Southern Echo

Southern Echo

Southern Echo, Inc. Board Members

As of 2011;

• Ms. Joyce Parker, Chairperson, Greenville, MS

Ms. Parker is the founder and Director of Concerned Citizens for a Better Greenville, a grassroots organizing group in the largest city in the Mississippi Delta, and the fifth largest city in the state. Her work has focused on public education and civic engagement and the organization actively involves young people together with older people in the training process and the organizing work. Through her work the Greenville Public Schools initiated its first experiments with a student-led Conflict Resolution program in its high schools and other parent-initiated, parent-led programs to support the students. These programs were instituted as official policies of the school district. Ms. Parker is also actively involved at the national and state level in the Dignity in Schools Campaign, is a board member of the national Pushback Network, and is on the Steering Committee of the South x Southwest Experiment. Ms. Parker is African American.

• Dr. Marvin Haire, Vice-Chairperson, Itta Bena, MS

Dr. Haire is currently the Director of the Delta Research & Cultural Institute at MS Valley State University in Itta Bena, MS. He is a former Chairman and Associate Professor of Political Science at Clark Atlanta University, and a past President of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists. Dr. Haire is internationally recognized as an expert on the music history of Africans in America, and as a curriculum design specialist. He holds the distinction of having served as a Georgia, Ohio, and National Endowment of Humanities Scholar. He has been involved in public radio production and broadcasts in Atlanta, Dayton & Yellow Springs, OH, and Itta Bena, MS, and has been invited to lecture in Southern Africa, the Caribbean and nationally on a range of interdisciplinary issues including such topics as the political economy of Black music, and pedagogical issues confronting educators of multi-cultural students. Most notably within DRCI, he has designed a public-accessible on-line e-Forum, an in-house Delta Database - Civil Rights & Human Wrongs, a Blues Database – The Blues & Abstract Truth, a regional Delta Experience Blues Tour, as well as the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution. Dr. Haire is African American.

• Ms. Kimberly Galvin, Secretary, Indianola, MS

Ms. Galvin is a young staff person with the Sunflower County Parent & Student Organization, formerly known as the Indianola Parent Student Group. She first became involved in the organizing work through the Indianola Math Games League when she was in the 5th grade. She helped to create the Indianola Parent Student Group to address the health impact of agricultural chemicals applied to a cotton plantation located across the street from the middle school she attended and the neighborhood in which she lives. She helped IPSG successfully obtain science labs for the middle school and current textbooks for the science courses. She has worked diligently to bring new young people into the work and to hold school officials accountable to the grassroots community. Ms. Galvin is African American.

• Mr. Jerry Wilson , Treasurer, Redan, GA

Mr. Wilson is a renowned attorney in north Georgia who is one of the leading redistricting attorneys in the nation. 2011 is his 4th redistricting season in the past 30 years. He is engaged in private law practice, specializing in voting and election law, political redistricting and litigation. Mr. Wilson is an expert witness in federal voting rights cases and is a political redistricting consultant to local and state legislative officials in post-census redistricting projects in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, New York and North Carolina. He conducts public hearings and community education meetings. Mr. Wilson also drafts and submits district election plans to the US Dept. of Justice for preclearance pursuant to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. He also litigates voting rights cases. He has published numerous articles on reapportionment and testified in many redistricting litigation cases. Mr. Wilson is an African American.

• Ms. Kameisha Smith, Lexington, MS

Ms. Smith is a high school teenager who works with Nollie Jenkins Family Center in Lexington, Holmes County, MS. She began participating in youth leadership development workshops and community work as a small child. Ms. Smith is now a member of the South x Southwest Experiment Steering Committee, has a leadership role on the Youth Leadership Development Committee of the South x Southwest Experiment, and played a leadership role in 2010 in the organization of the multi-state youth caravans from New Mexico, Texas and Mississippi to the US Social Forum in Detroit. Ms. Smith’s passion is to become an attorney so that she can combine her organizing experience with legal skills to start her own organization to bring long overdue transformation to Mississippi culture. Ms. Smith is African American.

