going to college at Michigan State University to become a lobbyist. “I had the

foresight to realize being a law professor was one of the best jobs in this profession,” she said in a 2007 blog.

Vada also took that tax knowledge to the street, forming the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program at Marquette in 2004. She was hired at MU as a professor in 1996.

The VITA program helped thousands of low income and elderly get the most out of their tax returns. In 2012 she was honored by the U.S. Postal Service for being one of 14 “Women Putting Their Stamp on Metro Milwaukee” for the program.

“I believe that pro bono service is important and it is a great opportunity for my students to gain some practical experience,” she said.

Vada arrived in Milwaukee in 1996 to take the Marquette post as assistant professor in the Law school. Before that she was a faculty member at the District of Columbia School of Law and before that a tax attorney for ARMCO and the Internal Revenue Service. She was born in Niagara Falls, NY. Perhaps advocating on the side of those struggling to pay taxes, Waters Lindsey also argues in some scholarly works that the tax codes can be unfair to the poor. “My articles have addressed progressive taxation, charitable deductions and the taxation of selfhelp programs. I will continue to write articles regarding the impact of the code on lower - to middle-income taxpayer, but I also write articles on other interesting tax issues.”

As of June, Vada also took on the title of Associate Dean for Enrollment at Marquette

Atty. Vada Waters Lindsey Marquette University University Law School.

“I realize in many ways, I have become a pseudo-lobbyist in my role as a law professor by explaining the laws to my students and writing articles on issues of interest. I absolutely love being a law professor and have never regretted my decision to enter academia,” she said.

Media

Cary Edwards WISN TV 12 If there’s any truth to the adage that “Journalism is the first draft of history…,” then photographer Cary Edwards has had a hand in recording much of that first draft, both for viewing in Milwaukee and nationally.

For nearly 40 years, Cary has plied his craft as a photojournalist at WISN-TV 12, the ABC affiliate based in Milwaukee that serves southeastern Wisconsin. Since 2001, he has served

as the station’s chief photographer managing a team of videographers, as well as shooting and editing his own news and feature stories. He was the first African American chief photographer at WISN and in the state of Wisconsin.

The Milwaukee native found his calling while still in his teens. Cary enrolled in a film workshop sponsored by the former Milwaukee Inner City Film Arts Council.

By the time he graduated from West Division High School (now Milwaukee High School of the Arts) and was voted “Most Likely to Succeed” by his classmates, he knew what he wanted to do for his adult career. He studied cinematography at the University of Wisconsin in Madison; then transferred to Milwaukee Area Technical College where he earned an associate degree through the television production program in 1976.

Cary joined WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee as a production assistant while he was still in college. He joined WISN-TV as a part-time employee in 1974 and was bumped up to full-time photojournalist in 1976. In 1979, he accepted a position as videographer for WBZ-TV in Boston. Cary traveled throughout the U.S. for the station, interviewing high profile figures such as author Alex Hailey, music icon Ray Charles, and boxing legend Mohammad Ali. Though he was enjoying those assignments and his career was successful, Cary decided to put his family’s needs first and returned to Milwaukee after 18 months. He rejoined the WISN-TV team in November 1980.

Throughout his career, Cary’s keen eye and penchant for visual story-telling have produced a variety of projects of broad interest, including coverage of the 1982 Milwaukee

Brewers pennant race; and the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco.

He also traveled with Green Bay Packers legend Reggie White on a tour to the Holy Land; and to Canada to cover the search for convicted murderer Lawrencia “Bambi” Bembenek. In the early 1990s, Cary created and produced the series, Rays of Hope, which featured stories that touched the lives of Milwaukee residents and provided them with a voice to affect positive change in the community.

Cary has received many honors for his professional work. He was recognized by the Kodak Teenage Film Awards while he was still a student. While working at WISN-TV, his Children First: A Solution to Violence received an award from the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ); and Sounding the Alarm earned the prestigious Peabody Award in 2011. That year, Cary was inducted into the Silver Circle of the Chicago/Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Through his work and personal life, Cary has advocated for his community and has demonstrated his knowledge of and passion for Milwaukee and the quality of his work.

He continues to serve as a role model and volunteers his time with youth-serving and learning organizations by speaking to young people hoping to pursue a journalism career.

Regarded as a person who values family and faith, Cary and his wife Bonnie are the parents of three adult children, and they have four grandchildren. They are members of Canaan Missionary Baptist Church, where Cary serves as a deacon.

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The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

30 th Annual Black Excellence Awards Media

After a 30-year career as an accountant, Yvonne Kemp accepted an offer from her brother, renowned photographer Harry Kemp, to work as his assistant.

Yvonne initially handled scheduling and accounting for her brother, but soon caught the photography bug from Harry, who began to pass on his extensive knowledge of photography. Within months, she was taking on shooting assignments and learning the intricacies of creative photography.

When Harry died in 2011, Yvonne stepped in to fulfill several of his contracts, including a position as photographer for the Milwaukee Brewers and the Milwaukee Community Journal. Nearly a decade and a half after leaving her accounting career behind, she has emerged as one of the city’s most prominent

photographers. Yvonne also expanded her resume from commercial and newspaper photography to include creative works that have earned national recognition.

Born in Racine, WI, Yvonne was the older of two girls born to a family that also included four boys. The Kemp family moved to Milwaukee when Yvonne was still a child.

She was educated in the Milwaukee Public Schools and graduated from North Division High School. She also earned an associate degree in business administration from Oklahoma City Community College.

Yvonne is a member of the Milwaukee Press Club, Milwaukee Braves Historical Society, Society for American Baseball Research, African American Chamber of Commerce, Wisconsin Black Chamber of Congress and

the National Association fur the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Yvonne also volunteers with Born 2 Dream Diva’s in Training, a group that empowers 6-17 year olds. “They will learn to build character so they can teach others that beauty is within and not what other people think,” she said.

“We need to direct our youth how to seek knowledge instead of them waiting for knowledge to find them.”

She also volunteers with “Voice of the Fatherless Child” Center for Intervention through Entertainment.

Yvonne intends to carry on Harry’s legacy by forming the Harry Kemp Foundation, which, she said, “will seek to bring photography as an art and profession the the younger generations of African American photographers.”

Yvonne Kemp Milwaukee Community Journal

Brad Pruitt Independent Filmmaker Brad Pruitt is an independent filmmaker and a founding member of Film Wisconsin. When the Wisconsin state legislature closed the film office in 2005, Brad helped put together a coalition of Wisconsin-based visual communications artist and producers, and public officials dedicated to developing infrastructure and promoting multi-media production in the State.

“Filmwisconsin.net tries to encourage filmmakers to film in a particular location,” Brad explained. “That has a big effect on the local economy when a film crew comes and starts buying things. Filming on location also helps identify and develop local talent.

“To be fair, Milwaukee has its share of blessings and challenges,” Brad said. “Our job is to continue to improve on the blessings and find solutions to the challenges.”

For the first 11 years of his life, Brad lived the life of an only child whose parents had a mutual love of moving. Somewhere between living in Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Dallas, Chicago and Atlanta, Brad decided to make Milwaukee his permanent home.

