2010 Rachel B. Noel
Distinguished Visiting Professorship
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| Julius E. Coles |
The 2010 Noel Professorship Community Event – “Education: Impacting Our Global Community” – will feature Julius E. Coles, president of Africare.
Tuesday, Feb. 23 | 7-9 p.m.
Shorter Community AME Church
3100 Richard Allen Court
(Colorado and Martin Luther King Blvd. - map)
2010 Noel Professor Julius E. Coles
Coles has been president of Africare, a nonprofit that provides development assistance in Africa, since mid-June 2002. An Africare supporter since the organization's beginning, Coles served as a board member from 1997 until assuming the presidency. From 1997 to 2002, he was the director of Morehouse College's Andrew Young Center for International Affairs. He served as the director of Howard University's Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center from 1994 to 1997.
Most of Coles' previous career, spanning some 28 years, was as a senior official with the United States Agency for International Development. He was mission director in Swaziland and Senegal and served in Vietnam, Morocco, Liberia, Nepal and Washington, D.C. Coles retired from the U.S. government's foreign service in 1994 with the rank of career minister.
The Professorship
The Rachel B. Noel Distinguished Visiting Professorship was initiated in 1981 to foster multiculturalism, diversity and academic excellence at Metropolitan State College of Denver. The professorship brings renowned scholars and artists of distinction to Metro State to conduct classes, seminars, performances and lectures for students, faculty and the larger Denver community.
Rachel B. Noel Distinguished Professors have included such luminaries as Princeton Professor Cornel West, pianist Billy Taylor, author Iyanla Vanzant, former president of Spellman College Johnetta Cole, jazz singer Diane Reeves, the late actor and civil rights activist Ossie Davis and executive editor of Ebony magazine Lerone Bennett Jr.
About Rachel B. Noel
A lion of the civil rights movement in Denver, in 1965 Rachel Noel became the first African American elected to the Denver Public School board and the first African American woman ever to serve elected office in Colorado. On April 25, 1968, she presented the DPS board with the Noel Resolution, which asked the superintendent to develop a plan to integrate Denver's public schools. Under a cloud of threats to Noel and her family, the resolution passed in 1970.
The U.S. Supreme Court would eventually echo Noel's position in its landmark decision of 1973, Keyes v. Denver School District No. 1, making Denver the first city outside the American South to receive instructions by the country's highest court to address segregation with school busing.
A part of Metro State's diverse history, Noel came to Metro State as a teacher of sociology and African American studies in 1969 and served as chair of the African American Studies Department from 1971 to 1980.
As her legacy continues to be of such value to the Metro State community, the College created the distinguished professorship to honor Noel when she retired. A recipient of many distinctions, Noel, who was born in 1918, has lived to see a Denver middle school named in her honor as well as Metro State's Rachel B. Noel Distinguished Visiting Professorship. She holds degrees from Hampton and Fisk Universities and an honorary doctorate from the University of Denver. Her other accomplishments are many:
- Received the Anti-Defamation League's Civil Rights Award in 2004
- Served on Mayor Wellington Webb's Black Advisory Committee; chaired Mayor Federico Peña's Black Advisory Committee
- Served on the Advisory Board of the United States Civil Rights Commission
- Named among Top 100 Citizens of the Century in a list compiled by the Rocky Mountain News in 2000
- Inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1996
- Earned the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award in 1990
- Served on the Chancellor's Advisory Committee for the Health Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder and Denver
- Served as Denver Housing Authority commissioner
- Was the first African American to serve on the University of Colorado Board of Regents (1976-1984); chaired the board for one year
Recent news:
Nov. 4, 2009
Noel committee names Africare president Coles as 2010 visiting professor
The committee for the 2010 Rachel B. Noel Distinguished Visiting Professorship has selected Africare president Julius E. Coles as the visiting professor for a series of events to be held Feb. 21-24, 2010. This year’s theme is Education: Impacting Our Global Community... more »
Feb 25, 2009
Noel Professor shares her life, College honors four at community event
A little more than a year after her death, Rachel B. Noel’s legacy of bringing people together to foster meaningful community dialogue about education and human rights is still very much alive... more »
Jan 21, 2009
Noel professorship features international scholar, honors Colorado pioneers
In this season of historic firsts that includes President-Elect Barack Obama’s inauguration as the first African American president of the United States, Metro State is preparing to celebrate the life of one of Colorado’s pioneers, the late Rachel B. Noel, and to honor four of Colorado’s African American... more »
Dec. 10, 2008
Two students receive first-ever Rachel B. Noel Scholarships
The late Rachel B. Noel played a significant role in Denver’s—and Metro State’s—diverse history. Beginning this semester, Noel’s legacy at Metro State lives has taken on another dimension: a newly established scholarship...
more »
Feb. 27, 2008
Jordan, Hickenlooper and Harding among speakers at Sunday’s Noel memorial service
Among the speakers at Sunday’s memorial service for Metro State Associate Professor Emeritus Rachel B. Noel are President Stephen Jordan, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and Vincent Harding, Professor Emeritus of Religion and Social Transformation at the Iliff School of Theology ... more »
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