Heather Foster, an advisor in the White House Office of Public Engagement, will join the Obama administration?s My Brother?s Keeper Alliance (MBKA).?
?Heather has brought integrity, character, and passion to her successful management of a broad and diverse portfolio of issues that are vitally important to the African American and civil rights communities,? Valerie Jarrett said. ?Heather had the ability to professionally juggle a thousand balls in the air, and yet with composure, grace, and humor, she kept a laser like focus on the importance of the actual people she was here to serve.?
She will begin working with MBKA in the fall.?
Since its launch, the Alliance has become increasingly popular among business organizations, spawning similar initiatives such as the U.S. Small Business Administration’s My Brother’s Keeper Millenial Entrepreneur initiative. Just last month, SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet tapped entrepreneur Mike Muse to be the Millenial Entrepreneur Champion and travel around the nation’s underserved neighborhoods to promote entrepreneurship.? ? ?
In her new role, Foster will help coordinate public-private partnerships for the corporate-backed nonprofit. In her prior role, she helped coordinate events that involved racial issues, such as the recent shooting of the nine worshippers in Charles, South Carolina, as well as coordinating the President?s remarks after the funeral of Trayvon Martin.
The Washington Post has reported that Foster released the following statement about her new post and her time spent in the Office of Public Engagement: ?Meeting those nine families of the victims was heartbreaking,? she said.??Going to Mother Emanuel, seeing the love of the community that day, people started lining up at 3:30 a.m. to come into the arena. I saw so many people of different races coming to the funeral services of Reverend Pinkney. Seeing that unity coming out of such tragedy was something I?ll never forget? That?s part of the reason I?m so excited to start a new job that will continue to strengthen opportunities for communities of color.?
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