In 2002 Brad won a regional Emmy from the National

haunted what Academy of Televihe found in sion Arts and Scithe present. ences. While not a “I grew up guarantee of motion in the 70s and picture success, most 80s in Milwaufilm makers from kee,” he said. the Midwest move “Across the to the Los Angeles board there area after winning a was univerregional Emmy. sal agreement Brad has not restregarding the ed on his laurels, nor value of an has he moved. Since education.

2002 he has directed, T h a t p r i o rproduced and writCast and crew members from Brad ity has shifted ten dozens of films Pruitt’s “Mark My Words.” greatly.” and could probably Brad said have a production commitments and responsicompany up and running in bilities those people take on in that what goes on outside the Los Angeles in a matter of order to pursue their passion,” classroom has as important a months. What keeps him wed- he said. “What we’re really contribution to educational success as what goes on inded to Milwaukee? It can’t be talking about are poets.” the abundant availability of In 2013 he produced Bend- side the classroom. Outside warm sunny days for outdoor ing Toward the Light, a docu- the classroom these days an shoots. mentary on the state of edu- education is not as highly encouraged by society as a “My extended family calls cation.

Milwaukee home and it was “I was very interested in the whole and therefore not as where I was born. Milwaukee shift that has taken place in highly valued by students, achas been and always will be education across the board,” cording to Brad. Based on the home,” he said. “I am very in- he said. “I wanted to portray interviews that he conducted vested and committed to Mil- changes among all of our for his 2013 film project, he came away convinced that waukee and working around children. the development of art and “My parents were a product too many people in the comartists here in this city.” of the 60s,” Brad said. “They munity have come to rely too Brad continues to use Mil- were inquisitive and explor- much on having teachers raise waukee as subject matter for atory by nature. We lived in children.

“We are depending more some of his projects. all kinds of neighborhoods, He used Milwaukee as mate- especially in Milwaukee. At and more on them to provide rial for Mark My Words, a 24- the time attending all those the primary system of care,” hour chronicle into the lives different schools and having Brad said. “That is making it of eight Milwaukee spoken to start all over making new harder for teachers to educate.

“We are all going to have word artists. The film pre- friends, it was difficult, but I miered at the 2010 Milwaukee look back on that experience to take responsibility if we want to improve the state of Film Festival. with gratitude.”

“I tried to capture all of the He said he came away education,” he said.

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Johnson Controls congratulates those who reach the highest degree of excellence through educational achievement. For us, it is a prime example of preparation meeting opportunity. Because, at Johnson Controls we recognize the future is coming fast, which is why we’re able to attract world-class employees who offer new ideas and innovative ways to make the world better. It’s why we’re the global leader in integrating technologies, products and services that redefine the relationship between people and their surroundings - helping us fulfill our vision of a more comfortable, safe and sustainable world.

An NCON Publication

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The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

30 th Annual Black Excellence Awards Minority Business

Mrs. Mary Smith-Reid and Mr. Arthur Reid, Jr. Reid’s New Golden Gate Funeral Home The story of how Arthur Reid, Jr., and Mary Smith-Reid first met in some ways resembles the script from a classic 1950s California teen movie, where a couple exchanges smoldering looks from across two vehicles stopped at a traffic light… and then fate intervenes to bring them together… or something like that.

Far from being love-struck teenagers, Arthur and Mary both had two daughters from previous marriages when they literally exchanged looks at a stop light. Mary said initially Arthur did not attract her eye.

“I’d seen him around a couple of times before, but I never really gave him a second thought,” Mary said.

This time, however, the two had spoken briefly at a company Christmas party. When Arthur pulled up to the stop light beside Mary he was driving a long dark Cadillac. “We made eye contact,” Mary said. “I guess something different happened at the party. After that I asked a mutual friend to introduce me.”

Mary insists it was not the Cadillac that impressed her, because she already knew that

he owned a funeral home and even though he was not driving a hearse, she knew he had borrowed the Cadillac from his company fleet.

“I had already retired from Briggs & Stratton when I met him in 1992,” Mary said.

Arthur Reid, Jr., was born in Tennessee in 1938, but relocated to Milwaukee with his family when he was three years old. His parents, Joe and Lenora, had four boys and three girls.

Two of Arthur’s brothers are now deceased.

Both of Arthur’s parents worked, but he said that he had “strict parents who made us walk the chalk line. I grew up going to church.”

He became interested in the funeral business because Lamar Williamson, one of Milwaukee’s long-time African American funeral directors, had children,. Arthur and the neighborhood kids would often go over there to play after school.

Lamar Williamson was the founder of the present-day Leon Williamson Funeral Home and became Arthur’s mentor. “One day in 1956 Mr. Williamson came to me,” Arthur said, “and asked if I wanted to learn the

funeral business or if I wanted to keep fooling around like the other kids outside. I never looked back. I feel blessed that I can help take some of the load off those who entrust their loved ones to us.” Arthur and Mr. Williamson’s son, Leon, remain good friends and professional colleagues to this day.

Arthur opened Reid’s New Golden Gate Funeral Home in 1980. First he worked in a factory and at several other jobs, saving money and learning the funeral business before he struck out on his own. He said he has continually held at least one job ever since he was 14 years old.

Mary was born in Mississippi and grew up in Louisiana.

She moved to Milwaukee in 1966 when she was a teenager.

As an adult, she worked for Briggs & Stratton for 24 years before retiring. Mary also comes from a large family.

She had seven brothers and one sister. All but one of her brothers is deceased.

Mary earned an associate degree in early childhood development from George Washington University in Washington, DC. Three years after the couple first met, Arthur and one of his daughters together purchased an existing funeral home in the Chicago area in 1990. Arthur and Mary have also recently expanded in the Milwaukee area. The couple opened a location in Racine in 2011 and a second funeral home in Milwaukee in 2014.

Arthur and Mar y have forged a successful business and personal partnership; but to them, being successful

in business and in life must include giving back to their community. Mary said Arthur initially thought of donating computers to a youth-serving cause. Since 2011, they have partnered with The Milwaukee Times Weekly Newspaper to donate laptops to the Milwaukee area college-bound high school seniors tapped by the newspaper as Louvenia Johnson Scholars as part of its annual Black Excellence Awards celebration. “We are thrilled, honored and grateful to have the Reids as our special ‘Education Partners in Excellence’,” said Lynda Jackson Conyers, Milwaukee Times president and publisher.

The couple also helps to sponsor field trips and donate to youth causes through their church, St. Matthew Christian Methodist Episcopal Church on Milwaukee’s north side.

“We feel that this is something that we can give back to our community and our children,” Mary said. “In order to help them complete their education successfully, they need these tools and experiences.

“We have a great love for children and want them to be able to explore different opportunities in life. Education is a way to a better life and we want to help make that happen.”

Congratulations to Mr. Arthur Reid, Jr. & Mrs. Mary Smith-Reid

“Education Partners in Excellence”

Your Support Has Made The Difference In The Lives And Education Of Our Scholarship Winners!

