My Job Is To Try To Advance

Spirituality And Faith Are At The Core Of Who I Am. I Was Born To Deeply Religious Parents Who Were Able To Give Me That Rock Solid Foundation In The Church And In My Faith Which Really Has Served Me So Well.

Most Days Are Not Overwhelmingly Successful In Your Life. And What Really Marks Whether You're Going To Be Successful Is How Well You Deal With The Bad Days, Not How Well You Deal With The Good Ones.

Your Friends And Your Family, If You're Close To Them, They Won't Let You Get Too Far From Who You Were Or From Who You Are. And So I Love Staying Close To People Who've Always Known Me. That's Probably The Best Leavening That You Could Possibly Have.

I Really Believe That You Can. Not Only Do I Think It Is A Part Of Public Service To Help Young People Find Their Way, Just As Professors Had Helped Me Find Mine, But I've Been Very Involved In K-12 Education Issues. I Started A Program Back In 1992 Called The Center For A New Generation, An Afterschool Enrichment Program.

I Grew Up In A Very Loving Middle Class Family. My Parents Were Educators. I'm Not Even The First Phd In My Family. They Tried To Shield Me, Just As Other Parents In My Neighborhood Tried To Shield Their Children. But You Knew There Was A Reason That You Couldn't Go To That Theme Park Or To A Movie Theater Or To A Hamburger Stand. They Couldn't Shield You Completely. What They Did Though Was They Never Let It Be An Excuse For Not Achieving, And They Always Said Racism Is Somebody Else's Problem, Not Yours. They Tried In That Way Not To Make Us Bitter About Birmingham.