Posts Tagged ‘28daysofdiversity’

Posted on February 8, 2012 - by Wayne Sutton

Day 8: People of color impacting the social web – Kimberly C. Ellis, Ph.D. – #29DaysofDiversity

As we all know, February is Black History Month. It’s a month where we honor those who have made an impact on American culture for equal rights, those who have invented, those who have a helped others and those who have inspired everyone to be the best they can be, not only as a person of color but as a human. For the past two years for Black History Month, I started an online series called 28 Days Diversity where I would feature someone new everyday during the month of February for just being awesome in their own right. Even though it’s black history month, the goal for 28 Days of Diversity is to feature not just African-Americans but other minorities in the web/tech space. Also note that 28 Days of Diversity is not a popularity contest or an influencer list but a list of thought leaders in the social web sector, including entrepreneurs, bloggers, conference organizers, IT professionals and friends not ranked in any particular order who I have either met in person or followed online. Each post will include a picture, bio, two links from the selected person and this paragraph.

For 2012 I wanted to not just feature individuals but also ask a question to where each featured person could share their passion with others. For 29 Days of Diversity 2012 each post/person will answer the question “What motivates you to become successful?”

For the next 29 days since 2012 is a leap, come back to visit SocialWayne.com/tag/28daysofdiversity and/or 28daysofdiversity.com to see who’s on the list. For day 8, I would like to introduce to some and present to others:

Kimberly C. Ellis, Ph.D.

Twitter: @drgoddess

Website/Blog: drgoddess.com

Bio

Kimberly C. Ellis, Ph.D., is affectionately known as Dr. Goddess,” and a true Renaissance Woman. She is a Scholar of American and Africana Studies, an Artist, Activist and Entrepreneur who loves Technology and Social Media. A published academic author, popular blogger, playwright and issues and electoral campaign winner, Dr. Goddess has become a staple at such conferences as Netroots Nation, Blogging While Brown, Blogalicious, Black Thought 2.0 (Duke University) BlogHer and South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi). Welcome to the Cult!

Topics
Women and World Change, Women’s Studies
American History and Literature
African American History, Literature and Black Theatre
Organizing 2.0, New Media Liberation for the Every Generation,
Tweeting the Revolution, The Bombastic Brilliance of Black Twitter
Instructional Technology and the Academic Experience

Qualifications
Doctorate, American Studies, African American Literature and History
Assistant Professor, DePauw University, University of Houston, Univ. of Pittsburgh
New Organizing Institute Participant, State of Pennsylvania Rootscamp Organizer Community Benefits Agreement Movement
Raise Your Hand! No Casino on the Hill Campaign

Awards
One of the Most Influential Black Women on Twitter, For Harriet Digital Magazine
Exquisite Women, The Black Man Can
Nominee, Women’s Media Center Social Media Award
Top Ten Creative Women in Social Media, Liberated Muse
Fab 40 Under 40, New Pittsburgh Courier Award
Thomas Merton Center, New Person Award
YWCA Racial Justice Award

Major Speaking Engagements
Black Thought 2.0, Duke University, 2012
South by Southwest Interactive Conference (SxSW) 2012
Netroots Nation, 2009, 2010, 2011
Blogging While Brown 2011
BlogHer 2011
Blogalicious, 2010
National Trust for Historic Preservation 2011

Target Audiences
High School and College Students
Academics
Women aged 18 – 65, Men, aged 18 – 50
Black and Latina women
Activists, organizers
Theatre Lovers

What motivates you to become successful?

Knowing all of the sacrifices that have been made for me, especially by my mother, is a primary motivating factor for me to be successful in my endeavors. I also intend to live as free as possible, so it’s important for me to focus and do well. Otherwise, whenever the sun is shining and the waves undulate across the landscape. That’s enough for me!

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You can follow the status of 29 Days of Diversity 2012 on http://28daysofdiversity.com, http://socialwayne.com/category/28-days-of-diversity/ and syndicated on BlackWeb 2.0.

Posted on February 7, 2012 - by Wayne Sutton

Day 7: People of color impacting the social web – Curtiss Pope – #29DaysofDiversity

As we all know, February is Black History Month. It’s a month where we honor those who have made an impact on American culture for equal rights, those who have invented, those who have a helped others and those who have inspired everyone to be the best they can be, not only as a person of color but as a human. For the past two years for Black History Month, I started an online series called 28 Days Diversity where I would feature someone new everyday during the month of February for just being awesome in their own right. Even though it’s black history month, the goal for 28 Days of Diversity is to feature not just African-Americans but other minorities in the web/tech space. Also note that 28 Days of Diversity is not a popularity contest or an influencer list but a list of thought leaders in the social web sector, including entrepreneurs, bloggers, conference organizers, IT professionals and friends not ranked in any particular order who I have either met in person or followed online. Each post will include a picture, bio, two links from the selected person and this paragraph.