• Mr. Greg Johnson, Belzoni, MS

Mr. Johnson is attending George Washington University Law School in the District of Columbia. He is a 2004 graduate of Humphreys County High School who works with Citizens for Quality Education (Holmes County), a 2008 graduate of Tougaloo College in Jackson, MS, and a mentor to high school students while in college. He has been a Southern Echo intern throughout his college years, an active participant in training workshops in Holmes County, and in the work of the Mississippi Education Working Group and the MS Delta Catalyst Roundtable at the state level. He is a volunteer with young children in CQE’s reading program in Holmes County, and is a frequent participant in the residential training schools and workshops conducted by Southern Echo. Mr. Johnson is African American.

• Ms. Joyce Parker, Greenville, MS

Ms. Parker is founder and Director of Citizens for a Better Greenville, a community organization that focuses on public education and civic engagement through the active involvement of younger and older people in the organizing work. Ms. Parker brought together students, administrators, Southern Echo and Delta Research and Cultural Institute to initiate a conflict resolution program at the city’s high school. Ms. Parker was Coordinator for the MS Education Working Group and is Network Weaver for the MS Delta Catalyst Roundtable collaboration with Rio Grande Valley, TX community organizations. Ms. Parker is African American.

• Mr. Alfonzo White, Duck Hill, MS

Mr. White is an elected member and former President of the Montgomery County School Board. He has been actively involved as a community organizer in the growth and development of several local organizations, including Action Communication and Education Reform, where he is now Director, Concerned Citizens of Montgomery County, and YIMS, and is an active participant in the work of the Mississippi Education Working Group. Mr. White formerly was a full time multi-media documentarian for the Algebra Project, based in Jackson, MS. In addition, he has worked with Southern Echo since its first redistricting work in 1991 documenting the public hearing negotiation process at the city, county and state level. Mr. White also has produced short videos for Southern Echo. Mr. White is African American.

Staff and interns

As of 2011;

• Hollis Watkins, President, Jackson, MS, is one of the co-founders of Southern Echo. He was the first Mississippi student to become involved in 1961 in the Mississippi Voting Rights Project of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Highlander Research and Education Center, the Southeast Regional Economic Justice Network, and the Southern Sustainable Agricultural Working Group. Mr. Watkins is a founder and member of the Civil Rights Veterans of Mississippi.

• Leroy Johnson, Executive Director, Holmes County, MS, is one of the co-founders of Southern Echo in 1989. Mr. Johnson also serves as Chief Financial Officer and principal resource developer for Southern Echo. Mr. Johnson is a founder of the Southeast Regional Economic Justice Network and the Southern Partners Fund, of which he is a past President and current member of the Board. Mr. Johnson served on the Board of New World Foundation and Rural Schools and Community Trust.

• Brenda Hyde, Assistant Director, Jackson, MS, provides training and technical assistance to numerous grassroots organizations in Mississippi and manages the training and technical assistance components of two foundation-funded intermediate support programs for community organizations in eight states in the southern region. Ms. Hyde serves as the president of the Board of Directors of the Southern Organizing Cooperative located in Birmingham, AL, as president of the Southeast Regional Economic Justice Network, located in Durham, NC., and is a member of the Board of New World Foundation.

• Michael Sayer, Senior Organizer & Training Coordinator, and Staff Counsel, Jackson, MS, is one of the co-founders of Southern Echo in 1989. Mr. Sayer helps develop Echo training programs and materials on community organizing, strategic planning, public education, environmental racism, civic engagement, redistricting and organizational development. He also creates popular education materials on public policy issues and participates directly in training, technical and legal assistance. He is one of the founders and past Board of the Progressive Technology Project.

• Helen Johnson, Education Coordinator, Holmes County, MS, assists in designing and implementing Echo’s education programs at the state and local school district levels. Ms. Johnson is an elected member of the Holmes County School Board and serves on the Board of Nollie Citizens for Quality Education in Holmes County. Ms. Johnson is the Parent Representative on the State Board of Education Practitioner’s Committee on Standards, member of the Special Education Advisory Panel to the MS Dept. of Education, and is on the state Board of the Parents Teachers Association.

• Rachel Mayes, Finance Coordinator and Office Administrator, Jackson, MS, manages both Southern Echo’s financial structure, coordinates office operations at the central office in Jackson, MS, and maintains communications and scheduling links among Echo staff members. She is a former comptroller for the McRae’s Department Store chain, a former Finance Director for a Jackson, MS community development corporation, and formerly an accountant with the Jackson, MS accounting firm of Wells & Associates.