DMI Events

Penny Williams served as a State Senator for Oklahoma from 1998 to 2004. Born in New York City in 1937, she attended Sarah Lawrence College, University of Tehran and the University of Tulsa. She represented the city of Tulsa in the State House of Representatives and was elected to the State Senate in 1988, where she ultimately became chair of the education committee. Her efforts were instrumental in creating the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics, providing public higher educational opportunities, and improving public elementary and secondary education. Before Senator Williams’ helped to establish a public university in Tulsa, it was the largest city in the United States without a public four-year college. In 2002, Williams was denounced by a conservative publication as “an antiquated ‘60s leftist” for blocking a bill mandating a daily moment of silence, flag salute, and the posting of religious documents, which she saw as a violation of the separation of church and state.

On January 4, 2006 Christine C. Quinn was chosen as the Council Speaker for the New York City Council . Since becoming a member of the Council in 1999, Speaker Quinn has been a pioneer for equal rights, comprehensive health care, improved schools, and tenants’ rights. As the first woman, openly gay and Irish Speaker, she brings a new perspective to the diverse challenges facing each of New York’s distinct communities.

Speaker Quinn is intent on preserving the Office of the Speaker as an incubator for fresh and innovative ideas. Committed to reaching all five boroughs in the City of New York, Speaker Quinn has outlined an expansive vision that seeks to remedy constituents’ concerns with suitable solutions that work. This includes recognizing how critical early childhood education is. Speaker Quinn plans on extending the City’s Universal Pre-Kindergarten from a half day to full day. She is working to allocate funding to extend this program so that working families that may not be able to take advantage of half-day pre-K can enroll their children in a full-day program.

In her ongoing efforts to combat hunger in NYC, she is dedicated to making sure that eligible residents have easier access to Food Stamp enrollment. She has set a goal of reducing the number of hungry New Yorkers by more than half, enrolling more than 350,000 people who qualify for food stamps in the federal program over the next four years.

In the wake of numerous child abuse tragedies, she has called for every borough to have a Child Advocacy Center that works jointly with the Administration for Children’s Services, the New York Police Department, District Attorney offices and medical partners. These centers will be open from 8 am to midnight, seven days a week. Expanding New York’s child services resources is essential to reducing the number of at-risk children.

Before being elected to the City Council, Speaker Quinn served for 5 years as Chief of Staff to Councilmember Thomas K. Duane. She went on to serve as Executive Director of the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project. During her time with the Anti-Violence Project, Mayor Guiliani appointed her to be a member of the New York City Police/Community Relations Task Force.

Speaker Quinn has been rated one of the fifty most powerful women in New York City by the New York Post and one of the 'Forty Under Forty' by Gotham Magazine. She served as a delegate to the 2000 Democratic National Convention and was appointed to the 2004 Convention's Platform Committee.

Nancy Kolben is Executive Director of Child Care, Inc. (CCI), the leading child care policy and advocacy organization in New York City. Child Care, Inc. is a child care resource and referral agency that supports parents in their search for child care and promotes quality early care and education options for all children and families. CCI seeks to build a coherent delivery system of services across New York City. Child Care, Inc. offers intensive training opportunities for the early childhood field, initiatives to expand resources through program expansion and facilities development and extensive capacity-building work, through innovative partnerships, and policy analysis. Ms. Kolben joined the organization more than 20 years ago and has helped to guide many of its important initiatives including the launch of Quality New York, a major citywide effort to promote national accreditation, the creation of an employer sponsored emergency child care program, a special facilities development initiative and the creation of the Child Care, Inc. Primer, an information resource for the field.

Ms. Kolben has worked for the past seven years to make the vision of universal prekindergarten to offer quality early learning opportunities for all children a reality. She co-convenes the statewide Pre-K Coalition and manages the Early Childhood Strategic Group in New York City. She co-directs the statewide Winning Beginning NY campaign which has recently published a statewide action plan as a blueprint for early care and education statewide. Winning Beginning is a partner in the Pre-K Now campaign to promote universal preschool.

Ms Kolben was involved in the launch of CCI’s Better Baby Care Campaign and the funding for the seven Infant Toddler Resource Centers across the state.

Ms. Kolben has guided the development of numerous publications on all aspects of early childhood policy. She has spoken extensively on a comprehensive vision for early care and education. Ms. Kolben also served as president and founding board member of the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA), a membership organization of more than 700 CC&R agencies in all 50 states. Her professional training is in social work.

She currently serves as a member of the ACS Child Care and Head Start Advisory Committee.

Adelaide L. Sanford's professional educational career spanned the primary grades through the college graduate school level. She was a classroom teacher, teacher of guidance, assistant principal and principal in the New York City School system. She taught education courses at Baruch College and at Fordham University. She was a visiting practitioner and teaching fellow at the Principals' Center at Harvard University Graduate School of Education. Honorary doctorates were conferred on Vice Chancellor Sanford by Mercy College, The Bank Street College of Education and Five Towns College. Five Towns College has established an annual scholarship award in the name of Adelaide L. Sanford.

She is a graduate of Brooklyn College, Wellesley College and Fordham University, where she was a Ford Foundation Fellow in Urban Education. On the occasion of the 125th Anniversary of Wellesley College in Massachusetts, the African Studies Department presented The First Distinguished Black Alumna Award to Adelaide L. Sanford in recognition of her lifetime accomplishments.

Under her leadership as principal of Public School 21; the Crispus Attucks School, in Brooklyn, earned a reputation as an inner city school where pupil achievement, teacher moral, and special programs for gifted and talented students brought city-wide recognition. The New York State Chapter of the NAACP recognized P.S. 21; the Crispus Attucks School, for achieving the highest reading scores of any urban school in New York State at that time.

Among the numerous awards which have been presented to her for leadership in education includes The Humanitarian Award from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, and The Distinguished Alumna Award from Brooklyn College. The Ellen Lurie Award from the Community Service Society granted $20,000 to the New York Alliance of Black School Educators through Vice Chancellor Sanford. The Josephine Shaw Lowell Award was granted to Vice Chancellor Sanford for her work in empowering low-income communities. In addition, she has received hundreds of awards from professional, labor, educational and community groups across the nation.

She was unanimously elected to a seven-year term as a Member-At-Large of the Board of Regents of the State of New York in 1986. She was re-elected to a second seven-year term in 1993 and to five-year terms in 2000 and 2005. In March of 2001, Adelaide Sanford was elected to the position of Vice Chancellor of the Board of Regents and re-elected to an additional three-year term in 2004. During her tenure with the Regents, she has served as Chair of the Regents' Committee on Low Performing Schools, Chair of the Visiting Committee on Low Performing Schools, Chair of the Committee on Higher Education and Chair of the Committee on the Professions.

Nationally, Vice Chancellor Sanford serves on the national Commission on African American Education, led by Congressman Major Owens, and on the Advisory Committee on Multi-Cultural Education for the National Association of the State Boards of Education. Locally, she was a founding member of the Board of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, and Served until 2001. In 2002 with a gift to her from the National Baptist Convention U.S.A., Vice Chancellor Sanford established the Giliad Fund at the Board of Regents. This fund will be used to recognize collaboration between the health and education committees that scrutinize and address the relationship between child and family health issues and low academic achievement in under served schools in New York State.

Vice Chancellor Sanford has emerged as a leading national advocate for the education of under-served populations. She developed the Concept of a Board for the Education of People of African Ancestry and was instrumental in its development and growth. The programs emanating from this entity have received nation-wide recognition.