Page 11 - MLK 2022 Booklet

2022 Keynote Speaker 2022 Keynote Speaker

Dr. Terrence J. Roberts Minnijean Brown Trickey

Dr. Roberts is CEO of Terrence Roberts Consulting, a Minnijean Brown Trickey has lifelong experience and
management consultant firm devoted to fair and equitable commitment to peacemaking; environmental issues;
practices in business and industry. Started in 1975 as developing youth leadership; diversity education and
Terrence J. Roberts and Associates, this firm seeks to training; cross-cultural communication; gender and social
assist management personnel in the creation of workplaces justice advocacy. Minnijean Brown Trickey is one of the
conducive to employee growth and development. nine African American students who collectively resisted
opposition to the desegregation to enter Little Rock Central
High School in 1957, with protection from federal troops.
A graduate of California State University at Los Angeles
(BA), and UCLA (MSW), Dr. Roberts obtained his Ph.D. in
Psychology from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Minnijean’s teaching experience in social work includes
Illinois. Carleton University, and community colleges in Canada. She
served in the Clinton Administration as Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Workforce Diversity at the Department of
For forty years, (1975-2015), Dr. Roberts was a practicing Interior. She was the Shipley Visiting Writer for Heritage
clinical psychologist first in Deer park, California and later Studies at Arkansas State University. For the past twenty
in Pasadena, California. During this same time period years she has been a nonviolence and antiracism facilitator
he was Director of Mental Health Services at St. Helena for Sojourn to the Past, a ten-day interactive history
Hospital and Health Center (1977 – 1985); Assistant Dean of experience for high school students. She continues as a
Student Services at UCLA’s School of Social Welfare (1985 teacher, writer and motivational speaker. She is the mother
– 1993); and Department Chair and faculty member in psychology at Antioch University, Los Angeles (1993 – 2008). of three sons and three daughters.

Dr. Roberts has taught, written about and consulted with a variety of groups, institutions, businesses and Brown Trickey is the recipient of numerous awards for her community work for social justice, including Lifetime
professional organizations on issues related to race and racism in American society. It is his belief that complete Achievement Tribute by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, the International Wolf Award for contributions
resolution of these issues can only happen when we, collectively, decide to rid ourselves of the pernicious ideology to racial harmony. With the Little Rock Nine, she received the NAACP Spingarn Medal and the Congressional Gold
of racism. Medal. She is a member of the Little Rock Nine Foundation that awards nine scholarships bi-annually.

As one of The Little Rock Nine, Dr. Roberts has been in demand by a number of groups who wish to learn about She holds a Bachelor of Social Work in Native Human Services from Laurentian University and Master of Social
the impact of the chaos in Little Rock in 1957 on the social, cultural, political, and economic life of citizens in Work from Carleton University, in Ontario Canada. She is the recipient of four Honorary Doctorates.
contemporary America. This especially true at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles where Dr. Roberts is
a member of the adjunct faculty. He regularly spends time with groups of law enforcement officers including but
not limited to the los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, The California She is the subject of a documentary, Journey to Little Rock: the Untold Story of Minnijean Brown Trickey, which has
highway Patrol, and the United States Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement received critical acclaim in international film festivals in Africa, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, the U.S., South
Division. His goal is to assist the officers develop more advanced understandings of the ways in which some of their America and Canada. She was featured in People Magazine, Newsweek, the Ottawa Citizen, the BBC, the Canadian
attitudes about different others are established by their belief in systems founded upon mythological constructs Broadcasting Corp, Donahue, CNN, the History Channel Turning Points in History, the HBO documentary, Little
and supported by pernicious ideologies promulgated by those who wish to preserve a static social hierarchy. Rock Central: 50 Years Later, and a variety television, radio and print media. She appeared with the Little Rock
Nine on Oprah, Today and numerous other media.

LESSONS FROM LITTLE ROCK, a memoir by Dr. Roberts was published on October 1, 2009. In this book he
describes his experience at Central High School and talks about the salient lessons to be learned from that episode. In 2016, Minnijean donated more than 20 personal objects to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American
On February 1, 2010, his second book, SIMPLE, NOT EASY: Reflections on Community, Social Responsibility, and History. The collection includes a Little Rock Central High School yearbook, a graduation dress, a personal
Tolerance was published. The essays in this volume seek to guide the reader toward more socially responsible letter from President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a notice of suspension and photographs. She is a proud mother and
positions in life. grandmother who still travels globally spreading a message of antiracism, nonviolence, peace and reconciliation.

In recognition of his contributions to society, Dr. Roberts has been the recipient of: The Congressional Gold Medal,
The Pere Marquette Discovery Award, The Spingarn Medal and The Robert S. Abbott Award.

10 • 37th Annual MLK Day of Celebration 37th Annual MLK Day of Celebration • 11