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| Board of Directors | National Advisory Board
| The Board of Directors Ruby Bridges Hall, Chair Ruby was born in Mississippi in 1954 and moved to New Orleans at the age of two. In 1960, the NAACP contacted Ruby’s parents seeking children to participate in the integration of the New Orleans schools. Ruby’s parents felt it was their obligation to better their children’s lives and help change a discriminatory system. They said yes to the NAACP and in doing so, changed their lives and Ruby’s forever. Ruby crossed the threshold of this school and single-handedly initiated the desegregation of New Orleans’s public schools. Her first grade teacher was Mrs. Henry and Ruby was her only student, as white families withdrew their children from the school. Ruby Bridges’ story has been depicted in Norman Rockwell’s picture “The Problem We All Live With”, and in Robert Coles’ The Story of Ruby Bridges. Ruby has authored her version of the experience, Through My Eyes, published by Scholastic, Inc. In great demand as a speaker, Ruby visits schoolchildren across the country to recount her story and instill the message that 'racism is a grownup disease'. Her dedication to this message led to the establishment of the Ruby Bridges Foundation. Ruby is married with four children and continues to reside in New Orleans. Dorothy Bridges, Vice President Dorothy J. Bridges is President and Chief Executive Officer of Franklin National Bank, a $90 million community bank located in Minneapolis, MN. Franklin focuses on serving the financial needs of small businesses, non-profit entities, and socially conscious individuals through 2 offices in the City of Minneapolis with a staff of 35. Bridges joined Franklin on April 1, 1999, becoming the only African-American woman to head a Minnesota bank and one of only a few nationwide. With over twenty years in banking, Ms. Bridges started her career with First Bank System in 1979 in Missoula, Montana as a Management Trainee, subsequently moving to the bank's headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she held numerous positions, including President of a $150 million community branch. Ms. Bridges left First Banks in 1993 to become a senior consultant for Barefoot, Marrinan & Associates, a bank regulatory compliance-consulting firm headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. While there, she worked with other financial institutions across the country on bank regulatory compliance issues, specifically in the areas of CRA and Fair Lending. In 1995, she joined the Community Reinvestment Fund (CRF), a private not-for-profit corporation that securitizes economic development loans for secondary market investments. As Vice President and Chief Credit Officer, Bridges was responsible for analyzing the credit risk of the loan portfolio and purchasing loan pools from various government agencies and non-profit agencies across the country. During her 3-½ years with CRF, she guided the growth of the CRF's annual loan pool purchases from $6 million to more than $30 million and decreased the loan delinquency rate to 1/10th of one percent. In addition to serving on the Minnesota Conference Planning Committee and the ABA Community Bankers' Council and its Conference Planning Committee this year, Dorothy volunteers in the community in several capacities. She is a Board of Trustee & Investment Committee member of The Minneapolis Foundation, one of the nation's largest and oldest community foundations serving Minnesota. She also serves on the board and is an Investment Committee member of Northwest Area Foundation, a community foundation whose mission is to reduce poverty in the eight-state region it serves. She is chair of the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches, the largest church council in the nation whose mission unites people of faith - serving people in need. As a long-term director of the Milestone Growth Fund, Inc, a small business investment company (SBIC), she helps to provide minority entrepreneurs with access to capital. She serves on the Twin Cities Local Initiative Support Corp (LISC)'s Loan Advisory committee and chairs its Capacity Building committee. In
2000, Ms Bridges served as committee chair of former Governor Jesse
Ventura's Selection Committee for the Minnesota's Commissioner of the
Department of Commerce and in 2002 as a member of Minneapolis Mayor
R.T. Rybak's transition team and affordable housing work group. Many in the Twin Cities have recognized Dorothy's accomplishments. The Business Journal named Bridges one of the Twin Cities Most Influential Women in Business in 1999, and she received the Women of Achievement Award from the Twin West Chamber of Commerce in 2000. Mpls./St.Paul Magazine named Bridges as one of their "100 People To Watch-- Minnesota's Rising Stars" in the February, 2000 issue and she was recently recognized by Finance and Commerce a one of 2002 Top Women in Finance for her significant contributions to the financial services community.
