Former Congresswoman, Philanthropist Elected to Joint Center Board of Governors

WASHINGTON, May 30, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, one of the nation's leading research and public policy institutions, has announced that former Michigan Congresswoman Carolyn C. Kilpatrick and Freada Kapor Klein, Ph.D., a philanthropist and an expert on issues of discrimination and diversity, have been elected to three-year terms on its board of governors.

Congresswoman Kilpatrick represented her congressional district in Detroit from 1996 to 2010, serving on the House Appropriations Committee and as chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.  She served in the Michigan House of Representatives from 1979 to 1996, and is the owner and Managing Partner of J&A Global Partners, LLC, a consulting company with offices in Detroit and Washington, DC, that specializes in management and administration issues for businesses and government agencies.

Dr. Klein is a trailblazer on discrimination and diversity issues, having worked in the field since the early 1970s. In 1976, she co-founded the first U.S. organization to offer comprehensive services, training and consultation on sexual harassment to both the private and public sectors. She was also the first Director of Employee Relations for Lotus Development Corporation. More recently, as President of Klein Associates, Inc., she has designed, conducted and analyzed employee surveys and provided intervention in training, consultation and policy development.  Dr. Klein is the author of Giving Notice: Why the Best and Brightest are Leaving the Workplace and How You Can Help them Stay, focusing on why people of color, women, gays and lesbians leave corporate America.   She earned her Ph.D. from the Heller School at Brandeis University.

Among her philanthropic endeavors, Dr. Klein founded the Level Playing Field Institute to help eliminate barriers faced by people of color in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

"The Joint Center is fortunate to have attracted strong leaders like the Honorable Carolyn C. Kilpatrick and Dr. Freada Kapor Klein to join our Board of Governors," said Cynthia G. Marshall, Chair of the Joint Center's Board of Governors and President of AT&T North Carolina. "We are confident that each will help guide the Joint Center to new levels of effectiveness and impact as we seek to fulfill our mission of supporting black leadership and building a better America for all people."

"With the direction and encouragement of Congresswoman Kilpatrick and Dr. Klein, the Joint Center will be better positioned to meet the challenges of this complex and difficult age as we go about the work of expanding opportunities for all Americans," said Ralph B. Everett, the Joint Center's President and CEO. 

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies is one of the nation's leading research and public policy institutions and the only one whose work focuses primarily on issues of particular concern to African Americans and other people of color. To learn more, please visit www.jointcenter.org.

SOURCE Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies