Audre
Lorde Scholarship Fund:
2007 Sponsors
Tony Daniels Community Ally Award
Anthony C. Daniels (1965 – 1998), was one of Atlanta’s most
powerful organizers and activists. Daniels was a founder of In The
Life Atlanta, Inc., of ADODI Muse, Inc., and of the Black Lesbian
& Gay Poets Society. This scholarship is funded by ADODI Muse,
Inc: A Gay Negro Ensemble, the black gay male performance
poets’ collective. Muse members, Duncan E. Teague, Malik M.L. Williams
and Anthony Antoine specifically recognize Daniels’ work to build bridges
across diverse communities. |
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Wendy Belkin was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She took her last
accounting final in August, 1979, got in her car, and drove to
Atlanta. She has been here ever since. Belkin practices law and
accounting in her own small practice in Decatur and has been a
long supporter of Charis Books, Charis Circle and ZAMI. She is an
amateur astronomer and photographer. |
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Jerrald Lynn Boswell Memorial Award
Jerrald Lynn Boswell (1965-2001) was a passionate pianist, composer, vocalist,
and poet. He was an alumnus of the University of Alabama-
Birmingham(UAB) Honors Program where he later taught and
edited Honors Program publications. In 2003, UAB expressed
appreciation for Jerrald’s life and work by establishing the Jerrald Boswell
Endowed Support Fund. This Audre Lorde Scholarship is being funded by Collette Strother, Ada Long, Laura Brooks and K.M. Griffin. |
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| Laura Brooks attended Western Illinois University and has spent
the majority of her career in corporate administration. Laura is a
self-professed activist for racial justice in her workplace. She was
an important player in instituting a Black History Month
celebration at the branch of her present company. Laura currently
resides in Roanoke, Virginia, and describes herself as a SOUL
(Slightly Older Unique Lesbian) with a wickedly good sense of humor. |
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| Linda Bryant, co-founder of Charis Books and Charis Circle, has
been lovingly involved with ZAMI since its inception. Her formal
education is in English from the University of Florida and in
theology from the Candler School of Theology at Emory, but her
life lessons come from her years of daily engagement with the
wonderfully diverse and committed community she meets at
Charis, from her long-term love with Wendy Belkin, and from being a parent
and now grandparent. Bryant's desire to serve Spirit with integrity and grace is
at the heart of her life. |
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| Sheryl Burke is a Personal Injury Attorney who operates her own
law practices based in Georgia and California. Burke, a native of
Los Angeles, California, is a graduate of St. Louis University Law
School and is a member of the National and Georgia Trial
Lawyers’ Associations. |
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| Cherie Caldwell is Managing Director, Human Resources at
Delta Air Lines, Inc. Caldwell has global responsibility for Talent
Acquisition, Retention and Diversity for the fastest growing
international passenger airline carrier. She is accountable for
building global strategies and implementing programs to optimize
the hiring and retention of critical and diverse talent. Caldwell graduated
with honors from the University of Maryland where she majored in Human
Resources Management. She currently holds a professional SPHR certification
and lives in Atlanta. |
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Mandy Carter Social Justice Organizing Award
Mandy Carter, a self-described southern out black lesbian social
justice activist, has worked in multi-racial, multi-issue grassroots
organizing for the last 39 years. In 1993, she co-founded
Southerners On New Ground whose purpose is to build
a progressive movement across the South by developing
transformative models of organizing that connect race, class, culture, gender,
and sexuality identity. Carter was a Nobel Peace Prize nominee as part of the “1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005” to recognize, make visible and
celebrate the impressive and valuable, yet often invisible peace work of thousands
of women around the world. She lives in Durham, North Carolina. This
award is funded by Germaine Curtin, owner of Germaine Curtin &
Associates, Attorneys at Law—a practice limited to business matters. She is
admitted to practice before the New York, California, North Carolina and
Georgia Bars. Ms. Curtin received her B.A. degree from the State University
of New York at Albany and her J.D. degree from Albany Law School of Union
University. She currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia. |
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Kerrie Cotten Williams & Brenda S. Banks
Kerrie Cotten Williams is the Archivist for the Auburn Avenue
Research Library on African American Culture and History. She
has a range of experience as a researcher and preservation assistant
with rare books and manuscripts and has taught university-level
courses in U.S. History, African-American History and Expository
Writing. Cotten Williams works with individuals and organizations to make
certain that their stories are remembered and retold. Brenda S. Banks is an
independent archives consultant whose current projects include serving as
managing archivist for the Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection,
project manager for SOLINET’s Gulf Coast Academic Library Recovery Project,
and senior project archivist for the Audre Lorde Collection at Spelman College.
Banks is a graduate of Spelman College where she received a B.A. in history
and has a Masters in Library and Information Science, with a concentration in
archival management, from Atlanta University. |
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Sarah Crymes and Rhonda Freeman
Sarah Crymes is a business woman specializing in healthcare
administration (MBA/MHSA from University of Michigan). Her
passion is building lesbian and feminist communities in Atlanta.
She is currently serving as board chair for Charis Circle and
previously served as board chair for Fourth Tuesday. Rhonda Freeman,
Ph.D., is an engineer who loves all things related to math and science. She
also loves her home state of Florida, poodles, swimming and her family. She
has been known to have an obsession with puzzles. |
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| Fourth Tuesday is a diverse, non-profit organization serving the
LGBT community in Atlanta and the Southeast. It has been
dedicated to providing a safe, caring, and welcoming environment
for business networking and social events for over 20 years. |
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| David Gillespie is Vice-President of Talent, Training, and
Development for Cengage Learning, a publisher of college
textbooks. He graduated with a BBA from Texas A&M University
and with a MEd from the University of Georgia. In 1997, Gillespie
moved from Dallas to Atlanta, and started his involvement in the
fight for equality through work with the Human Rights Campaign.
He served on HRC's Board of Governors from 1999 to 2003, and as the chair
of the national diversity committee from 2002-2003. In 2000, David began his
work with CHRIS Kids, and helped raise money for the creation of the Rainbow
Program, a home for runaway LGBTQ teens. |
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| K.M. Griffin is a native of Louisiana, and graduate of Louisiana
State University. She has worked over 15 years in the energy and
utility industries, where she currently serves as a manager in the
area of Legal and Regulatory Compliance. Griffin makes her
home in a suburb of Atlanta where she is an advocate for the
elderly and works tirelessly on HIV/AIDS issues. |
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| Angelina Huguely is a native of Kentucky and graduate of Eastern
Kentucky University. She is an occupational therapist and has
practiced in settings ranging from pediatric to geriatric populations.
In addition to being a health care professional, Huguely has been
a saxophonist since elementary school. She enjoys all music genres,
but receives greatest satisfaction while performing gospel. Huguely
resides in Richmond, Ky. |
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Sandra Jones & Ronald Moore
Sandra B. Jones, Ph.D. is from Houston, Texas. Her professional
career has been national and international. She provided clinical
practice in pediatrics at Ben Taub Hospital in Houston, Texas;
academic teaching at the University of Colorado Health Sciences
Center; research at the Colorado Sickle Cell Research and
Treatment Center; and international work in Japan and Kuwait
University. She is currently at the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention managing cooperative agreements with
departments of education at the state and local level implementing
HIV/AIDS prevention programs in schools. Her passion is health
literacy among children and adolescents. Ronald Moore recently retired from
Hewlett Packard after 26 years in a myriad of roles focused mostly in human
resources. He presently works with the Kimberly-Clark Company as its Diversity
and Inclusion Director. Moore has been involved in various Metro Atlanta
organizations, including the Board of Directors of the Atlanta Chamber of
Commerce, Southwest Medical Center, and Project Open Hand (serving meals
to people living with HIV / critical illnesses). A native of Detroit, Michigan,
Ronald received a B.A. - Communications, an M.A. - Counseling, and a M.A. -
Labor and Industrial Relations—all from Michigan State University. He resides
in Atlanta, Georgia. |
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| Ada Long is an emeritus professor of English and, from 1983 to
2004, was founding director of the university-wide honors program
at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her finest creation
was the UAB Honors Program, which proved that students from
all backgrounds, ages, races, interests, politics, and religions can
learn, teach, and thrive together. In July of 2004, she retired to
an island off the Florida panhandle, which—except for all the water—is just
like Alabama. |
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The Margaret Ntombi Howell Power & Presence Memorial Award
Margaret Ntombi Howell (1951-2003) Ntombi as a national
spokesperson, transformed the concept of recovery
into a universal human experience for all people.
She was an advocate and activist for the rights of women, people
of color and the poor. This award is funded by Rhesa Jenkins and Ama Saran. Rhesa Jenkins is a Stanford educated scientist
with a commitment to continuous education in community
settings, such as CAU and ANDP’s Ford Foundation program in Community
Economic Development. Ama Saran’s work is best described as a social
ministry that teaches the importance of researching community health, mental
and physical, to support the efforts of non-profit organizations in creation of
sustainable institutions. |
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Collette Strother is a 2000 ZAMI scholarship recipient. She
received her PhD in gerontology from the University of Kentucky
and currently works at the University of Alabama at Birmingham as
the project manager on a grant examining health disparities in
diabetes and colorectal cancer prevention and management. She
was a personal friend of Jerrald Boswell who she says taught her
the meaning of loving unconditionally, loving family, and facing life with laughter. |
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