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Peggy
Brooks-Bertram
Co-Founder
of Uncrowned Queens Peggy
Brooks-Bertram is the youngest child and seventh daughter of
Margaret Gilliam Brooks and Vernon Brooks of Richmond, Virginia.
She moved to Buffalo, New York in 1986 with her husband,
Dennis A. Bertram, and two children Dennison Ivor-Jean and
Lillian-Yvonne Margaret Bertram.
She completed a B.A. in Political Science from Goucher
College in Baltimore, Maryland, and received a Masters and
Doctorate from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene
and Public Health. In
June 2002, she completed a second doctorate in American Studies
from the University at Buffalo, The State University at New
York. Currently she
is an Adjunct Assistant Professor and Director of Undergraduate
Studies in the Department of African American Studies at the
University at Buffalo.
Dr. Bertram
is a multi-talented individual with interests across a broad
spectrum including public education, special topics in public
health, journalism, creative writing, and independent
scholarship on various topics in African American history. She
is the founder and CEO of Jehudi Educational Services, an
independent consultant firm specializing in K-12 curriculum
development, staff development and training, conference and
seminar planning, and specialized grant and proposal
development.
Dr. Bertram
is devoted to public education and has a distinguished record of
advocacy for parents of children in public schools.
Her previous activities included Chair, Parent Advisory
Committee, Buffalo Board of Education; Chair, Early Childhood
Centers; Member, African History Infusion Committee; Chair,
Prevention Committee, Blue Ribbon Task Force on AIDS; and
others. She remains
a vocal advocate for parent involvement in public schools. Her
advocacy resulted in the co-founding of Concerned Parents and
Citizens for Quality Education, Inc., a group credited with
increasing public awareness of educational issues, organizing
parents as effective advocates, securing public funding to
educate parents, and shaping public policy on review of Board of
Education members.
Her
interests and activities in public health include African
American women and depression and developmental disabilities and
African Americans. Her book chapters on depression include "Social and
Psychological Aspects of Women's Health: A Diversified
Perspective" in Psychiatric Issues in Women,
Bailliere’s International Practice and Research in Psychiatry
(1997) and "African American Women: Disfigured Images in
the Epidemiology of Depression", in African American
Women and Health edited by Catherine Collins (1997).
She also is interested in African American women and
work-related depression.
She
maintains a special interest in families of children with
neurological impairments. She was instrumental in the creation
of a parent-based organization called the Alliance of
Neurological Impairments to provide services for families with
children with “low incidence” conditions such as Prader
Willi Syndrome, Neurofibromatosis, Narcolepsy, Spina Bifida, and
other impairments. She is nationally known for her work with Prader Willi
Syndrome and has successfully written grants for Buffalo
agencies to provide services to these families.
Dr. Bertram
is no stranger to broadcast media.
For several years she maintained a bi-line, MAAT,
with the Challenger newspaper. She produced her own radio
program, Peggy’s Place, which focused on issues
pertinent to the African American community.
She also was co-producer and host of an educational
television program, Education in Review, which informed
the community of major educational issues in Buffalo and beyond.
She is a
playwright, poet, and dramatist. Her creative writing includes
five children’s books entitled, African On My Stairs.
Illustrations from this series hang in the Rev. Bennett W. Smith
Family Life Center at St. John Baptist Church. In 1988, her
play, Dynasties of Kush, was selected to be included in
the University at Buffalo, First International Women's
Playwright Conference. It was enacted at the Langston
Hughes Institute.
Dr. Bertram
also is an independent scholar, researching and writing on the
Dungy family of Virginia. Her
particular interest is the life and writings of Drusilla Dunjee
Houston, author of the obscure and forgotten text, Wonderful
Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite Empires.
She is author of a book chapter on Houston to be featured
in the Oklahoma Encyclopedia Project, part of the 2007
celebration of the founding of the State of Oklahoma. She is also author of a book (in press) on Houston entitled, Drusilla
Dunjee Houston: Uncrowned Queen in the African American
Women’s Literary Tradition. She has lectured on her
scholarship at numerous Universities and colleges throughout the
United States, Africa, Europe, and Canada.
In 2001,
Morgan State University awarded her the university’s first Distinguished
Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions to African
American History and Culture. Other scholarly
interests include the Old Testament dynasties of the ancient
Kings of Kush. Her
book chapter on the Kings of Kush appears in the Journal of
African Civilizations, edited by Ivan Van Sertima (1997).
Dr.
Bertram has been instrumental in building organizations to
benefit community development.
These include co-founding of the WASET Cultural Heritage
Society, Saturday School for African American Children;
Concerned Parents and Citizens for Public Education; and more
recently, the Uncrowned Queens Institute for Research and
Education on Women, Inc. The
Uncrowned Queens Institute is derived from the Uncrowned Queens
Project a web-based application of history and cultural
enrichment for the African American community, http://wings.buffalo.edu/uncrownedqueens.
Community
service awards include M.O.C.H.A. (Men of Color Helping All) of
the Year Award, African-American Fire Fighters; Clifford G. Bell
Community Service Award; and the National Association of
Counties, Individual Achievement Award for Family Support
Programs for Families of Children with Prader-Willi Syndrome.
More
recently, Peggy received the University at Buffalo, UB Service
Excellence Award for the Library Internship/Residency Program,
2001. In addition, she is the recipient of the UB Star
Award 2001 for outstanding work on the Pan-American Exposition
centennial celebration with the Uncrowned Queens Project.
Awards from women’s organizations include the Xi
Epsilon Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Excellence
in Education Aware; the Mary B. Talbert Civic and Cultural
Club’s Award for Community Service and the prestigious Buffalo
Urban League’s 2002 Community Life Award.
She also is the recipient of the William Wells Brown
award from the Afro-American Historical Association of the
Niagara Frontier.
She is the
co-author, along with Barbara
Seals Nevergold, of a recently published book,
Uncrowned
Queens: African American Women Community Builders of Western New
York. She is
co-authoring a second book on the African/African American
experience at the Pan American Exposition.
It is entitled African, Darkies and Negroes: Black
Faces at the Pan American Exposition of 1901.
Other
community activities include membership on the Board of
Directors of the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society and
the Kaleida Health Trustee Council
Dr. Bertram
is a member of the St. John Baptist Church where she is Chair of
the St. John Hospice Development Committee.
In this position, she has a leadership role in developing
the first Faith-based Hospice and Palliative Care center for an
African American community in the nation
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posted 26 December 2007
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