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

Reid's New Golden Gate Funeral Home, Inc. Racine Location: 1910 Taylor Avenue Racine, WI 53403 262-632-7300

Milwaukee Location: 5665 N. Teutonia Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53209 414-358-0538

Our New Mil. Location: 2535 N. Teutonia Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53206 414-264-0600

Congratulations to the 2015

Black Excellence Honorees and this year’s

Louvenia Johnson

Scholarship Recipients !

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The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

30 th Annual Black Excellence Awards Minority Business

Four generations of Scruggs have plied the cobbler trade in Milwaukee and with Wanda Scruggs as the current matriarch of Scruggs & Sons Shoe Repair, 3570 N. Teutonia Ave., it is the only Black-owned shoe repair shop in Wisconsin.

A native of Detroit, Wanda came to Milwaukee at age 11 when her mother Margaret and father Ivy Scruggs moved for her father’s job. Hudson Motors had merged with American Motors at the time and that brought the Scruggs family to Milwaukee. Her father had also worked in a shoe shop as a young man and learned the trade.

Scruggs was in her late 20s when she started working as a cobbler under her father’s guidance. “I’d bring the kids in the shop with me, and since I lived upstairs, I put them to bed and come down and continue working. I didn’t have to worry about a babysitter because I could hear everything,” she said.

“I don’t know what possessed him to go into business, but he did with my brothers. We owned a shoe shine stand and variety shop.” The original shop was at 2552 N. 3rd St. from 1963-1965; then they moved to the 2700 block of N. 3rd St. Her dad died in 1976 and she took over the business.

Wanda’s grandson Rio was just 13 years old when he began to learn the business Her Daughter Francies and grandsons Marlon and Jarel help out, as does anybody she can catch up with who stops in and says they need a job. “It’s been fun, I enjoy what I am doing, and now this is the fourth generation in my family.”

True cobblers are a dying breed. Back in the day, there were five or six Black shoe cobblers in Milwaukee and Wanda was the only female in the group.

Over the years, Wanda has been recognized for her professionalism and stewardship in the community as president of the Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Shoe Industry, an honorary member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity recipient of numerous certificates of appreciation by the Wanda Scruggs Abundant Life Church of God In Scruggs and Sons Shoe Repair Christ, and most notably the Nationwide Register’s Who’s Who in Executives & Businesses.

Music

Delbert Utsey, Jr. New Hope Baptist Church Delbert Utsey, Jr., works as a Project Manager for Fidelity Information Services, a global company, where he provides digital solutions for banks and mobile devices. He earned a bachelor of science and a master’s of

information science from UW-Milwaukee, along with a master’s in business administration from Marquette University. However, his passion is music.

Delbert began taking piano lessons from a private instructor as a young child, and moved to the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music as he grew towards adulthood.

“When I was about fifteen, my mother came home from church and told me that the Angel Choir needed someone to accompany them, because their musical director was getting married on the same day as their next performance. I felt bad for them, but kind of ignored her and said I wasn’t going to play. My dad spoke up from another room. He said, ‘Oh yeah, you are.’ From then on, I was committed. If they’d accepted my no, I would never have done it.”

His ideas of excellence are based in his faith, and he prays that his music influences the community in a positive way. “I definitely try to seek direction and inspiration so that what I get from God reaches others. I read music, but I work to let go of the notes, so that I can play what I feel, so that I can reach people’s feelings.”

He now appreciates his parents’ (Ella and Delbert Utsey, Sr.) influence on his life as a musician and uses music

to share with other people what he loves. “It really de-stresses me from work,” he said. He plays piano, organ, is teaching himself bass guitar and writes music. He plays often, and really puts hours in when an event or holiday approaches. The Minister of Music at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, Utsey is known for performing free of charge, and is popular around the city.

A high point of his artistic expression came when he submitted a song to the Gospel Music Workshop, where people come from across the country to celebrate Gospel music. His submission, entitled Here Am I was selected to be performed by the Mass Choir at the event.

Delbert plans to continue submitting music for publication and sharing his gifts with the city of Milwaukee.

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

31

30 th Annual Black Excellence Awards Religion

Reverend J. Anthony Phillips Blessed Deliverance Baptist Church J. Anthony Phillips moved to Milwaukee after serving in the U.S. Navy.

His mother was here, caring for her ailing sister. He relocated in order to help, and has never left.

J. Anthony is committed to the city of Milwaukee and is now serving as

the pastor of Blessed Deliverance Baptist Church, after leaving his position as the vice president of human resources for St. Ann’s Center For Intergenerational Care to become a full-time Pastor. “St. Ann’s turned out to be a blessing” he said. “There

Reverend Robert Sims Bethesda Baptist Church The year was 1972 when the Rev. Robert Sims, then just a 34-year-old high school graduate and 15-year veteran machinist with Caterpillar Tractor Co., in Milwaukee, preached to a congregation for the first time.

“My pastor at Providence Baptist Church gave me my first opportunity to preach,” Pastor Sims said.

“I was nervous. I was shaking, but I got through it. I was glad to get the first one over in a way,” he said chuckling.

Pastor Sims began attending church regularly and assisting as an usher in 1969. By 1971, he was convinced that God was calling him to the ordained ministry.

Pastor Sims now leads Bethesda Baptist Church located at 2909 N. 20th St. A congregation he founded and which has grown to include about 250 current members. Pastor Sims’ native roots are not in Milwaukee, however.

Before moving to Milwaukee in 1958, he had spent his entire life in a deeply rural area of Louisiana named Lillie where African-Americans constituted the majority of the population and most

were several people who were suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s who’d come to my office each day just to talk. Even though my job was to work with the staff, it was important to sit with the people who are most affected by the disease, normally parents and their families. That’s who we were there to serve.”

While he was working at St. Ann’s, he learned of pastoral openings at several local churches. He went to meet the congregations with the encouragement of his several members of the clergy. He “fell in love” with the members of Blessed Deliverance and worked at both organizations for six years before becoming a full-time member of the clergy.

“I love people because God loves me. When you’re teaching and preaching in the community, and spending time with people, we with all our shortcomings and flaws are still valuable and beautiful. Seeing that beauty is like touching God.” J. Anthony earned a bachelor’s degree in religion, and a master’s in psychology from Cardinal Stritch University and uses the skills he sharpened there to address community challenges in Milwaukee.

He was recently honored to complete the African American Leadership Program at Cardinal Stritch University ( AALP). He serves on the advisory board at the Dominican Center, an organization that builds central city neighborhoods.

He is a member board of the Intergenerational Council, an organization that works to bridge the gap between generations at six local schools.

J. Anthony has been married to his wife Vernita Phillips for eighteen years, and they are parents to four children: Malcolm, Ryan, Bianca and Tiana. They also have ten grandchildren.

“We love to dote on and guide our grandchildren,” said Pastor Phillips. “I’ve been through hard times, and someone did it for me. Someone looked out for me, and watched after me, and got me back to solid ground. I’m blessed to remember that, and remain humble.”

local residents farmed their own land for a living.

“My parents, MacHenry and Martha Sims always owned their own property.

My father was a farmer and an entrepreneur.”

Pastor Sims said he moved to Milwaukee in his early 20s and has called it home ever since.