For 2012 I wanted to not just feature individuals but also ask a question to where each featured person could share their passion with others. For 29 Days of Diversity 2012 each post/person will answer the question “What motivates you to become successful?”

For the next 29 days since 2012 is a leap, come back to visit SocialWayne.com/tag/28daysofdiversity and/or 28daysofdiversity.com to see who’s on the list. For day 7, I would like to introduce to some and present to others:

Curtiss Pope

Twitter: @aislefinder

Website/Blog: aislefinder.com

Bio

Curtiss started his technology career coding and designing web sites and software for companies like Yahoo, Microsoft and Installshield.

His current role is as Founder/CEO of AisleFinder, an app that matches items on shopping lists with aisles within supermarkets (Google maps for supermarkets).

Curtiss’ company AisleFinder was selected to be one of the startups selected for the first class of NewMe Accelerator in 2011.
At 29 years old he is one of the youngest black entrepreneurs within the tech sector. He often shares his views on entrepreneurship,design and motivation on blogs such as VentureBeat ,Hacker News, Black Enterprise, and has been featured in sites such as:TechCrunch,ReadWriteWeb,VentureBeat, ,CNN.com,PC Magazine and CNET.Curtiss was born and raised in Silicon Valley where he still resides.

What motivates you to become successful?

In life: I would have to say my wife motivates me, she has been on this ride with me since the beginning. Her support allows me to stay motivated when things don’t go the way I plan. She is a tough little Nigerian woman that brings out the best in me.I call her my co-founder for life!

In business: Other startups and their founders motivate me. I love the raw and unfiltered premise of a new startup ready to take on the challenges of building a business.I also get motivated by helping them to overcome challenges that I myself have faced as an entrepreneur.

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You can follow the status of 29 Days of Diversity 2012 on http://28daysofdiversity.com, http://socialwayne.com/category/28-days-of-diversity/ and syndicated on BlackWeb 2.0.

Posted on February 6, 2012 - by Wayne Sutton

Day 6: People of color impacting the social web – Christine Celise Johnson – #29DaysofDiversity

As we all know, February is Black History Month. It’s a month where we honor those who have made an impact on American culture for equal rights, those who have invented, those who have a helped others and those who have inspired everyone to be the best they can be, not only as a person of color but as a human. For the past two years for Black History Month, I started an online series called 28 Days Diversity where I would feature someone new everyday during the month of February for just being awesome in their own right. Even though it’s black history month, the goal for 28 Days of Diversity is to feature not just African-Americans but other minorities in the web/tech space. Also note that 28 Days of Diversity is not a popularity contest or an influencer list but a list of thought leaders in the social web sector, including entrepreneurs, bloggers, conference organizers, IT professionals and friends not ranked in any particular order who I have either met in person or followed online. Each post will include a picture, bio, two links from the selected person and this paragraph.

For 2012 I wanted to not just feature individuals but also ask a question to where each featured person could share their passion with others. For 28 Days of Diversity 2012 each post/person will answer the question “What motivates you to become successful?”

For the next 29 days since 2012 is a leap, come back to visit SocialWayne.com/tag/28daysofdiversity and/or 28daysofdiversity.com to see who’s on the list. For day 6, I would like to introduce to some and present to others:

Christine Celise Johnson

Twitter: @iamdtech

Website/Blog: www.Iamdtech.com

Bio

A graduate of College of Notre Dame of Maryland, Christine is the Founder of DiversiTech, an organization that provides educational programming, networking opportunities and access to resources for minorities in technology. DiversiTech is based out of the Baltimore/Washington area and has national partnerships with like-minded organizations working to change the look of the technology startup landscape. No stranger to the startup culture, she has been the driving force behind the success of the national model for technology transfer and commercialization showcases for the nation’s top seed/early-stage funding company since 2001.

Ms. Johnson’s background includes owning a successful event planning and marketing company that serviced various tech and non-profit clients, creating a visual arts gallery and education program, being published in a number of poetry journals, contributing to business and creative publications/blogs, and facilitating healing arts and women in entrepreneurship workshops. She has been recognized as an outstanding woman entrepreneur by Morgan State University’s Entrepreneurial Development Assistance Center (EDAC).

Ms. Johnson is presently on the board for The America21 Project, an open, collaborative and innovative platform that fosters solutions-based approaches to 21st century community economic development. She is also a member of the Emerging Technology Center (ETC) Ambassador Council, an award-winning incubator in Baltimore, MD. Her previous service includes a national advisory committee member for the National Association for Blacks in Bio; board member for A Step Forward Rehabilitation Facility; committee member for Prince George’s County (MD) Business Summit; and board member for Youth Warriors Environmental Justice Organization.

