Co-Founder and President, The Skinner Leadership Institute, and Author
Dr.
Barbara Williams-Skinner is president of Skinner Leadership Institute
(SLI), formed to produce a new generation of leaders who are technically
excellent and spiritually mature. A
nationally recognized spiritual leader, teacher, lecturer and writer, she
earned her undergraduate degree from San Francisco State University, and
the M.S.W. and law degrees from UCLA.
She has also earned the M.Div. and D.Min. degrees from Howard
University School of Divinity. She
is the author of numerous articles including “The Power of Love,”
“Been There, Done That: Why African American Christians Resist
Racial Reconciliation,” and a leadership training workbook entitled “Becoming
An Effective 21st Century Leader.”
Dr.
Williams-Skinner and her late husband, the Rev. Tom Skinner, a former
Harlem, New York gang leader, founded the Skinner Leadership Institute in
1992. The Institute evolved
from Tom Skinner Associates, the ministry founded in 1964 by Tom Skinner,
who became chaplain to the Washington Redskins football and New York
Yankees baseball teams, and authored numerous books. Skinner Leadership
Institute provides leadership development and reconciliation training for
people of all backgrounds and faiths, especially to current leaders,
students, emerging young leaders and urban youth.
For many
years, Dr. Williams-Skinner was the Executive Director of the
Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, DC, made up of the African
American members of the U. S. Congress who collectively represent 39
million African Americans. In 1981, she and her late husband founded the
Congressional Black Caucus Prayer Breakfast, annually attracting over
3,000 religious and civic leaders from across the nation.
She has served on the boards of numerous organizations including
the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center in Atlanta, Georgia, Volunteers of
America, National Political Congress of Black Women, Operation Rainbow
PUSH, Christian Community Development Association, and Evangelicals for
Social Action. She is currently on the boards of Christian Community
Development Association, Fuller Theological Seminary, and the Community
Empowerment Equity Partnership (CEEP).
CEEP, founded as a tribute to Tom Skinner, operated an
Urban
Leadership
Academy
at
Ballou
Senior High School
in
Washington
,
DC
for five years. The Academy
offered courses in moral character development, job readiness, and
computer technology training, and she provides curriculum and teacher
training for the Academy.
Currently,
Dr. Williams-Skinner serves as National Director for Ecumenical and
Legislative Outreach for a new Broadway-caliber Civil Rights musical, “If This Hat Could Talk: A Musical of Passion, Power, and Triumph.
The musical chronicles the untold stories of women during the Civil
Rights Movement, like Dr. Dorothy Height, Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, and Mrs.
Rosa Parks, and the men with whom they partnered, like A. Phillip Randolph
and Martin Luther King, Jr., to bring about numerous civil and human
rights victories. Over 10,000 school children have seen and been impacted
by this great musical through the musical’s Youth for Excellence
Iniative.
Dr. Williams-Skinner has two adult
daughters by marriage---Mrs. Lauren Skinner Gaines and Mrs. Kyla Skinner
Manning. She lives in Southern
Maryland, and simply wants to be known as a woman of God who appears as a
woman of the world.
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