INTERVIEW
Tried and true Aunjanue
aesthetically speaking
MORE ON PAGE 10
Insight News March 7 - March 13, 2016
Vol. 43 No. 10 • The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com
Legacy
Honoring history and heritage, Insight News, in partnership with the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department, profiles past and emerging leaders from the Twin Cities African American community.
Wilhelmina Wright
Wilhelmina Wright takes the Federal Court oath Nneka Morgan
Irene Quarshie
CELEBRATING THE FUTURE Nneka Morgan is an investment professional who brings to her clients more than ten years of demonstrated experience with some of the country’s most prestigious financial services firms. Morgan currently works at Merrill Lynch. Since joining the firm in 2008, Morgan has developed strategies using varied investment vehicles to assist clients with better managing and enhancing their wealth. Her portfolio includes advisement to institutions, nonprofit organizations, and small to medium size businesses, high-net-worth individuals, and senior executives. Morgan understands her ability to reach back and pull forward in every step of her journey. She is an active leader within the community and uses her knowledge and influence to advance racial equality. She is an Appointed Commissioner with the St. Paul Port Authority, a Trustee for Hamline University and sits on the board of directors for Regions Hospital and for Capital City Properties. Morgan uses her knowledge and experience to empower community and promote healthy financial habits. She is the host of Financial Fitness, a program on KMOJ-FM radio focused on financial health. On her show, Morgan stresses the importance of financial literacy. She is deeply committed to lending her expertise to community organizations and individuals
Irene Quarshie is the Vice President of Product Quality and Responsible Sourcing for Target Corporation. Quarshie began her career as a strategy and management consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton. She spent three years in the government affairs industry as a legislative analyst and political action committee manager. In 2005, Quarshie began her career with Target Corporation. At Target, She has held many leadership positions, including Senior Group Manager of Corporate Risk and Responsibility and Group Manager of Supplier Diversity. As a senior group manager, her responsibilities included; enterprise risk management, environmental sustainability, and reputation management. On the Supplier Diversity team, she led the strategy and execution of minority and woman-owned business development programs. In 2009, Quarshie became Director of Government Affairs at Target. As Director, she administered the strategic management of all government affairs activities at state and local levels nationwide. Her team advanced public policy initiatives closely aligned with Target’s business and
MORGAN TURN TO 9
QUARSHIE TURN TO 9
Justice Wilhelmina Wright became the 35th person to serve on Minnesota’s federal bench when she was sworn in on Feb. 18. Wright was administered the oath by Chief U.S. District Judge John Tunheim in a private ceremony. A public investiture ceremony will be held at a later date. Before becoming a U.S. District Judge, Wright served as associate justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court, a position she held since 2012, and as a judge on the Minnesota Court of Appeals from 2002 to 2012. Before joining the Court of Appeals, Wright also served as a trial judge on the Ramsey County District Court in St. Paul. Before joining the bench, Wright was an Assistant U.S.
WRIGHT TURN TO 9
Rev. Jesse Jackson pushes for diversity on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley By Don Terry Special to the NNPA News Wire from the Rainbow PUSH Coalition
(Margot Jordan/RPC)
From left to right: Journalist Navarrow Wright, John Thompson of Microsoft and Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. speak during a “fireside chat” at the Wall Street Project Economic Summit in New York City.
NEW YORK CITY – At the Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s recently concluded 19th annual Wall Street Project Economic Summit there was something for anyone concerned about fighting for racial and economic justice in corporate America. There were titans of tech and powerful politicians, investors and inventors, sports legends and music stars – from opera to Hip Hop – foreign ambassadors and big city mayors, shameful statistics and
news to keep hope alive. The three-day summit, which advocates that the resources and board rooms of Wall Street and Silicon Valley be opened to Black businesses and other minority groups who have been locked out, started on Feb. 16 with news that the Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s hard work is paying off. It was announced that Apple is including African American, Latino and disabled veteranowned financial services firms in a whopping $10 billion to $12 billion debt offering. Rev. Jesse Jackson, founder and president of the Coalition, praised the deal
SUMMIT TURN TO 5
Commodified diversity at University of Minnesota By Kayla Steinberg, Twin Cities Daily Planet After walking up four floors of white marble staircases that looked out onto rows of chandeliers and carved ivory ceilings, I arrived in a small theater at the University of Minnesota’s Northrop Auditorium. On the top level of the pristine building, a panel discussion was scheduled on Feb. 11 by the equally lofty institutions of the University of Minnesota’s College of Liberal Arts and Minnesota Public Radio with the title, “Is there a right way
to protest?” The fact that the event was scheduled a year and two days after the university had 13 student protesters arrested on school grounds for demanding an end to racial profiling and lack of funds for ethnic studies departments strongly hints that the university has a clear, affirmative answer to the panel’s title question. Around a dozen students saw the university’s motives in the discussion and decided to take the dialogue into their own hands by protesting the MPR event.
Kayla Steinberg
Rashaan Mahadeo (left) and David Melendez (right) sit on the steps of Morill Hall, where they were arrested in 2015 for protesting the University of Minnesota’s commodification of diversity.
U OF M TURN TO 7
Health
Business
Commentary
Lifestyle
Fertile after 40
Making the needle move: Corporate men behind the birth of the UNCF telethon
The Third Reconstruction Era
Open mind, open life
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