2008 Women of Color Roundtable Keynote Speakers
Women of Color Roundtable Keynote Speakers
Naomi Cottoms and Mary Olson are best known by a weekly newspaper column they wrote, CommonStride. They consciously model black-white leadership in community development. They are trained by and have research contracts with the University of Arkansas College of Public Health and The Kettering Foundation, working with marginalized citizens in poverty to empower them to gain a voice in their own destiny and in public decision making.
Naomi Cottoms
Naomi Cottoms served as dean of students at Philander Smith College before
returning home to the Delta where she is currently executive director of
the Tri-County Rural Health Network. She serves on the National Institutes
of Health (NIH) Council of Public Representatives.
Mary Olson
Mary Olson lived in Ithaca for 25 years. Her husband was a professor of
soil resource development; all three sons are graduates of Cornell. She
was dean of doctoral studies at United Theological Seminary during the time
the school became the fourth largest doctoral degree granting institution
of higher education for African Americans and the seventh largest for all
people of color in the U.S. Currently, she is a community organizer in the
Delta, working with Naomi and Dr. Ronald Myers to develop the first holistic
model to end the cycles of poverty.