Moving Up

Renee R. Jenkins, M.D., F.A.A.P.

Renee R. Jenkins, M.D., F.A.A.P., is the first African-American to be elected vice president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. She will become president-elect at this year’s AAP national conference in Atlanta, and will serve as the association’s president from 2007 to 2008. The AAP is the nation’s largest pediatric organization, with a membership of 60,000 primary-care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists. Jenkins is professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health at Howard University and adjunct professor of Pediatrics at George Washington Univer-sity, both in Washington, D.C. She is a graduate of Wayne State University School of Medicine and completed her residency at Jacobi Hospital/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. She is a past president of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the AAP, and served as president of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, and chair of the Pediatric Section of the National Medical Association.

Gary Anthony Ramsay
Gary Anthony Ramsay, weekend anchor and reporter for NY1 News, was elected president of the New York Association of Black Jour-nalists. Ramsay, a veteran journalist who has covered a wide variety of stories in New York and on the international front, will preside as president for a two-year term. NYABJ, with more than 450 members, is one of the largest local chapters of the National Association of Black Journalists, which boasts more than 3,300 members and is the world’s largest organization for journalists of color. Ramsay, sits on the board of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of New York and is actively involved in a number of charitable community efforts.

Ephren Taylor
Ephren Taylor was elected CEO of City Capital Corp. With this election, the 23-year-old Taylor, who is also CEO of Amoro Corp., becomes the youngest African-American CEO of a publicly traded company. His companies manage residential and commercial developments, including the Kansas City Historic Jazz District, a 214-unit condominium complex, a 310-home subdivision near Memphis, and more than 100 homes in Cleveland. He was named Kansas Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2002 by the Kansas Department of Commerce for his investment concepts, which he uses in AmoroCorp and City Capital.

Lenora Billings-Harris
Lenora Billings-Harris, educational innovator and motivational speaker, has been elected national president of The National Speakers Association (NSA), the leading organization for professional speakers located in Phoenix. Billings-Harris will take the helm as the first African-American president of the 3,700-member organization at the 2006 National Convention in Orlando, Fla. She is president and founder of Excel Development Systems Inc., and has worked with corporations, educational institutions and associations, providing dynamic and relevant professional education programs to assist them in incorporating diversity throughout their business models, including as a core business objective. Billings-Harris was past president of Win-Win Resolutions Inc., a nonprofit organization in North Carolina that teaches K-12 students conflict resolution and diversity understanding through the use of drama. She is also an adjunct professor at University of North Carolina-Greensboro.

Israel L. Gaither and Eva D. Gaither
Israel L. Gaither and his wife, Eva D. Gaither, were installed as national commander and national president of women’s ministries, respectively, for The Salvation Army. They were appointed in tandem, according to Salvation Army practice. Commissioner Israel Gaither is the first African-American to hold the position in The Salvation Army’s 126-year history. In this role Gaither heads a vast army of 3,661 officers, 112,513 soldiers, 422,543 members, 60,642 employees and nearly 3.5 million volunteers. He is the Salvation Army’s chief spokesperson in the United States and coordinates matters of national concern to its mission. He will act as the chairman of the national board of trustees and be responsible for presiding over the triennial commissioners’ conferences, which bring together key executive leaders of the Salvation Army’s four territories in the United States. Prior to joining National Headquarters, the Commissioners Gaither worked for four years at The Salvation Army’s International Headquarters in London, where Israel Gaither was second-in-command of the worldwide organization and Eva Gaither served as World Secretary for Women’s Ministries.

Charles H. Scales
Charles H. Scales is the new associate administrator for the Office of Institutions and Management at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration headquarters in Washington, D.C. In his new position, Scales manages operational and management support activities across the agency. He also ensures the agency work force, infrastructure, and facility capabilities are working together in support of NASA’s long-term needs. Most recently, Scales was deputy director in the Office of Center Operations at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
Scales began his NASA career in 1973 as a cooperative education student in the Management Services Office at Marshall. He earned a bachelor’s degree in general business from Alabama A&M University and joined the center’s Institutional and Program Support Directorate as a communications specialist in 1975.