Brenda Palms Barber, who heads an innovative jobs initiative in Chicago, has been named the 2012 Rachel B. Noel Distinguished Visiting Professor.
Barber is the CEO of the North Lawndale Employment Network (NLEN) and Sweet Beginnings. NLEN works to improve the earnings potential of people in one of the most economically disadvantaged communities in Chicago. Sweet Beginnings, a subsidiary of the NLEN program, provides green-collar jobs producing honey and honey-based personal care products.
Since 1999, Barber has grown the organization from two employees to 14 employees with an annual budget of more than $1.5 million. It serves approximately 1,500 people annually, placing 75 percent in unsubsidized employment and others in transitional jobs programs.
Barber has consulted with Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama when he was a senator about pressing workforce development challenges and ways to help people who are going back to work.
The visiting professorship was started in 1981 to foster a spirit of multiculturalism, diversity and academic excellence at Metro State. The professorship was named for Rachel B. Noel, a civil rights activist and the first black woman to serve as a Denver school board member. 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.
The professorship brings renowned scholars and artists to the College to conduct classes, seminars, performances, and lectures for the Metro State and Denver communities. Past visiting professorships include nationally known public relations director, Judi Hampton; Cornell West, author and professor from Princeton University, and Robert Aldridge, vice president for diversity at Emory University.
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