“I had an aunt who was already living in Milwaukee,” he said. “I found work right away.”

Within a year he had met and married the late Dorothy Nell Armstrong. The couple raised two daughters who are now adults, Pamela D. Blackmon and Faye L. Sims. Dorothy died in 2008 and the following year Pastor Sims married Etharine Melton.

Even though Pastor Sims was 34 before he stepped into a pulpit for the first time, something came together for him that day. For the next two years he continued to work at Caterpillar while pursuing a certificate of study from the Institute of Theology in Milwaukee. Since receiving his first certificate he has gone on to receive a number of others. In 2004 he received an honorary doctorate from Tennessee School of Religion.

After receiving his first theology certificate in 1974, Pastor Sims set out to begin his own church congregation in his Milwaukee neighborhood.

In 2006 Pastor Sims made another leap of faith; this time with the backing of the Bethesda Church congregation. That year the congregation broke ground on a new $1.5 million facility “in the heart of the inner city in order to make a difference,” Pastor Sims said.

“The facility is all finished now except we are still paying the mortgage on it,” he said.

Pastor Sims said he and the congregation acted in faith that new construction and family friendly activities offered by the congregation would help the local neighborhood find its way back to being a safer, more prosperous place to live and raise a family.

In February, 2012, Pastor Sims received an award for Bethesda Baptist Church from Edward A. Flynn, Chief of the Milwaukee Police Dept. “In Recognition of your efforts Reducing Crime, Fear and Disorder in the City of Milwaukee.”

“Personally I started to notice a decline in our neighborhood in the late 1990s when the jobs started moving away,” Pastor Sims said. “The Great Recession which began in 2007 has been devastating not only for the neighborhood around Bethesda, but it has also been terrible for some of our members.” The majority of members at Bethesda drive to the new church facility from other areas, Pastor Sims said.

Last summer Pastor Sims estimates that Bethesda distributed more than 18,000 meals. Every August the congregation hosts a neighborhood community gathering with soul food.

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The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

30 th Annual Black Excellence Awards Social Service

Jonette N. Arms is the assistant director at the Milwaukee County Department on Aging. Since 2010, she has held this position and is responsible for planning, developing, and administering a coordinated system of services through connectedness and collaboration with existing public and private community agencies. Her attention is on Area Agency on Aging services, special projects, and being an overall major support to the department.

Prior to joining the Milwaukee County Department on Aging, Jonette was employed with the Alliance for Children and Families, Inc., where she led a multimillion dollar national aging initiative focused on inspiring human service professionals to serve, work with, and value the contributions of older adults.

Jonette earned a bachelor of arts degree in health care administration and management communication from Concordia University and a master of science in human services–community counseling psychology from Springfield College. Jonette also received a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business. She has been active as a member of many boards

and associations and believes strongly in community volunteerism. In addition to her work responsibilities, Jonette is involved with UW–Madison Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute–Milwaukee Community Advisory Board and serves as an Ambassador to the Office of Congresswoman Gwen Moore on behalf of the Alzheimer’s Association of Southeastern Wisconsin.

In 1990, when a personal crisis led Jonette to seek employment as a nursing assistant at a local skilled nursing facility, she knew it was not by chance that she had found work with older adults and individuals with developmental disabilities. From the start, she loved being a part of an environment where she could help the residents and found reciprocal support from those she assisted. It was here that helped Jonette gain her passion and love for the contributions offered by older adults.

As years went on and Jonette’s personal and professional life evolved through her return to school and acquiring jobs in different capacities across the human life span, her heart always was and continues to be with working with and on behalf of older adults.

Therefore, when she was offered the opportunity to leave private industry and return to local government to work

at the Milwaukee County Department on Aging, there was never any hesitation in the decision she would make.

Within Jonette’s nearly five years with the Milwaukee County Department on Aging, she has supported the department by leading and coordinating multiple educational events that brought together 200 to 500 individuals to any given occasion.

These premiere events focused on important topics such as Milwaukee County’s first Senior Emergency Preparedness Educational Event in 2011; Senior Voter ID Education Event in 2012; and Intergenerational Symposium in 2013. In response to U.S. Senator Kohl’s retirement at the end of 2012, she spearheaded the Wisconsin Aging Network Senator Herbert H. Kohl Recognition Luncheon to honor him for his many works in the aging community as Chair of the Special Committee on Aging.

Jonette continues to provide leadership and advocacy by successfully writing proposals to procure funding to assist with short and long term departmental initiatives, such as Milwaukee County’s 2012 Face of Aging demographic report and 2014-2015 Dementia Care Specialist Program. Although, Jonette brings an array of talents and skills, she believes that we cannot be successful by ourselves. Everything is accomplished through teamwork and collaboration.

She embodies internal and external cooperation through demonstrated partnerships with older adults, staff, county departments, and community organizations to ensure

Jonette N. Arms, M.S. Milwaukee County Department on Aging events and trainings are implemented, grant proposals are written, and or educational presentations are conducted.

Jonette knows she has not achieved anything without the support of others and that is why she has a spirit to pay it forward whenever possible.

She has the mission of the Milwaukee County Department on Aging embedded in her heart and mind. She lives daily to ensure older adults have independence, can live wherever they would like, and are presented with opportunities to give and be engaged in the Milwaukee community

and beyond.

Jonette yearns to model true servant leadership and be a vessel God can use to enhance the lives of older adults as well as the entire community. Jonette values those who have walked before her as mentors and looks for their guidance to assist her as she develops into a strong leader in the field of aging.

She is the mother of two adult children, Nicole and Earl; and more recently became a grandmother to grandson, Cadience. She is a member of Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church.

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

33

30 th Annual Black Excellence Awards Social Service

Milwaukee native Shaun Robey knew he was meant to help others at a very young age. “People have always confided in me and shared their thoughts and secrets, ” he said. “I knew I was supposed to be in the helping professions”.

A graduate of Milwaukee Hamilton High School, he headed to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater to major in Social Work with this thought in mind. He earned a masters in social work from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, and began working with 3-11 year olds who had been removed from their family of origin by the Bureau of Child Welfare. “At that point we focused on thirty days of stability, ensuring food, clothing, shelter. Health screenings and emotional wellness were the things that we thought about with regard to those kids.”

From there, Shaun became drawn to longer term care, and found his niche in case management. At his current organization, Fresh Start Family Services, he worked initially in mental health therapy, and is now in treatment foster care where he is responsible for the Parent to Parent Program and the Intensive Reunification Program. He works to license those who are interested in being foster parents, and placing children in loving homes. Because foster children succeed most when they are in relationship with their biological families, he encourages foster parents to maintain contact with the family of origin of each child or the sibling groups of the kids in their care. Keeping the child balanced is the priority

of long term care, and Shaun not only trains foster parents on skills to maintain a healthy home environment, but also to connect the children to their culture and biological relatives.