Ms. Johnson has been interviewed on various topics by Sophie’s Parlor on WPFW (DC), BriefCase Radio on WEAA (Baltimore), Mario Armstrong’s Digital Lifestyle Show on XM Radio, Technology Today and WomanSphere by Amina on Blogtalk Radio.

These days she spends much of her time developing relationships with, and advocating for, amazing minority technology entrepreneurs.

What motivates you to become successful?

What motivates me to become successful? – My spirit and the belief that there is nothing I can’t do. When I see there is a need in the world and I get a “spirit tug” to create something that will make a difference, I act. In the end, it’s all about the people you touch and the amazing ways that touch changes you.

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You can follow the status of 29 Days of Diversity 2012 on http://28daysofdiversity.com, http://socialwayne.com/category/28-days-of-diversity/ and syndicated on BlackWeb 2.0.

Posted on February 5, 2012 - by Wayne Sutton

Day 5: People of color impacting the social web – Joselin Mane – #29DaysofDiversity

As we all know, February is Black History Month. It’s a month where we honor those who have made an impact on American culture for equal rights, those who have invented, those who have a helped others and those who have inspired everyone to be the best they can be, not only as a person of color but as a human. For the past two years for Black History Month, I started an online series called 28 Days Diversity where I would feature someone new everyday during the month of February for just being awesome in their own right. Even though it’s black history month, the goal for 28 Days of Diversity is to feature not just African-Americans but other minorities in the web/tech space. Also note that 28 Days of Diversity is not a popularity contest or an influencer list but a list of thought leaders in the social web sector, including entrepreneurs, bloggers, conference organizers, IT professionals and friends not ranked in any particular order who I have either met in person or followed online. Each post will include a picture, bio, two links from the selected person and this paragraph.

For 2012 I wanted to not just feature individuals but also ask a question to where each featured person could share their passion with others. For 28 Days of Diversity 2012 each post/person will answer the question “What motivates you to become successful?”

For the next 29 days since 2012 is a leap, come back to visit SocialWayne.com/tag/28daysofdiversity and/or 28daysofdiversity.com to see who’s on the list. For day 5, I would like to introduce to some and present to others:

Joselin Mane

Twitter: @JoselinMane

Website/Blog: bostontweetup.com/

Bio

A passionate Internet Marketing Consultant with 20 years of computer technology experience. Add my 10 years of Online Marketing experience and 12 years of Business Development experience, and you get a powerful combination that is rarely seen in this new media market. His passion and focus is working with small/midsize businesses, organizations and entrepreneurs to best leverage Internet technologies to systematically reach their financial and/or growth goals.
He specializes in wrapping marketing around technology to help grow his clients’ businesses in more efficient ways. He’s known in the corporate world for his resourcefulness, and since going digital, have has earned online recognition and a reputation for these skills as well. His way of finding information and adapting new technology enables his to quickly access opportunities for growth and provide several easy-to-understand tactical plans based on his clients overall strategy. Early in his career, I was highlighted in a full page ad for the work he contributed to Herman Miller saving over 1 Million dollars.

As a first generation Dominican American, many extraordinary life experiences allowed him to analyze opportunities from various, unique perspectives. He has traveled extensively across the United States and around the world. His previous business endeavors have taken him to places including three months in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and six months in England, Sweden, Norway, Germany, France and Spain. His international experiences gives him a strong foundation from which he has developed global marketing campaigns for my clients.

Throughout his life he has worked with and been a part of many community organizations including the Boys Scouts, Lawrence Boys & Girls Club, Inroads, and NSBE. Most recently he developed a marketing plan for the fastest growing and largest professional Latino membership site in Massachusetts history, have co-founded both BeScene Marketing, which provides Social Media Strategies for the Entertainment Industry and BostonTweetUp , which provides people in the Boston area a central resource to learn all about local Tweetups. He has also been selected as a connector for the Mayor of Boston, Boston World Partnership initiative.

Via BostonTweetUp, which he has been focusing the majority of this time now on, he created MegaTweetUp. MegaTweetUp is the largest non-branded tweetup in the world, uniting people of all ages and disciplines to network and learn more about how to best leverage social media for their businesses.
He is a strong believer of, “Do what you do best and outsource the rest.” He embodies this by championing the Kolbe A index, an index that measures one’s strengths. By knowing one’s natural strengths they are able to focus on what they are most effective at, and find other people who complement them to join their team. His Kolbe results say that he is a forward thinker and has a great ability to conceptualize what could be, and to picture how things work. His expansive technical and marketing knowledge combined with my ability to intuitively visualize possibilities allows him to not only create solutions quickly but more importantly, find a better way of doing things in the process. He has a keen eye which allows him to detect discrepancies and adjust procedures in any project.

