The State of the State Conference

  2012 Recipient - Shirley J. Wilcher (Award Proclamation)

 Shirley J. Wilcher is a leading authority on equal opportunity and diversity policy. Ms. Wilcher is currently President of Wilcher Global, LLC, a consulting firm that specializes in diversity management, affirmative action, contract compliance, and government relations. In 2001-2003, she also served as executive director of Americans for a Fair Chance, a consortium of six civil rights legal organizations formed to serve as an educational resource on affirmative action. In April 2004, the American Association for Affirmative Action (AAAA) gave Ms. Wilcher its “Rosa Parks” Award for her efforts to advance the cause of equal opportunity through affirmative action. In May 2005, AAAA appointed her Executive Director.

During the Clinton Administration, Ms. Wilcher served a near seven-year term as Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), in the Employment Standards Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor. At OFCCP, she was the chief executive of an agency that enforces President Lyndon Johnson’s Executive Order 11246. The Order requires companies doing business with the Federal government to agree under contract not to discriminate on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, color, or religion. In addition, contractors must agree to use affirmative action. The OFCCP also enforces laws requiring nondiscrimination and affirmative action for persons with disabilities and veterans.

At OFCCP, Ms. Wilcher led the team that reinvented, revitalized and managed the agency by focusing on eliminating systemic discrimination, breaking the glass ceiling, promoting equal pay, and successfully completing the most significant revision of the agency’s regulations in 20 years. Under her office’s “Three-Pronged Fair Enforcement Strategy,” the program obtained millions of dollars in financial remedies for women, minorities, persons with disabilities and veterans, while celebrating the exemplary efforts of outstanding corporations and nonprofit organizations. Wilcher extended the program’s reach beyond the nation’s borders and addressed governments and organizations seeking to promote diversity in Europe, Asia, Mexico, Canada and South Africa, where she and her staff served in a consultative role with the South African Department of Labor. In July 2000, Ms. Wilcher received the NAACP’s prestigious Benjamin L. Hooks “Keeper of the Flame Award.”

In the fall of 2001, Wilcher also served as Adjunct Associate Professor of Law at the Washington College of Law, American University, Washington, D.C. Her more than twenty years of experience include service as civil rights counsel with the Education and Labor Committee, US House of Representatives; as Director for State Relations and General Counsel with the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and as a staff attorney with the National Women’s Law Center.

Ms. Wilcher is an honors graduate of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts; holds a Master of Arts Degree from the New School for Social Research in New York, NY; a Juris Doctor from the Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and a Certificate of French Language from the University of Paris, Paris, France. She also holds a certificate in Alternative Dispute Resolution from the Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution in Maryland, and a certificate in Labor Arbitration from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, Washington, DC.

Ms. Wilcher has spoken in many venues about civil rights and affirmative action. She has also testified before both House and Senate committees of the United States Congress. Wilcher has written on affirmative action and other issues related to equal opportunity. Her commentary has appeared in the New York Daily News, the Los Angeles Times, the Dallas Morning News, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, USA Today, the Washington Times, the Boston Globe , Time Magazine and the Houston Chronicle , among many others. She has also appeared on radio and television shows from Alaska to Puerto Rico and internationally.

Wilcher has been quoted in many news publications about affirmative action and related issues. She also co-authored a paper on Sex Based Employment Quotas in Sweden, which was published by the Brookings Institution.

Wilcher is a founding member of the National (Political) Congress of Black Women and served as its first Recording Secretary.

  2010 Recipient - Marshall Rose (Award Proclamation)

Marshall Rose has worked professionally and in his community on diversity, equity and associated issues, for most of his life. For the past twenty-four years, he has held senior administrative responsibility for monitoring diversity and equal opportunity compliance in two higher education institutions. He is currently Director of the Office of Equity and Diversity at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.

Mr. Rose has been active in his professional association, the American Association for Affirmative Action (AAAA), holding many elected or appointed leadership positions nationally and in his region. Presently, he is a member of the AAAA national board of directors, and is Regional Director for the Association’s Region V. Region V includes the states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Mr. Rose has also been actively involved at the local and state levels in promoting issues of equity, opportunity and diversity. He has been a principal coordinator and organizer of many multi-institutional initiatives including workshops, presentations, or teleconferences on such topics as race relations, sexual harassment and diversity in higher education. For the past 14 years, he has played a leading role in organizing and sponsoring “The State of the State”, an annual statewide conference evaluating issues of equity, opportunity, and diversity in Ohio.

Mr. Rose's many community contributions include serving as an officer on the boards of the Toledo Fair Housing Center and the Self Expression Teen Theater. He was vice chair of the Toledo Rainbow Coalition, Chair of the Million Man March Local Organizing Committee for Toledo and Northwest Ohio, and a former Director and trustee with Save Our Children, Inc. of Toledo.

Mr. Rose has done numerous presentations and speeches on diversity, affirmative action, EEO and associated topics. He has also done training for educational, nonprofit and private industry organizations in such areas as diversity, race relations, and sexual harassment. He is regularly invited to speak and or participate in many programs and services honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as celebrations and activities commemorating African American History. 