He credits the support of his mother and father, aunt, Quran, LeKeasha, Sunni, and Jermaine for the fortitude he brings to his job every day. He has relied on them over the years to support and understand his life goals, and push him towards them at every turn. Shaun believes that he may have missed out on some material advantages in his upbringing, but was surrounded by friends and family, and felt very rich. Raising his son Quran, has made a contribution to his motivation, as well. “He goes through ordinary, teenaged things. But he represents my lineage, my legacy. So we go through together. And it reminds me of my responsibility to my friends, my community. Kids need someone to be there for them. That’s why I teach classes, and coach, and create resumes.

Young people need to see that there is someone there who will help them. That one thing makes the whole community stronger.”

Shaun serves on the Board of Directors for the National Black Child Development Institute and has worked Shaun Robey on many committees in the interests of children the United States; National Fresh Start Governor’s Association and Governor Doyle’s Wisconsin Summit on Building He has also been a presenter at the Fathers & Bridges to Economic Success, African Americans Families Coalition of America Conference and United for Inclusive Child Welfare Reform, YMCA the Bureau Milwaukee Child Welfare Fatherhood of Metropolitan Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Conference.

Mental Health Task Force.

Black Health Coalition of Wisconsin, Inc. present’s

Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of

MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY

CONGRATULATES OUR BLACK EXCELLENCE HONOREE

Kick Off Event Sunday March 1st, 2015

DELBERT UTSEY, Grad ’93

2944 North 9th Street Milwaukee, WI 53206

Pastor Richard Shaw FREE Dinner 2pm -3pm · Service 3pm - 5pm For more information or how your church can participate please contact: Jim Addison or Shana Brown at (414) 933-0064 Or email: jaddison@bhcw.org / sbrown@bhcw.org

Black Health Coalition of Wisconsin, Inc. 3020 W. Vliet Street · Milwaukee, WI 53208 P: 414.933.0064 F: 414.933.0084 Website: www.bhcw.org

BHCW

CAN LOVE CONQUER STIGMA?

34

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

30 th Annual Black Excellence Awards Sports

Since 1988 Michael Goodwin has served as the official time keeper for all Milwaukee Bucks’ home games, a part-time job that has enabled him to travel the world as a member of the NBA franchiez.

Michael retired recently from his full-time job after 33 years selling wholesale wine and spirits.

This has allowed him to greatly increase the amount of time he dedicates to working with youth, especially as a coach.

Sports, coaching and mentoring has been a part of Michael Goodwin’s life for practically his entire life. Growing up in the Barryland Housing Projects on Milwaukee northwest side during the 1950s was by no means a negative experience, according to Michael.

“It wasn’t ‘low-income housing’,” he said.

“It was for military families. On my [neighborhood] block just about everyone had a mother and father living at home.”

During the Great Depression, Michael’s father, Ed “Goody” Goodwin, caught the eye of Dorcus Dandridge. Ed soon quit the Haarlem Globetrotters. The couple married and Ed took a job working for the city of Milwaukee.

During the time Michael and his family lived in Barryland, his family was one of only three African American households. When he was 10 his parents bought a house on the north side.

For a while after his marriage “Goody”

drove a taxi and continued to play semi-pro basketball in a league in Fond du Lac. In 1968 he happened to be in the right place at the right time and wound up being offered a job with the Milwaukee Bucks, a new NBA expansion team. “Goody” died of a heart attack in 1971, shortly after the Bucks won their only NBA Championship.

Sixteen years later when Michael was leaving the Bradley Center after ProAm basketball practice, he ran into the chief statistician of the Bucks and the two men recognized each other from their earlier time together. It turned out the Bucks were doing auditions for timekeepers. On the spot Michael decided to give it a try and achieved the highest score. He also knew all the nuances of the rule book from his years of work as a coach and referee.

He served 15 years with the Milwaukee Aarea Technical College basketball program, including 1995-2000 as head coach.

He continues to organize camps “geared towards athletic exposure and recruitment to colleges and universities.”

“I’ve been truly blessed working with the Bucks,” Michael said. Opportunities, like working for the Bucks, would not have come his way, he said, without the patient mentoring he received when he was a young man.

“I’ve been blessed in my life to work with great coaches,” he said. “When I first went back to Rufus King High School (his alma mater) as a varsity assistant under Jim Gordon and later Jim Gosz from 1980-1992, I learned a lot about leading young men.”

Annie Jones Retired MPS Educator It’s not just a 30-plus year career with the Milwaukee Public Schools that should be honored, but while teaching and in administration at MPS, Annie Jones found time for serving the church and the community at a high level outside the classroom.

Annie retired from MPS in 2005 after serving as

an assistant principal at Rufus King IB High School, guidance supervisor at the central office, guidance director and counselor at Riverside University High School and Custer High School, and teaching at Custer High School and Roosevelt Jr. High School. She also started a behavioral disability program for special needs children at a junior high school is currently part-time at Milwaukee Area Technical College as a GED Orientation instructor.

“I worked limitlessly to afford students the opportunity to succeed and staff and parents the opportunity to grow,” she said.

Outside the walls of higher education, Annie was selected as Delta Dear of the Year this year.

She has been a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority since her days at Lane College in Jackson, TN. Delta Dears are for sorority members over age 62. Annie has held most of the committee positions with the Milwaukee sorority chapter as well as represented Milwaukee at the national convention.

Her love of tennis continues with a position with The United

Michael Goodwin Milwaukee Bucks “To work with young men who haven’t had many positive male figures in their life… it forces me to wear two different hats as a coach,” he said. “Not only are you teaching them basketball, in some ways you are also a father figure and a friend. Every kid is different and the challenge is to unlock what motivates a particular individual to be successful.”

Michael and his wife, Rhoda have been married for 35 years and are the parents of three grown children. The family attends Parklawn Assembly of God Church on the corner of Sherman and Roosevelt.

Sports Club, Inc., a tennis organization that mostly serves children and youth. She works in fundraising for the group and put together a winter indoor tennis program for about 30 women. They play every Sunday after church.

Annie is a member of St. Mark A.M.E. Church where she is co-director of the evangelism ministry and has held countless positions with the church, including teaching vacation bible school and putting together the church’s drug and alcohol program. She was recently named “Someone You Should Know” by the lay organization of the church and will be honored for that at an April dinner in Illinois.

“Jesus Christ is the strength, center and anchor of my life,” she said. “I have a passion for spread-

ing the gospel of Jesus Christ to children and adults so that they will know about salvation which is offered to them.”

Annie has also served for more than two decades on the board of Transitions: Men of Tomorrow-a mentoring program for boys and youth based out of St. Mark AME Church. There she served as secretary and treasurer and helped write curriculum for the program.

Annie was born and raised in Tennessee, where most of her family still lives.

Her hobbies include travelling, playing tennis, organizing other people’s homes, and proof reading.

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

35

30 th Annual Black Excellence Awards Volunteerism

LaDora Rabon Milwaukee Exposure & Explorer Project LaDora Rabon, her parents, brother and sister moved from Mississippi to Milwaukee to escape the tyranny of the life of a sharecropper. Some extended family members already lived in Milwaukee and that helped the young family make the transition to city life a little easier. Both of LaDora’s parent’s found jobs fairly soon and the family

Retired educator Lilly Simmons and four siblings grew up in Houma, LA, which is about a 45-minute drive from New Orleans, the city where Lilly was actually born.

