“With humility and gratitude yet excited to receive this award. I see this as an opportunity to further increase my network and capacity to engage with people, groups, and organization who share a similar mission to expand food production and enhance food security, using agriculture as a platform”.
Family
“I am from the twin island state of St. John’s Antiqua and Barbuda that is located in the Eastern Caribbean. I have been married for 19 years to Jeniffer, a native of the United States Virgin Island, and we have a daughter whose name is Chelsea.
Work and Career
I have worked both in the field of agriculture and food production in the Caribbean and the United States over the past 30 years. I have lived in the States for the past 22 years. I completed by my Bachelor’s degree at Lincoln University in Missouri, and masters of agribusiness degree at theUniversity of Florida. I previous managed a 1200 acre vegetable production operation in South West Florida until 2005 and have been employed with Cooperative Extension at Delaware State since 2006.
I work with Delaware State University Cooperative extension System, and my job is to expand agribusiness opportunities to small, minority, immigrants, and a other diverse community groups in Delaware, Philadelphia, the Mid-Atlantic and theNortheast region of the United States. Prior to working with Delaware State, I had a lot of agricultural experience. My work experience, training and skills have equipped me with the capacity and know-hot to ability to assist producers who want to elevate from hobby to business, or assist them to use an entrepreneurial approach to their business.
“Grant writing and fundraising increases my ability to do more, Presently, I have summer camp programs where I provide experiential learning for 100 children between the ages of 7 to 14 and 14 to 18, exposing 600 K-12 youths to agricultural careers and opportunity over the past 6 years.
Health and Perspective
“I’ve started experience health challenges with my kidneys since 2007, and as a result, it had diminished my capacity to do great work in the community. On August11, 2011, I received a kidney transplant at the Christiana Hospital in Delaware. My wife Jeniffer was the donor of the kidney I received. Prior to my health challenges, I thought I had a long life to live. I was living a very relaxed, carefree life and was not always motivated to do great things. Once I got the second lease on life, I’ve become more appreciative of life, people, moments, and time. In addition, it gave me more zeal and enthusiasm to do work for the greater good of people whether they are in the Unites States the Caribbean, Africa or in other regions of the world.
Accomplishments
I have receive numerous award from various organizations for providing topnotch education, training and outreach to people in Urban and rural communities.
In 2008, I received the Directors Spirit award from the University of Delaware for enhancing collaboration between extension educators at University of Delaware and Delaware State University
In 2010, I received the Sussex Child Health Promotion Coalition award for improving the health and expanding economic opportunities to the Spanish speaking community in Southern Delaware
In 2011, I was the recipient of the Delaware State University Directors Award for promoting diversity in Cooperative Extension programs.
In 2015, I received the Citizen of the Year award from Antigua and Barbuda Association of Philadelphia for outstanding achievements in Agriculture, Science and Education.
I have secured over $1,000,000 dollars in grant as a Principle Investigator/Co-Principle investigator and has served on both the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Develop (RERCRD) an the DuPont Environmental and Education Center(DEEC )
Legacy
“Over the years, there have been less African Americans, Hispanics, and people of color getting involved in agriculture. I want to help increase the number of minorities get back into agriculture to enhance our global food security. That is the core of my mission and my legacy.