He is a graduate of Southwestern Christian College in Terrell, Texas, where he received an Associates of Arts degree. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in social work from Oklahoma Christian University in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and a Master of Social Work degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

  2009 Recipient - Mayor Jack Ford (Award Proclamation)

Jack Ford was elected Mayor of Toledo in November 2001 and was responsible for nearly 2,800 employees, a $400 million budget, and the health and welfare of 307,000 Toledoans.

Jack Ford was elected Mayor after serving seven years in the Ohio House of Representatives, the last three as the Democratic Leader. Prior to his service in the Ohio House, Mayor Ford served seven years as a member of the Toledo City Council, with the last year as President.

Jack Ford has been a champion of many things throughout his public career. He was the founder of two separate non-profit organizations dealing with alcoholism and addiction, SASI and Adelante. He chaired the drive to build the J. Frank Troy Senior Center in Toledo. Mayor Ford created the Toledo Youth Commission, the lead abatement program, the medication education for the elderly program, the Toledo curfew law, and the drug paraphernalia law. 

He also authored the anti-discrimination ordinance for caregivers to AIDS victims, the fetal alcohol syndrome warning notice ordinance, the state foster care parent right-to-know law, and the state foster care worker training law.

Mayor Ford signed Toledo’s smoking ban into law, the first big city in Ohio to do so. He was recognized as Ohio Tobacco Control Champion of the Year in February 2004 and as mayor, Jack Ford signed the $450 million clean water consent decree and ended the twenty-year struggle with the federal court over police and fire hiring. He settled the seven-year litigation on wheelchair accessible sidewalk ramps throughout the City of Toledo. 

In January 2001, Mayor Ford started the CareNet health care program, a health care access corporation for non-insured poor and working citizens that currently provides health coverage to 7500 Lucas County residents who otherwise were ineligible for any healthcare.

Mayor Ford is a champion of diversity. He sponsored the Center for Capacity Building, a program geared toward training minority entrepreneurs to be ready to take part in the construction industry in Toledo, at the University of Toledo.

Mayor Ford has received over 100 awards and distinctions, including a National Leadership American Award. He spoke before a seven million-person TV audience at the Democratic National Convention in 2000. Mayor Ford has been a delegate at the last three national conventions. He was designated a co-chair of the Rules Committee for the 2004 Democratic Convention.

Mayor Ford was an instructor at the University of Toledo for 22 years, Bowling Green State University for three years, and Owens College. He has his undergraduate degree from The Ohio State University, a master’s degree in public administration and a law degree from the University of Toledo. Mayor Ford has been a Commencement Speaker on six occasions at area colleges and universities. He was made a member of the Order of the Coif from UT Law School, has received the Gold T Award, and the Outstanding Minority Alumnus and Outstanding Alumnus of the Arts and Service Department. In 2003, Jack was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Public Administration for services to humanity.

Mayor Ford is a member of the Area Office on Aging, the United Way of Greater Toledo, the Toledo Cultural Arts Center, the Toledo Orchestra Association, and the Lourdes College Board of Trustees. He is a 33° Prince Hall Scottish Rite Mason, an Omega, a member of Boulé, the Elks, and a life member of the NAACP.

Jack is married to Cynthia and they share three children—Ryan, Jessica and Jacqueline. He is a member of Church of the New Covenant Baptist Church in Toledo, Ohio.

 2007 Recipient - Reverend Otis Moss, Jr. (Award Proclamation)

Theologian, pastor, and civic leader the Reverend Dr. Otis Moss, Jr. is one of America's most influential religious leaders and highly sought-after public speakers. A native of the state of Georgia, Moss was born on February 26, 1935 and was raised in the community of LaGrange. The son of Magnolia Moss and Otis Moss, Sr. and the fourth of their five children, he earned his B.A. degree from Morehouse College in 1956 and his masters of divinity degree from the Morehouse School of Religion/Interdenominational Theological Center in 1959. He also completed special studies at the Inter-Denominational Theological Center from 1960 to 1961 and earned his Ph.D. degree in ministry from the United Theological Seminary in 1990. 

From 1954 to 1959, Moss served as pastor of the Mount Olive Baptist Church in LaGrange, Georgia. From 1956 to 1961, he also served as pastor of Atlanta's Providence Baptist Church and therefore, simultaneously led two congregations from 1956 to 1959. From 1961 to 1975, he pastored the Mount Zion Baptist Church in Lockland, Ohio, and in 1971, he served as co-pastor, with Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr., at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. In 1975, he was called to pastor Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio, where he continues today.

Moss has been involved in advocating civil and human rights and social justice issues for most of his adult life. Having been a staff member of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he currently serves as a national board member and trustee for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change. His work in the international community has taken him to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan. He also traveled as a member of a clergy mission to the Far East in 1970 and to Israel in 1978. In 1994, he was the special guest of President William Jefferson Clinton at the Peace Treaty signing between Israel and Jordan, and, in that same year, he led a special mission to South Africa.

