Jacqueline Brannon-Giles:  

I was born in Houston, Texas when a Jim Crow system of segregation of African Americans existed. In my home state “Blacks were excluded from the formal political system until passage of federal civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s” when I was an undergraduate student majoring in mathematics. I wanted to be a mathematician so that I could think strategically and strive to overcome barriers and hindrances to my growth and personal development. I earned four degrees and studied at the doctoral level in mathematics and interdisciplinary engineering. Dr. Eugene DeLoatch identified my potential to become a professor, because I actually desired to continue working on Wall Street, New York City. Mr. John Work (his father was director of the Fisk University Jubilee Singers) hired me as a mathematics instructor at the Urban Center in Manhattan, a program administered by the State University of New York – Stony Brook and Borough of Manhattan Community College. I became politically astute as a result of collaborating with Mr. John Herriford, our AFL-CIO AFCT union representative and by interactions with other discerning professors who taught with me at the Theresa Hotel, in Harlem. I have traveled to Russia, Nigeria (three times), Tanzania, and Egypt. I am prepared to articulate issues because of my mathematical and verbal skills, honed by my interactions with professionals such as Dr. Jack Alexander, Dr. Johnny Houston, Dr. Don Small, Dr. Jerry Porter and many others. I am the mathema...Expand for more