“I was always a bookish child, recalls Lilly.

“Reading was always my favorite pastime.”

Lilly and her husband did not relocate to Milwaukee until after the birth of their first son in 1959.

“My older sister was already here, so we came to live with her at first,” she said. Lilly’s husband worked in local foundry. After a short time living with her sister, Lilly and her husband qualified for a mortgage and purchased a house in a neighborhood that Lilly recalls as being racially and culturally diverse, certainly not anything close to the 98 percent African-American population cited for that neighborhood according to some recently published reports around debate about allocating funding for education in Wisconsin.

While growing up LaDora harbored a secret dream of owning her own business, but being the mother of 10 children, it was not very realistic project to undertake until the last of her children moved out in the late 1990s.

“I worked in the home and as a volunteer,” LaDora recalls of the time when her own children were young. “I also took in a lot of foster children, sometimes four children at a time. Some of the children we agreed to take in [child protective services] considered hard to place even short term. It was very challenging, but also very rewarding. I felt called to reach out to those who had no home or were wards of the state.”

“I feel so blessed that I was able to make a difference in so many young lives,” she said. “Some of those foster children went on to graduate from college.”

Once the last of their children had moved out, Melvin and LaDora founded Safeway Transportation, a medical transportation service which helps disabled, low-income patients arrive for doctor’s appointments and medical procedures safely and on time.

It is a member of the Dependable Care Transport, Inc. Network of Milwaukee.

The couple began about 15 years ago with one van. LaDora said working as a business partner with her husband could be stressful at times, but the couple persisted.

Now they have a fleet of five.

Both Melvin and LaDora transferred day-to-day management of the business over to their son about three years ago. The decision was made in part so that the couple could devote more time to volunteer work in their community. Melvin and LaDora have also have a daughter who worked for a while in the family business, but now enjoys a successful career in banking.

LaDora, who was born in 1934, could looks like she might be only about 60. The Lincoln High School graduate certainly demonstrates the energy and tenacity of a much younger woman.

Even before all of her children had moved out and started lives of their own, LaDora began volunteering with youth and children at Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church, a congregation the family has attended for about 40 years.

About four years ago, LaDora met Lilly Simmons, a woman with a dream of setting up a program at Milwaukee Public Schools

to bring in professional African Americans in order to inspire her students to dream bigger and work hard to get the best education they can by having the adults talk with the students about how to succeed and how to avoid the many pitfalls that stand in the way of success.

The program begun by her friend, Lilly, is called Milwaukee Exposure & Explorer Project. LaDora said she primarily volunteers at two schools: the Dr. Benjamin Carson Academy of Math and Science and Bryant Elementary School.

“Last week we had a police officer, a doctor, a nurse and several other professional people come in,” she said. “We try to have at least several professional people come in each week.”

The project, which the pastor at Pilgrim Rest strongly supported, first began to take shape about the time that LaDora and Melvin were thinking of retiring from the family business. She estimates that she devotes several hours a week to helping line up the speakers and helping with other logistics.

She said she got involved because her pastor supported it.

“This is my church and this was what I decided I was going to do with my time after retirement.”

nization dedicated to helping elementary students obtain real-world exposure to careers which they can pursue.

“The reason why I started MEEP, was while working with MPS and the GED program. I observed the frustration among a number of adults who had gone back and obtained their GED, but were still unsure about what type of career they wanted to pursue,” Lilly said. “There was a lack of awareness and access to opportunities that were available to them. I wanted to show them that there are many paths available to them and expose them to them.

Lilly said that before she went public with the Milwaukee Exposure & Explorer Project, she The couple raised a total of three children: two talked it over with her pastor, Reverend Martin girls and a boy. Lilly waited until her youngest Childs, Jr., who has personally been very supportchild was 20 years old before she enrolled at the ive of the program and with his blessing “Pilgrim University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She received Rest has been very supportive,” Lilly said. “They have turned it almost into like a ministry,” she said, her BA in elementary education. “but it isn’t quite that.”

For the next five years she taught 6th grade at When she first started the program she said she Parkman Middle School for seven years, and at 27th St. School for 15 years. In 1998 she accepted worked more hours, but that now her volunteer a position with Milwaukee Area Technical College work week typically averages out to about 15-20 (MATC), and for 15 years helped young adults hours. However in recent years, Lilly has gained overcome the obstacles to earning a high school help in organizing and promoting the project. equivalency diploma (HSED). She retired in 2013. Friend LaDora Rabon has helped Lilly coordinate the program, primarily at Dr. Benjamin Carson In 2009 Lilly began Milwaukee Exposure & Academy of Math and Science and Bryant ElExplorer Project (MEEP), a not-for-profit orga- ementary School.

Lilly Simmons Milwaukee Exposure & Explorer Project Lilly has put a great deal of herself into the project.

She has the enthusiasm and faith of an evangelist but her message is a secular one when she talks about the Milwaukee Exposure & Explorer Project and the difference that it might make in the future of one of its participants.

36

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

Our mission is what brings us together.

WHEATON FRANCISCAN HEALTHCARE CONGRATULATES ERNEST W. COLBURN 2015 Corporate Trailblazer Award Honoree More than 125 years ago, the Wheaton Franciscan Sisters created an organization dedicated to the belief that every life is sacred and that all people should be treated with humanity.

Today, with 12,000 doctors, nurses, and associates working together, we believe it is still what sets us apart. Making Our Community Stronger. Healthier. Better.

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The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

The mission of Leon L. Williamson Funeral Home is to provide the highest level of dignified, personal service as we facilitate the celebration of lives and memories of loved ones. We commit ourselves to fulfilling the entrusted requests of our families to their absolute satisfaction.

We promise to offer guidance and assistance as final decisions are made for the celebrations of life. We commit ourselves to maintaining a warm and comfortable environment in which families and friends may grieve their loss.

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The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Photo By Lynda Jackson Conyers

An NCON Publication

COMMUNITY COLUMN

UWM speaker encourages students to join space program Would you like to be part of America’s space program?

University of WisconsinMilwaukee students recently had a chance to hear from a top NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) official about opportunities with the agency.

M. David Kankam, of NASA’s Glenn Research Center (GRC), spoke to students and faculty in January about internships, scholarships, fellowships and summer programs with the space agency. He even collected a few resumes from interested students at a Summer Opportunities Fair.

Like many other agencies relying on talent in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields, NASA is interested in diversifying its workforce.

“We’re interested in increasing diversity in our workforce,” said Kankam, as NASA competes with businesses and other engineering and scientific agencies for talented students and graduates. “We want to get more students from underrepresented groups coming into the pipeline through NASA

Students chatting with David Kankam at the Summer Opportunities event. internships, fellowships and scholarships.”

In the morning, he spoke to students in UWM’s WiscAMP (Wisconsin Alliance for Minority Participation) program, a UW-System initiative that provides academic supports and mentoring to underrepresented students STEM fields.

As University Affairs Officer, Kankam is responsible for directing the NASA Space and Aeronautics Academies at Glenn and for

research collaborations with universities. The bulk of the opportunities at NASA are in STEM fields, he said.

