STAFF & OFFICERS

 

Brenda Randolph, Founder and Director

Brenda. Randolph is the founder and director of Africa Access. She is a graduate of North Carolina Central University, holds
a Master's degree in African Studies from Howard University and a Master's in Information Services from the University ofMaryland, College Park. She has worked as a library media specialist in Virginia, Massachusetts and Maryland. Ms. Randolph created the Title VI African Studies Resource Center at Howard University in the early 1980s. In 1989, she founded Africa Access. She received the Francois Manchuelle Award in 2001 for innovative work promoting thecause of African Studies in the K-12 community. The award is given in memory of Dr. Manchuelle, an Africanist historian, who perished in the crash of TWA Flight 800 on July 17, 1996. In 2007 on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the African Studies Association,she received the National Outreach Council Award of Appreciation for outstanding service and commitment to promoting the teaching of Africa through the Children's Africana Book Award. Ms. Randolph is a major contributor to Sankofa Journal, a peer-reviewed journal edited by Meena Khorana and published annually by the Department of English and Language Arts at Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland. Sankofa includes scholarly articles on emerging trends in African and African Diaspora juvenile literatures and in-depth book reviews of books nominated by U.S. publishers for the Children's Africana Book Awards.

Robert Edgar, Ph. D
Robert Edgar is professor of African Studies at Howard University, Washington D.C. He holds a Ph.D. in African History from the University of California, Los Angeles, a M.A. in African History from Indiana University and a B.A. in History from Oklahoma State University. His areas of teaching and research include African History, Southern African History, African Religious and Political Movements and Social Science Research Methods.

Cheryl Hamlin Freeman,BSPh
Cheryl Hamlin Freeman graduated from Howard University's College of Pharmacy. She has worked at Kaiser Permennte and numberous hospitals in the Washington, DC area. Her passions are geneology, gardening and working with children. BSPh

Harriet McGuire, Publicity Director
Harriet McGuire is a graduate of Smith College. She received Spanish and Portuguese language training at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center. She has lived in six African countries, worked as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer and currently volunteers for non-profit organizations which promote contemporary Africa arts and cultural exchange. In addition to Africa Access she works in a voluntary capacity for the African Book Collective, the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa, Sankofa Journal and serves on the Advisory Board of the Smithsonian Warren Robbins Library at the National Musuem of African Art.

Jabari Lawoyin Robinson, Webmaster
Jabari Robinson is a graduate of Howard University.He is the founder of Sollusions a web design agency.

Bonnie Myhre, Art Consultant
Bonnie. Myhre is graduate of Maryland Institute College of Art and the University of Maryland, College Park. She is an artist and educator with teaching experience in Maryland, Massachusetts and Vermont. In 1990, she received the Golden Apple Award for her work in children theater. Her art lessons for CABA winners My Father's Shop and I lost my Tooth in Africa were presented at National Museum of African Art in August, 2007 and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in October 2007. She has also published several art lessons for Africa Access about ancient and medieval Ethiopia.(www.africaaccessreview.org/aar/research.html

Anike Robinson, Curriculum Consultant
Anike. Robinson is a graduate of Spelman College. She received a Masters of Education from Johns Hopkins University.

ADVISORY BOARD

Aisha Artis, Sp.Ed,M.S. Ed

Aisha K. Artis holds a B.S. in Business Marketing from Morgan State University, a M.S.Ed. in Secondary Educational Studies from Johns Hopkins University, and a Post-Graduate Certification in School Administration and Supervision from Johns Hopkins University. She is currently a Washington D.C. Education Policy fellow for the Institute of Educational Leadership. She is an Educational Consultant and an Educator for the Montgomery County Public Schools and has dedicated over ten years of service in the areas of urban education, special education, and multicultural education with a focus on Africana studies. Ms. Artis has served as the CEO and Executive Director for Collective Village Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to providing consultation and student learning opportunities in the area urban education. She has been instrumental in establishing culturally responsive educational initiatives that celebrate diversity, promote multicultural teaching and learning, and engage in “courageous conversations” around race and student achievement within urban schools. Ms. Artis has also worked as a volunteer National Education Policy Research Assistant for the NAACP’s  “A Call To Action” campaign”, a public policy plan developed to ensure that all students have access to an equal and high-quality public education by eliminating education-related racial and ethnic disparities in U.S. public schools. She has also traveled to Ghana, Egypt and Canada facilitating international Africana studies for inner-city youth living throughout major metropolitan cities in the United States of America.

Bonita Adeeb
Bonita. Adeeb is a teacher in Charles County, Maryland.

Hassan Adeeb
Hassan. Adeeb is a teacher in Charles County, Maryland.

Charlene Brooks, B.S.
Charlene Brooks graduated from the University of Massachusetts Boston with a degree in Information Systems. She is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Instructional Design at the University of Maryland, University College.

Laura Brown, M.L.S., E.D.L.
Laura Brown is a Library Media Specialist in Montgomery County Public Schools.

Mbye Cham, Ph. D
Mbye Cham is chairman of the department of African Studies at Howard University, Washington, DC. He holds a Ph.D and M.A. In African Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a M.A. in French from the State University of New York at Buffalo, a B.A. in French from Temple University, and course work from Université de Besançon, France and Université de Dakar, Senegal.

Janice Fridie, Esquire
Janice. Fridie is a graduate of Maryland University, with a Master's in Library and Information Services. She holds a J.D. from
Georgetown University's Law Center where her course emphasis was in International Law. She worked as a Children's Librarian for the Laurel Public Library, helping to create an after-school reading club and participating in the school out-reach project. She helped found the Friends Community School, a K-8 primary school now located in Greenbelt, Maryland. Ms. Fridie is licensed to practice in Maryland.

Sam Forkkio, C.P.A.

Linda White, M.L.S

Linda  Crichlow White is a school library media specialist at Parkland Middle School in Rockville, Maryland.  Linda has an MS in Human Ecology from Howard University and an MLS from Catholic University. As an undergraduate she traveled to West Africa with Operation Crossroads Africa, an education and cultural exchange program.  Since then, she has traveled to the African continent many times and has been focused on (properly) educating young people and adults about African traditions and cultures.    The founder of Crossroads Rev. James Robinson said “Crossroaders go to Africa not to teach but to learn.”  This has been one of Linda’s value’s ever since. 

Photo credits