I am a native Mississippian who lived in Iowa and Maryland before making my home in the Research Triangle (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill) of North Carolina. Currently, I have the privilege of directing the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture at Duke University.  A position I have held since October 2005.  

I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Bucknell University (Lewisburg, PA) with minors in African American Studies and Education.  This experience taught me to, “[r]efuse the awful temptation to scale down [my] dreams to the level of the event, which is [my] immediate experience” (Howard Thurman).  Following this experience, I completed a Master of Arts degree in Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC).  This experience taught me perseverance. The thesis project that ultimately allowed me to earn by degree was about African American Women and the Challenges of Welfare Reform.  Additionally, I completed the Certificate Program in Meeting and Event Planning at University of North Carolina at Charlotte (Charlotte, NC).

For over twenty-five years, I have worked in university settings teaching college and university students and coordinating programs that would enhance their collegiate experience.  I have taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, Durham Technical Community College and the North Carolina Correctional Institute for Women.  Specifically, my professional expertise lies in three areas: (1) instructing, training and mentoring young scholars; (2) program development; and (3) the application of knowledge of Black history and culture. Prior to assuming my current position, I worked as the program coordinator at the Institute of African American Research (IAAR) at UNC-CH.  In this position, I facilitated both the substantive and logistical planning for the programmatic thrust of the IAAR including arranging presentations by both national and international scholars. Prior to this, I worked at the Carolina Women’s Center and helped to design the Better Options for Leadership Development (BOLD) Program for women. 

I have spent my life trying to ‘act that I bring myself in steady contact with the highest excellence I know, for the soul grows by what it touches,’ to paraphrase noted educator and theologian D. Elton Trueblood.  I have advised business plan teams of high school and college students via Independent Means’ Camp $tart Up, the Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) Program in Business and Duke’s Hart Leadership Program respectively as well as women transitioning from welfare to work via Bridges:  A “Soft Skills” Training Program, an initiative of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise.  With Bridges, I was responsible for all aspects of this personal and professional life skills program designed to help African American women change their lives as they transitioned from welfare to work.

In recent years, I have continued to develop skills that will ultimately lead to my achieving interior freedom.  Activities that I am currently involved in include Koru Mindfulness as a Teacher in Training and advancing my understanding and use of the TOP (Technology of Participation) approach to facilitation and strategic planning.