Through its programs at nine centers in the United States and its Jet Propulsion Lab, NASA offers multiple opportunities to students, Kankam said. “You can apply to as many as 15 projects, or what we call opportunities,” he said. “Conceivably, you can get three or four offers, depending on the needs of the different centers…then

you are in the driver’s seat as to which one you want to respond to.”

He advised students interested in programs to go https://intern.nasa.gov to start the process. (Summer internship application deadline is March 1, but other opportunities are available with different deadlines). “NASA spends a lot of money on education to replenish the workforce. It is taxpayer money spent wisely to develop people,” he said.

He encouraged UWM students in STEM fields to stick with their programs and graduate. Whatever a student area of scientific interest and expertise, there is likely to be a NASA opportunity that fits, he said.

“We have some unique programs that allow work on hands-on projects. You just have to know where to go to look for the information.

Articulate on your resume the skills that match the opportunity you’re looking for.

We are looking for the next generation of scientists and engineers to replenish the STEM workforce.”

Keaunis Grant, a UWM

biomedical sciences major, said he found the presentation very helpful. “Providing actual links/websites helped me to remember how to get the information for review later. The explanation of the various programs available helped me to have a better understanding of the programs.” While is current academic plans are set, he added “I am very interested in applying for one of the scholarships or internships. I think they are great opportunities to learn and apply what we are learning at the university.”

An electrical engineer who has served NASA as a senior research engineer and acting chief of the Electromechanical Systems Branch, Kankam said he was attracted to his career because he was educated at schools with strong programs and teachers in the sciences and mathematics.

“Education has always been very, very strong in my family,” he said. Born and raised in Ghana, he is the ninth of 11 children and was inspired by his teachers, parents and the example of his siblings. “They were role models.”

Come see What Is Possible here.

If you are a Medical Assistant who wants to work in a friendly, advanced environment with many career options, consider joining us at Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin Community Physicians. With more than 30 free-standing outpatient clinics throughout southeastern Wisconsin, we offer the potential to build your career while helping strengthen the health of our communities. Learn more at our upcoming:

Online Career Mixer for Medical Assistants Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin Community Physicians March 10, 2015 • 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Link to register: https://app.brazenconnect.com/events/froedtert-health-career-fair Join Froedtert Health as a Medical Assistant, and be part of a wellrespected community of professionals. Here, you’ll enjoy the numerous advantages of a career with a health care leader, including: • Flexible hours • Work/life balance – most positions are Monday-Friday • Variety of opportunities • Strong physician/staff partnership • Longevity of staff • Supportive professional environment

froedtert.com/careers © 2015 NAS (Media: delete copyright notice)

Milwaukee Times 3.875" x 6" 4-color

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

The Signs are There.

So is the Help.

PRO GAM BLEM B LING 1-80 0-GAM

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If you or someone close to you has a gambling problem, deep down you may know it. You’ve seen the signs. Always thinking about it. Spending household money. Chasing losses with more gambling. Not being able to set limits and stick to them. It’s a compulsion that can have a devastating effect on family, finances, work…every aspect of life.

The road to recovery is a call or a click away.

Call the Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-GAMBLE-5 (1-800-426-2535) or visit wi-problemgamblers.org. ®

©2014 Wisconsin Lottery

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The Milwaukee Times Weekly

MPS: Op Ed. In just a few weeks, the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau will unveil its view of the financial impact of Governor Scott Walker’s proposed biennial budget.

Educators around Wisconsin already have a clear idea of the impact the Governor’s budget will have on education, and it’s devastating. The Governor’s proposed budget cuts $150 of per pupil aid in the first year of his budget for a total reduction of $127 million to school districts in the state.

In addition to this straight cut, school districts also will not receive any inflationary increase to help manage increasing costs. For Milwaukee Public Schools, the per pupil cut decreases funding by $12.1 million and the lack of inflationary increases amounts to another $11 million for a total reduction

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

Standing up for students

Michael Bonds, Ph.D. of $23.1 million in funding from the current school year.

This week the Milwaukee Board of School Directors will consider an important statement on behalf of the children of Milwaukee. MPS Board member Larry Miller, who represents Board District 5, is sponsoring a resolution to make sure Governor Walker and the Wisconsin

Legislator know about the concerns the Milwaukee Board of School Directors has about the Governor’s proposed budget.

Director Miller’s resolution points out how MPS will be harmed by the Governor’s plan and the dollars that would be lost at a critical time when MPS is making progress improving student achievement.

The resolution also makes an important observation, one that other districts are also making – Governor Walker never mentioned the cut to public schools during his budget address, which was televised across the state of Wisconsin. Governor Walker did note the state will allocate $319 in school-levy credits and increased general aid. But because there is no corresponding increase in the

revenue limit, these dollars won’t be available for schools to meet increasing educational costs. The dollars will help to lower property taxes about $5 a year for the average homeowner, but this slight reduction comes at the expense of maintaining and building quality educational systems for Wisconsin’s future.

In Director Miller’s resolution, which I will support, the Board will join with other school districts and strongly

encourage the Governor and the Wisconsin State Legislature to increase funding for public education. This would mean restoring the cuts the Governor has proposed and providing for inflationary revenue increases in both years of the biennial budget. Other school districts around the state are also drafting similar resolutions expressing their concern and calling on legislators to restore adequate funding to public schools.

Already some legislators, including Republican members of the Governor’s own party, have balked at these cuts to public education. We would ask these representatives to do more than be concerned. We need these legislators to listen to the voice of board members, parents and students around Wisconsin and act to restore adequate funding to public schools.

Strong public schools in Milwaukee neighborhoods make MPS a great district for our city! ] Neighborhood and specialty schools that provide more than one dozen programs that include the arts, International Baccalaureate (IB), language immersion, aquaponics and the nation’s largest public school Montessori footprint ] Four high schools among the 15 best in the state according to U.S. News & World Report ] College Access Centers support students as they prepare for college and guide them through the admissions and financial aid process, helping 2014 graduates to earn more than $31 million in scholarships ] Project Lead The Way exposes students to engineering and biomedical sciences in more than 30 schools ] GE Foundation Demonstration Schools model innovative implementation of the Common Core State Standards ] Learning Journeys connect classroom learning to real-world experiences at the area’s finest cultural and scientific venues

Start. Stay. Succeed. mpsmke.com/EnrollMPS ©2015 Milwaukee Public Schools

MkeTimesAd_9.875x8_March2015.indd 1

2/23/15 4:04 PM

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

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Celebrating Unnamed Heroes By: Gerard Randall

Chair, African American Council Serving the Community for Republican Party of Wisconsin Over 50 Years

Black History Month provides us an opportunity to celebrate our culture and history in a meaningful way. During this time, it is important that we honor those who have challenged the status quo and served as a catalyst for change in our community. As a result of their determination and perseverance, new generations of African Americans are achieving unprecedented social and economic success.

Leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Frederick Douglass, and Rosa Parks will forever be recognized for shaping history. They took principled stands in the face of fierce opposition, and in turn, permanently changed the course of American society. Without them, the world as we know it may have looked very different than it does today.