Dorothy and her husband, Thomas "Rudy" Grant, live in Golden
Valley with the youngest of their four children. P. Gregory Hess, Treasurer Greg is a New York City partner in the law firm of Schiff Hardin & Waite. His legal practice focuses on estate tax planning, trusts and estates administration and non-profit organizations. Greg has a BA from Princeton University, a law degree from Yale Law School and a master of laws in taxation from New York University. Greg
serves on the boards of several charitable organizations, including
the New York School for the Deaf, the New York City Affiliate of the
American Heart Association and Pro Mujer. Mary Wong, Secretary Mary
Wong has worked as a school librarian for more than fifteen years serving
elementary and middle school students. Prior to her tenure as a librarian,
she taught intermediate age students and primary and intermediate level
special education students. She currently coordinates visiting author
programs for schools throughout the state of Arizona. Brian Jackson Brian is a graduate of Xavier University of Louisiana, Southern University Law School, where he served as editor-in-chief of the law review, and the Georgetown University Law Center, where he received a master of laws degree in International and Comparative Law. Brian was a member of the U.S. Department of Justice from 1985-2002 and served as the First Assistant United States Attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana. As United States Attorney, he directed all federal criminal prosecutions and civil litigation for the United States in the Middle District of Louisiana. Brian prosecuted federal criminal cases including bank fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, government program fraud and public corruption matters. During his career with the Department of Justice, he served as an Associate Deputy Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., where he was responsible for oversight on several criminal cases handled throughout the U.S. and the development of key areas of criminal justice and civil rights policies. He also served as a member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee of United States Attorneys.
Brian joined Liskow &
Lewis law firm in 2002 as a shareholder
practicing in the firm’s business litigation and white-collar
crime sections. Dr. John E. Trainer John has a B.S. degree in Biology from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a masters in Biology from Wake Forest University and a doctorate in Zoology from the University of Oklahoma. Appointed President and Head of School at The Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida in July, 2001, he previously had over 30 years experience in higher education, most recently a the President of the Georgia Foundation for Independent Colleges. The majority of Dr. Trainer's academic experience was gained during his ten-year tenure as President of Lenoir-Rhyne College in N.C. and as V.P. of Academic Affairs at Jacksonville University.
John has served as President of the North Carolina Association of Colleges and
Universities and the Association of Church-related
Colleges and Universities of the South. He has served on the Boards of Directors of the Council of
independent Colleges, the Council of the College Presidents
of the Colleges and Universities of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America, and the Independent College Fund of N.C. John has been married for 34 years and has three grown children. Barbara Valentino Barbara Valentino is the principal of Evolving Communications, which specializes in the development and production of media projects and independent video projects. Prior to establishing EC, Barbara served as director of the television office of the National Academy of Sciences for 12 years. Ms. Valentino has served on various committees and judging panels for public television, National Association of Broadcasters, Smithsonian Institution. Recently she participated in a three-year government-funded committee to determine best practices for science communication. Barbara continues to serve on the board of the Washington, D.C. chapter of Women in Film and Video, and has served on the Ruby Bridges Foundation board since its inception.
Barbara met Ruby
during the production of a video on forgiveness
for the John Templeton Foundation that features Ms. Bridges,Dr. Robert Coles, President Jimmy Carter and Archbishop
Desmond Tutu. Lance Volland Lance grew up in the Salinas Valley in California and graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a B.A. in Communications and an emphasis in Spanish. He has worked for Larry King Live in Washington, D.C. and the international division of entertainment public relations firm Rogers & Cowan. It was at Rogers & Cowan where Lance first met Ruby Bridges, while working on the Disney movie that depicted her story as a six year-old who forever changed history.
Lance is currently Vice President of International
Public Relations at Warner Bros. Pictures in Los Angeles. He is married
and currently resides in Long Beach, California.
David was born in Wichita Falls, Texas and grew up on a dairy farm in East Texas. He received a B.A. in English from the University of Houston and a Masters Degree in English (with concentration in Creative Writing) from San Francisco State University. David is on the faculty of Delgado Community College [DCC]. Prior to DCC, David served on the Faculty at the University of New Orleans from 1972 where he received the Louisiana State University System’s “Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award” in 1974. David has been responsible for securing twenty million dollars in extra mural federal funds as well as substantial local, state and foundation support, chiefly for programs that assist low income students to prepare for, enter and succeed in their studies in higher education. In 1998, the University conferred on David the Cooper R. Macklin Medallion in recognition of his work in “shaping the life and character of the University.”
David is married and is the father of three children. A longtime public school activist, David served on the Orleans School Board, and is a member of the Boards of Directors of the Greater New Orleans Education Foundation. He is active in numerous civic groups and is on the Board of trustees of the First Unitarian-Universalist Church of New Orleans, and previously served on the board of directors for the Ruby Bridges Foundation. We are most fortunate to have his return. |