Uncrowned Community Builders

Dr. Ann Shenethia Manuel was born in Lima, Oklahoma. She was reared in Lima, Seminole, County and Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. She graduated from New Lima High School, a small rural school in Seminole, Oklahoma. Dr. Manuelââ?¬â?¢s ancestral roots in Oklahoma dates back to the ââ?¬Å?Natives,ââ?¬ African Americans who traveled to Oklahoma before statehood during Indian removal from the southeastern United States. After her mother died in 1963, ââ?¬Å?Uncrowned Queenââ?¬ Dealthree Keesee, her motherââ?¬â?¢s sister, reared her and taught her the importance of understanding that the world has many people with many world views which is something that should be appreciated and promoted, not feared.

The first and only college graduate in her immediate family, and among the first in her extended family, Dr. Manuel received her Bachelors of Science in Social Studies- Education from The University of Oklahoma, her Juris Doctorate from The University of Texas-Austin and her Masters of Art in Ministry and Culture from Phillips Theological Seminary.

A recipient of the excellent education provided by the ââ?¬Å?Uncrowned Queensââ?¬ who taught at Lima Elementary and Junior High School, in the originally African American town of Lima, Oklahoma, she has worked to preserve the glorious history of her home community. Working with Oklahoma City Public School students through the GEAR-UP program, Shenethia started the Rosenwald Project, a project designed to document and preserve the history of ââ?¬Å?Rosenwaldââ?¬ structures in Oklahoma, specifically Oklahoma County, and Lima, Oklahoma, as well as to examine the relationship between Jewish Americans and African Americans in the 20th century. She believes that the construction of the ââ?¬Å?Rosenwald Schoolsââ?¬ demonstrates the ability of those from different cultural backgrounds to address what she believes is a basic human rightââ?¬â?the right to educational opportunities.

Rosenwald Schools are structures partially funded by Julius Rosenwald, Jewish philanthropist and then Chairman of Sears &Roebuck Co and the community where the schools were constructed. Mr. Rosenwald donated 10% of the cost of the structures to stimulate construction of schools for African American children prior to desegregation in the American south.

The Rosenwald Fund built structures between 1917 and 1932. Schools were built in Oklahoma, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia, and Texas. The Rosenwald Fund helped stimulate the construction of 198 educational structures in 44 Oklahoma counties.

Shenethia is currently employed at Rose State College in Midwest City, Oklahoma. She has served as the Presidential Advisor on Intercultural Communication and Education and the Director of the college's Student Affairs grant programs. In her capacity as the presidential advisor on intercultural communication and education, she is responsible for developing and implementing the institutions programs and activities related to national and international cultural communication. She develops and leads international study abroad trips; develops and directs activities and programs designed to expose students, faculty and staff to a variety of cultures; and provides the President with advice on policies, programs and activities related to intercultural studies. She currently serves as the Director of Personnel in addition to her intercultural programming responsibilities.

Shenethia has extensive experience in human resource management, workplace diversity and human rights initiatives. She served as the Human Rights Coordinator for the Texas State Auditors Office and the Director of Human Resources for Carl Albert State College in Poteau, Oklahoma.

She provides seminars and presentations on tolerance, intercultural studies, forgiveness and reconciliation, and healing our hurts based on biblical principles. Dr. Manuel is a contributing author to the Women of Color Study Bible. Her intercultural research interests include the relationship between African Americans and Jewish Americans and African Americans and indigenous American.

Shenethia is the proud parent of a 16-year old young man, Terral N. Manuel, who asked her to be his mother in 2001.