But, it’s the unnamed heroes making a difference in our communities each and every day who deserve recognition, as well. These silent champions of civil rights include mothers, fathers, sons and daughters who volunteer their time and resources in a continued fight against injustice and inequality.

Their dedication and sacrifice captures the true spirit of what we celebrate during Black History Month.

The Republican Party humbly honors these unsung heroes, as well as the champions of freedom who came before them. Freedom and equality for all Americans remains at the forefront of the Republican Party’s mission.

Our policies and initiatives strive to give every American the opportunity to realize the American Dream.

Republicans of all backgrounds and beliefs are working to deliver a Wisconsin that is more free and more prosperous than the one we inherited.

While celebrating Black History Month, we must stand together in pursuit of a brighter future for ALL of Wisconsin’s sons and daughters.

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The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

FEBRUARY - MARCH ANNOUNCEMENTS Happy Birthday Salutes!

Wishing You All The Best!

February 1st Karen M. Ingram Jayvion Fumbanks February 2nd Donald Driver Hannah Ivy February 3rd Frances Brown Evelyn Glover Evelyn Blake February 4th Yashika Grades JaRon Williams Cleveland Hathaway Christine Pearson February 5th Kylah Lyons February 6th Lauren Smith Mark Phillips February 7th Beniee A. Randle Trynail Banks

February 10th Bertha Thompson February 12th Stacy D. Ingram Kieva Smith February 13th Terry Taylor February 14th Angel T. Fumbanks Vicki Chamberlain February 16th Tony Chamberlain February 17th Kim Lyons Tony J. Thompson

ATTENTION

February 20th Mable Taylor Channing M. Williams

Did you apply for a position as an Economic Support Specialist with Waukesha County

February 21st Nia Fizpatrick

at any time within the last six years? Did you also take an exam as part of the hiring process?

February 23rd Chole Ann Taylor Bryanna Barnes February 24th Janice Williams February 26th Geraldine Walker Sandrene Watts

IF SO, A LAWYER IN MADISON WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK WITH YOU.

February 27th Louis Davis, Jr. February 28th Louis Taylor, Jr.

Push/Pull or Drag in for Extra Cash!

February 19th Andrew Green, Sr. Gloria Hunt Ellen Fumbanks

Please call 608-833-2632 and ask for the lawyer working on the Matthews case.

Also mention this ad.

February 8th Emily Davis

Do you have a friend, family member, or colleague who has just celebrated or is about to celebrate a birthday? Stop by our office with their name on Monday to get them in that week’s edition of Happy Birthday Salutes! Visit us at 1936 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, call us at (414) 263-5088 or e-mail them to miltimes@ gmail.com.

238582006

Buying Or Fixing Up A Home In Jefferson, Ozaukee, Washington or Waukesha County?

We Can Help!

North Division High School Seeks Volunteer Tutors The North Division High School Alumni Association is seeking volunteers to tutor students in reading and math. Tutoring will take place after school from 4:00- 5:00 p.m. Tutors are asked to commit at least one day per week from February through May. We need assistance from the community in order to help our students succeed. If interested, please contact Jim Smith at jsmithmiltimes@gmail. com or at 414-267-5101 .

imes Presen eT ts The

Bl

ack

E x c ell

ce

Aw

Annual

ards

ke

The Milwa

u

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

en

The 2015 Black Excellence Awards would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of a great group of positive and motivated staff and volunteers.

They are:

2015 Black Excellence Committee: Lynda Jackson Conyers Shirley Sharp Brenda Sheppard Nelson Dawn Jackson Pam Clarke Sherry Hill 2015 Black Excellence Project Manager: Jacquelyn Heath 2015 Black Excellence Staff Writers: Evelyn Patricia Terry Michelle Dobbs Steve Waring Jacquelyn Heath Carmen Murguia The Milwaukee Times Staff: George Neal Terry Taylor William S. Gooden Michelle Anibas Angel Reyes Willie Mitchell Robert Bell Yvonne Kemp George W. Bryant Pat Simmons Doug Hissom Jaye Syc A Special Thank-you to our Volunteers from the Milwaukee Urban League The entire 2015 Black Excellence Team would also like to extend our sincerest gratitude to the members of our community including the businesses, churches, media, and local leaders who have supported our event over the years.

Thank You!

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

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The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

ADVOCATE – (7580% time) Milwaukee office of statewide disability advocacy organization to represent people with disabilities in special education and related matters. Handle individual cases, participate in systems advocacy and support special education advocacy. Go to www.disabilityrightswi. org or 414-773-4646 for position description and application requirements. Salary DOE & excellent fringe benefits.

Scheduling is somewhat flexible with possibility of summers off. Deadline: 3/16/15 Members of racial/ethnic minority groups and persons with disabilities encouraged to apply. EEO/ AA employer.

“Excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism.”

-Oprah Winfrey

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Walgreens 2826 N. MLKing Dr. 2222 W. Capitol Dr. 2727 W. North Ave. 4808 N. Hopkins St. 7171 N. Teutonia 76th & Mill Rd. LENA’S 4061 North 54th St. (Midtown) 4623 W. Burleigh Ave. 2322 W. Oak St. 4030 N. Teutonia Dr. Libraries Washington Park Library Central Library (Downtown) Banks Columbia Savings 2000 W. Fond du Lac Ave. Seaway Bank 2102 W. Fond du Lac Ave. BMO Harris Bank 2745 N. MLKing Dr. North Milwaukee State Bank 5630 W. Fond du Lac Ave. Pick’N Save 2355 N. 35th Street 5700 W. Capitol Dr. 7401 W. Good Hope Rd. Other Locations Dismuke Insurance Agency 8201 W. Capitol Dr. City Hall 200 E. Wells St. The Milwaukee Times Offices 1936 N. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. Or visit our website at: http://milwaukeetimesnews.com/ to download a free PDF version of this weeks paper.

Also be sure to visit your local churches to get your copy of The Milwaukee Times Weekly Newspaper.

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

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The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication

ATTENTION Did you apply for a position as an Economic Support Specialist with Waukesha County at any time within the last six years? Did you

15

also take an exam as part of the hiring process?

for $5.00

IF SO, A LAWYER IN MADISON WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK WITH YOU. Please call 608-833-2632 and ask for the lawyer working on the Matthews case.

Also mention this ad.

1. Snickers'™ Cake 2. Devil Filled Eggs 3. Spaghetti Meatball Pie 4. Chop Suey 5. Pork Chop and Potato Casserole 6. Hamburger Potato Casserole 7. Hamburger Pie 8. Sweet Potato Casserole 9. Turkey Breast with Chipotle Sauce 10. Cajun Kidney Bean Chili 11. Lemon Fish with Puree of Sweet Peas 12. Spicy Black Bean Burrito 13. 10 Minute Fruit & Cheese Salad 14. Buttermilk Pie 15. Shepherds' Pie Send $5.00 check or Money Order to: RPM Enterprise P.O. Box 64304 Milwaukee, WI 53204

The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

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The Milwaukee Times Weekly

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Wednesday, March 4, 2015

An NCON Publication