He has posted his Kolbe results on his company website and his blog. He invites people to read his results and learn his Modus Operandi, and encourages people to go to the Kolbe site and find their unique strengths.

Since he has a strong understanding of myself, He begin each of his projects by having an honest conversation with each of the team members to determine the most effective use of everybody’s skills and natural instincts, maximizing the effectiveness of the team.

He devote several hours a day to learning the varying trends in business and technology such as the new platform of ever changing Social Media. He provides his clients with the best and most current information to make a decision that will have the greatest impact on their business. He continuously researches and networks to bring his clients the very best resources available.

As the founder & lead consultant of LITBeL Consulting, He brings all of my experience, knowledge, and resources together. One of the strengths he brings to his clients is the ability to handpick the perfect team, one created from the skills and talents of the clients’ current team accented by the best of the resources of LITBeL Consulting. Using this strategy he is able to create great teams of professionals which are completely customized based on the individual clients needs.

What motivates you to become successful?

“What motivates you to become successful?” My Mother who came to this country on the sheer notion that this was the land of opportunity. I also work hard/smart on behalf of those that came before me, that that can’t themselves and those that will come after me.

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You can follow the status of 28 Days of Diversity 2011 on http://28daysofdiversity.com, http://socialwayne.com/category/28-days-of-diversity/ and syndicated on BlackWeb 2.0.

Posted on February 4, 2012 - by Wayne Sutton

Day 4: People of color impacting the social web – Brett Anitra Gilbert, Ph.D. – #29DaysofDiversity

As we all know, February is Black History Month. It’s a month where we honor those who have made an impact on American culture for equal rights, those who have invented, those who have a helped others and those who have inspired everyone to be the best they can be, not only as a person of color but as a human. For the past two years for Black History Month, I started an online series called 28 Days Diversity where I would feature someone new everyday during the month of February for just being awesome in their own right. Even though it’s black history month, the goal for 28 Days of Diversity is to feature not just African-Americans but other minorities in the web/tech space. Also note that 28 Days of Diversity is not a popularity contest or an influencer list but a list of thought leaders in the social web sector, including entrepreneurs, bloggers, conference organizers, IT professionals and friends not ranked in any particular order who I have either met in person or followed online. Each post will include a picture, bio, two links from the selected person and this paragraph.

For 2012 I wanted to not just feature individuals but also ask a question to where each featured person could share their passion with others. For 28 Days of Diversity 2012 each post/person will answer the question “What motivates you to become successful?”

For the next 29 days since 2012 is a leap, come back to visit SocialWayne.com/tag/28daysofdiversity and/or 28daysofdiversity.com to see who’s on the list. For day 4, I would like to introduce to some and present to others:

Brett Anitra Gilbert, Ph.D

Twitter: @profgilbert

Website: http://about.me/brettanitra

Bio

Brett is an assistant professor in the Department of Management and Global Business at Rutgers University. She is the very first Entrepreneurship PhD graduate from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. Her expertise is in geographic clusters, technology entrepreneurship and new venture performance. Her research was awarded a Kauffman Dissertation Fellowship in 2004, and was later selected as a finalist for the Heizer Award, which is given by the Academy of Management’s Entrepreneurship Division for outstanding dissertations in entrepreneurship.

In 2009, Brett was chosen as a Kauffman Junior Faculty Fellow, which is awarded to emerging entrepreneurship scholars. Of the 10 recipients to date, she is only the second woman to receive the award and the only African-American. Her expertise on clusters and technology entrepreneurship landed her a two-year gubernatorial appointment as an advisory committee member to the Texas Emerging Technology Fund from 2008-2010.

Brett’s research is currently published or forthcoming in several top management journals, and her most recently accepted manuscript, “Creative Destruction: Identifying its Geographic Origins” has been one of the top 10 most downloaded manuscripts in the Social Science Research Network for Entrepreneurship & Economics, since the manuscript’s release in December.
Brett teaches a Technology Ventures course to undergraduate and graduate students, and has also taught courses on creativity and innovation as well as general entrepreneurship. Students who have taken her courses are currently exploring ventures in industries as diverse as construction services, education, fashion and social media.

What motivates you to become successful?

I am motivated to be a good steward of the gifts and talents God has given me, and to use them to the best of my ability to fulfill my life’s purpose. ‘Success’ has been the natural byproduct of doing those two things, not really something I can say I consciously work to achieve.

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You can follow the status of 28 Days of Diversity 2011 on http://28daysofdiversity.com, http://socialwayne.com/category/28-days-of-diversity/ and syndicated on BlackWeb 2.0.