Jackson, MS – April 22, 2011 – Jackson, MS – Echo is pleased to announce the addition of 4 new members to its Board of Directors. Ms. Tanya Garduño, Dr. Marvin Haire, Ms. Kameisha Smith, and Mr. Jerry Wilson join Echo’s board offering a diversity and wealth of experiences and knowledge.
Ms. Tanya Garduño is the Mass Base Political Organizer with Southwest Workers’ Union in San Antonio, TX. Ms. Garduño has participated in block walking, petition signing, phone banking, and voter registration drives. She has organized community meetings, marches, protests and fundraising events. She is currently engaged in developing and conducting census and redistricting workshops for grassroots community groups and public officials in several regions in Texas. Tanya is also on the Steering Committee of the South x Southwest Experiment and on the Executive Committee of the Pushback Network.
Dr. Martin Haire is Director of the Delta Research & Cultural Institute at Mississippi Valley State University, the only historically black public university in the MS Delta. Dr. Haire is a recognized curriculum design specialist. He has acquired over 20 years of direct experience in adult and continuing education and over 15 years of formal experience as a senior-level buy ambien cr online administrator at the collegiate level. He has collaborated with Echo and the Roundtable in the development of the Dismantling the Achievement Gap convenings at MVSU, with the development of Echo’s Early Childhood Care and Learning Program, and in the development of Echo and the Roundtable’s Conflict Resolution training programs for local school districts.
Ms. Kameisha Smith is a youth organizer with Nollie Jenkins Family Life Center in Lexington, MS. She is a student at the local high school, J.J. McClain. She has participated in Southern Echo’s South by Southwest Experiment and other programs.
Mr. Jerry Wilson is an attorney with expertise in elections law and political redistricting. Mr. Wilson has provided expert testimony in more than 30 elections law and political redistricting cases. He has litigated more than 25 voting rights cases and has published and presented extensively on voting rights law. Jerry has worked with Southern Echo staff and grassroots communities around redistricting in Mississippi for the past 20 years.
Three members of the Echo Board, Ms. Clara Davis, Mr. Oliver Rice, and Mr. Hollis Watkins, retired and were honored for their years of dedicated service and support by being designated Board Members Emeritus.
