Cynthia Shepard Perry
 | This article, Cynthia Shepard Perry, has recently been created via the Articles for creation process. Please check to see if the reviewer has accidentally left this template after accepting the draft and take appropriate action as necessary.
Reviewer tools: Inform author |
| This article, Cynthia Shepard Perry, has recently been created via the Articles for creation process. Please check to see if the reviewer has accidentally left this template after accepting the draft and take appropriate action as necessary.
Reviewer tools: Inform author |
Comment: She is notable, but the article is overpersonal, and needs to be made shorrter and more objective. WP is an encyclopedia , and encyclopedic writing is plain, dull, and descriptive. DGG ( talk ) 10:41, 24 November 2019 (UTC)
- Comment: Likely notable per WP:DIPLOMAT Legacypac (talk) 03:05, 7 March 2019 (UTC)
Cynthia Shepard Perry | |
|---|---|
| 10th United States Ambassador to Sierra Leone | |
| In office November 20, 1986 – August 30, 1989 | |
| President | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | Arthur Winston Lewis |
| Succeeded by | Johnny Young |
| 11th United States Ambassador to Burundi | |
| In office February 12, 1990 – February 28, 1993 | |
| President | George H. W. Bush |
| Preceded by | James Daniel Phillips |
| Succeeded by | Bob Krueger |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Cynthia Helena Norton November 11, 1928 (age 95) |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) |
James Otto Shepard
(m. 1946; div. 1971)James Olden Perry
(m. 1971; died 2006) |
| Children | Donna, Jim, Milo, Paula, Mark, James |
| Parents |
|
| Education | Ed.D. University of Mass. |
| Alma mater | B.A. Indiana State University |
| Occupation | Diplomat, Professor, Banker |
| Known for | African and education expertise |
Cynthia Helena Shepard Perry (née Norton; born 11 November, 1928) served as U.S. Ambassador to Sierra Leone and Burundi and as American Executive Director of the African Development Bank.[1] As an educator, author, and activist, her focus areas were racial and gender equality, international cooperation, and African economic development.[2]
Early Life
Perry was born in 1928 in the mining town of Burnett, Indiana. She grew up in Lost Creek, Indiana, near Terre Haute, the sixth of nine children.[3] She graduated from Otter Creek High School in 1946.[3]
Perry wrote in her autobiography that she had dreamed of becoming an ambassador while growing up.[3] She credited her high school principal Harold Lamb with taking her dream seriously and helping her develop a life plan to accomplish her goals.[3]
Education
Perry worked with the chair of the local Republican party and won a scholarship to Indiana State University. She completed a B.A. in political science from the university in 1968. Some of her courses she completed by attending night classes and working in the daytime, including in positions at Nichols Investment Corporation, and later at IBM as an educational representative.[4]
In 1968 she joined the University of Massachusetts' Center for International Education to study for a doctorate in education, which she completed in 1972.[5] For her doctoral degree, Perry proposed to improve race relations by developing African Studies curricula for public schools. After winning federal funding for a Teacher Corps project, in 1969 she recruited over 30 former Peace Corps volunteers (comprising equal numbers of blacks and whites, men and women) to develop and test African Studies curricula using their own first-hand experience in Africa and the latest research into black history and affective education.
While working on her doctorate, she also served as director of the National Teacher Corps at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.[4]
Career
In 1969 Perry visited Africa for the first time when she accompanied students from Colby College to Ethiopia and Kenya on a summer secretarial training project. The trip was part of the Operation Crossroads Africa project at the University of Nairobi.[4]
In 1973, Perry returned to Nairobi for three years as her husband had taken a position with UNESCO at the University of Nairobi. During his three-year tenure, she trained Peace Corps paramedical volunteers, lectured at the University, and served as a consultant to the US Information Service in Kenya, Nigeria, and Zambia.[2] In 1974, Perry was a member of diplomatic delegations to Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, and Liberia. In 1976, she was appointed to the position of Staff Development Officer at the UN Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Abba, Ethiopia.[4]
Perry and her husband returned to Texas in 1978 and she was appointed dean of international affairs at Texas Southern University, a position she held until 1982.
In 1982, President Ronald Reagan appointed Perry chief of the Education and Human Resources Division in the Africa Bureau of the United States Agency for International Development.[4] She was responsible for establishing policies and educational programs for the 43 Sub-Saharan nations receiving U.S. assistance at the time. In 1986, Reagan appointed Perry U.S. Ambassador to Sierra Leone; she held this position until 1990, when President George H.W. Bush appointed her U.S. Ambassador to Burundi. During this time Perry also served as Honorary Counsel General for Senegal.[4]
In 1993, Perry returned to her position at Texas Southern University and in 1996 she moved to Texas Woman’s University as regent.
In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed her U.S. Executive Director of the African Development Bank in Abidjan, Ivory Coast and later, Tunis, Tunisia. She held this position until her retirement in 2007. Perry returned to Houston, where she continues to support education and development in Africa.
In 1998, Perry published her memoirs, All Things Being Equal: One Woman's Journey.[6]
Recognition
In 1987 NAACP presented Perry with its President's Award.[7] In 1988, UMass awarded Perry an honorary doctorate of Public Service. In 2002 she received a Distinguished Alumni Award, and in 2014 a Salute to Service Award for outstanding contributions to public service.[1]
Personal life
In November 1946, Perry married James Shepard, a mechanic.[3] When she was invited to join the postgraduate program in Massachusetts in 1968, her husband, hoping to keep her home, demanded a divorce.[5] Her divorce from Shepard was finalized in 1971, and she married James Olden (J.O.) Perry; he died in 2006.
References
- ^ a b "Ambassador Cynthia Shepard Perry Returns to CIE | Center for International Education". www.umass.edu. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
- ^ a b Collins, Minnie A. (2015-01-25). "Cynthia Shepard Perry (1928- ) •". Retrieved 2020-02-23.
- ^ a b c d e All Things being Equal: One Woman's Journey, Stonecrest, Houston, TX, ISBN 0967557100, 2001.
- ^ a b c d e f "Perry, Cynthia Shepard – Special Collections and University Archives". Retrieved 2020-02-23.
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
Crystalwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Perry, Cynthia Shepard (1998). All things being equal: one woman's journey. Houston, Tex.: Stonecrest International Publishers. OCLC 43975905.
- ^ UMAss College of Education Archives, Cynthia Shepard Perry
External sources
- Perry, Cynthia Shepard, interviewed by Crystal Mikel-Reynolds, Dr. Cynthia Shepard Perry: A Sycamore Destined for Greatness, Indiana State U., 2017; http://www.indstate.edu/sites/default/files/media/student-affairs/images/ambassador-cynthia-shepard-perry-essay.pdf
- Perry, Cynthia Shepard, interviewed by Charles Stuart Kennedy starting March 21, 1999, Interview with Cynthia S. Perry, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST), Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, copyright 2000, FAOH, accessed March 9, 2019.
| This article, Cynthia Shepard Perry, has recently been created via the Articles for creation process. Please check to see if the reviewer has accidentally left this template after accepting the draft and take appropriate action as necessary.
Reviewer tools: Inform author |