User talk:HHHOSMER/sandbox

Cynthia Shepard Perry
Ambassador, educator, author, and bank director, Dr. Cynthia Shepard Perry merits an article of her own in Wikipedia. This black Republican Bahai diplomat (she was ambassador to Sierra Leone and Burundi, as well as Director of the African Development Bank) is currently listed under Distinguished Alumni in Dwight Allen's Wikipedia article, under distinguished members of the Bahai faith, under distinguished alumni of UMASS and Indiana State University. She also is written up in Our Black Past. This extraordinary woman accomplished so much in race relations, in diplomacy, in African development, and education, her biography should appear in Wikipedia.

Early Life
Born in Terra Haute, Indiana, daughter of George Norton, Cynthia decided early in life to become "Ambassador to Kenya". This was an extraordinary ambition for the time, for women were usually wives of ambassadors. She earned a B.S. in Political Science from Indiana State University, and a Ph.D. in International Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. For her Ph.D. thesis, she set up a curriculum development project to improve race relations. She selected 30 returned Peace Corps volunteers from Africa, 50% black and 50% white (as well as 50% male and 50% female) to develop the curriculum using their African experience to break down stereotypes. Her students went on to work for the Federal Desegregation Center in Miami, FL, and to become school teachers and principals, college professors, authors, literacy consultants, and musicians.