Moss is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including Human Relations Award from Bethune Cookman College in 1976, The Role Model of the Year Award from the National Institute for Responsible Fatherhood and Family Development in 1992, Leadership Award from the Cleveland chapter of the American Jewish Committee in 1996, and an Honorary Doctor of Divinity from LaGrange College in 2004. In 2004, he participated in the Oxford Round Table in Oxford, England and was a guest presenter for the Lyman Beecher Lecture series at Yale University. ??Moss is married to the former Edwina Hudson Smith. They have three children, Kevin, Daphne (deceased), and Otis, III. 

 2005 Recipient - John E. More, Sr. (Award Proclamation)

Perhaps the thing for which John E. Moore is most readily recognized is his enduring contribution to the community. Few people have testaments to their achievements as "enduring" as a building, which bears that individual's name. When traveling north on I-75 North into Dayton, one can look to the right and see the Technologies Center building on Sinclair College's Campus, which bears the name of John E. Moore, Sr.

John Moore is a World War Two veteran and the retired chief of civilian personnel at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Upon his retirement from Wright-Pat in 1979, he continued his commitment to servant leadership by expanding into his second career; that of consummate community volunteer. 

Education, job training, human services, diversity and self-sufficiency have been areas of particular interest to John. He served 13 years on the Board of Sinclair Community College, the last five as Chair. He was also the first chair of the Dayton-Montgomery County Scholarship Program and is credited for expanding that scholarship opportunity into all school districts in Montgomery County. During his tenure, the number of scholarships awarded grew from 31 to 500 each year.

Mr. Moore has always understood the critical role that adults play in children's lives in steering them toward future success and self-sufficiency. He spearheaded the creation of the Montgomery County Mentoring Collaborative and with his friend and fellow community volunteer, Fred Smith, he established the Self-Sufficiency Task Force, which is an ongoing initiative through the Dayton Foundation.

Mr. Moore has made two significant contributions to the community's efforts with diversity and fairness. One was the creation of Parity, Inc. a non-profit organization which he co-founded with the late Charity Earley to develop opportunities and to achieve a level playing field for African Americans. The other is the leadership he has brought to the Dayton Foundation's Diversity Task Force, which is focused on promoting cultural competence in the workplace, resolving housing and education and assuring fairness in the criminal/civil justice system.

  2004 Recipients - Joanne Bland and the National Voting Rights Museum Institute (Award Proclamation)

Joanne Bland is co-founder and director of the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute in Selma, Alabama,,where she works to increase voter awareness. Raised in Selma’s G.W.C. Homes housing project, she began her civil rights activism as an eight-year-old attending a 1961 freedom and voters rights gathering presided over by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Students for a Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) activists organized Bland and other area children and teenagers to participate in the civil rights movement. In the front lines of the struggle, the young Bland marched on "Bloody Sunday" and "Turn Around Tuesday," witnessing brutal beatings, shootings and hosing of fellow marchers by police. Denied permission by her father to march from Montgomery to Selma, she nonetheless insisted on walking on the first and last days of the famous march. 

The National Voting Rights Museum collects and preserves the history of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights movements. The Museum sits at the foot of the historic Edmond Petus Bridge. It was here in 1965, known in Civil Rights lore as Bloody Sunday, that peaceful marchers were viciously attacked and beaten in their efforts to march to Montgomery to demonstrate in support of voting rights for African Americans. Ms. Bland has the distinction of being the youngest person to have been jailed as a participant in this demonstration. She was only 11 years old. As we move into another presidential election cycle, Ms. Bland’s presentation on the significance of the Selma struggle and the continuing relevance of voting in our participatory democracy will be especially timely.

2003 Recipient - Shanta Driver

Shanta Driver is the National Director of United for Equality and Affirmative Action (UEAA). UEAA organized and directed the student intervention into Grutter v. Bollinger, the Supreme Court-bound, landmark affirmative action case involving the University of Michigan Law School. In the trial of Grutter, UEAA presented the broadest and deepest defense of affirmative action ever made in a court of law, exposing the separate and unequal quality of K-12 education, the bias inherent in the standardized tests, the effects of hostile racial climate on the academic performance of minority students, the failure of all attempted alternatives to affirmative action and the current impact and significance of race and racism in American society. 

Ms. Driver also serves as the National Coordinator of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration, and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), a named defendant in UEAA's student intervention. BAMN is the leading national civil rights organization fighting in defense of affirmative action and integration. After a six-year campaign culminating in a 7,000-person rally in spring of 2001, BAMN successfully forced the University of California Regents to reverse their ban on affirmative action at the University of California. 

Together, UEAA and BAMN organized thousands of students and union members to march through the cold and rain in Cincinnati, Ohio, influencing the swing vote in the Sixth Circuit's 5-4 decision to uphold affirmative action at the University of Michigan Law School. 

UEAA and BAMN are currently mobilizing for a March on Washington to coincide with the Supreme Court hearing of Grutter which will take place on April 1, 2003 and which will determine the legal status of affirmative action nation-wide.

Ms. Driver has been a leader in civil rights struggles for the past 25 years, and has led campaigns against police brutality, for women's rights, and for workers rights.