Commentary: African American Scientists and Inventors
by Black Kos Editor, Sephius1
Lisa Stevens is the curator of primates at the Zoo. She managed all aspects of the Zoo's giant panda program from 1987 to 2010, and has managed the primate program since 1981. Her areas of supervision include daily operations, personnel, budget, long-range planning, record keeping, research, education, exhibit design, and construction.
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She also has worked with a diverse collection of mammals including, ungulates, pachyderms, bears, cats, marine mammals, and a variety of small mammals. Lisa was part of the team that designed the Zoo’s ground breaking O Line and Think Tank exhibits.
Before working at the Zoo, Stevens worked as a field research assistant, in pet and aquarium retail, veterinary clinic operations, insect zoo husbandry and interpretation, and riding stable management. She has been a horse owner for more than 24 years.
Stevens participates in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Species Survival Plan for several species. National Zoo committee memberships and coordination include animal welfare, education council, exhibit program evaluation, minority outreach, and bias awareness/employee relations.
Through Friends of the National Zoo, International Expeditions, SI Journeys and World Wildlife Fund, Stevens has been a tour leader for natural history tours in Africa, Madagascar, India, and South America.
She holds a bachelor of science degree, zoology/pre-veterinary medicine, from Michigan State University, East Lansing.....Read More
A WaPo interview with Lisa Stevens.
Some videos with Lisa Stevens and Tai Shan the panda.
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News by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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Sad and sobering news. Pew Research Center: Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks, Hispanics
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The median wealth of white households is 20 times that of black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of newly available government data from 2009.
These lopsided wealth ratios are the largest since the government began publishing such data a quarter century ago and roughly twice the size of the ratios that had prevailed between these three groups for the two decades prior to the Great Recession that ended in 2009.
The Pew Research analysis finds that, in percentage terms, the bursting of the housing market bubble in 2006 and the recession that followed from late 2007 to mid-2009 took a far greater toll on the wealth of minorities than whites. From 2005 to 2009, inflation-adjusted median wealth fell by 66% among Hispanic households and 53% among black households, compared with just 16% among white households.
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Education is the civil rights battle of the 21st century. Colorlines: Why Are So Few Young Men of Color Graduating High School?
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There’s a new way to look at data released earlier this summer on the challenges young men of color face in school. Earlier this summer, the College Board released a new report that offers more detailed insight into what holds many of these young men back in school. The association, which is made up of more than 5,900 educational organizations that sell standardized tests like the SAT, studied four different groups: African Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Hispanics/Latinos and Native Americans. The research spans the course of their journeys and detours from kindergarden to college.
Sadly, the results weren’t surprising. It found that nearly half of young men of color age 15 to 24 who graduate from high school in the U.S. will end up unemployed, incarcerated or dead. Of the five groups studied, Native American males with high school diplomas were the least likely to be enrolled in secondary education programs.
“At a time when our nation is committed to reclaiming its place as the world leader in higher education, we can no longer afford to ignore the plight of our young men of color,” said Gaston Caperton, College Board President, shortly after the report was released in June. “As long as educational opportunities are limited for some, we all suffer.”
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Young protesters seeking to oust Senegal’s aging president filled the streets outside a central courthouse in the capital, Dakar, on Tuesday, a day after the police arrested a rapper and prominent democracy activist. New York Times: Protest After Senegal Arrests Activist Rapper
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A Facebook page for the country’s youth-driven protest movement, Y’en a Marre, or We’re Fed Up, had urged supporters to gather in peaceful protest in front of the court building in the capital where the rapper and democracy activist, Omar Touré, was brought after spending a night in jail.
According to Le Quotidien, a Senegalese newspaper, the protest continued late into the night.
According to local press reports, the police detained Mr. Touré, better known to young Senegalese protesters and the press by his stage name, Thiat, for comments he made during a large demonstration over the weekend in which he called the octogenarian Senegalese president, Abdoulaye Wade, a liar and said he was too old to govern.
The Senegalese newspaper Populaire reported that Mr. Touré said at the rally: “An old man can still be useful to a country when he is striving for the right path. But an old man of 90 years who goes back on his word — or who lies — should not stay in a country.” (Many in Senegal believe the president is older than his official age of 85.)
The police have refused to disclose the charges against Mr. Touré, according to news agency reports.
A wave of protests began in Senegal, a West African bastion of relative democracy, after Mr. Wade declared in February that he would to extend his time in office by running for an extra term in what critics say is a violation of the country’s Constitution. Senegal’s next presidential election is in February 2012.
Omar Touré and Daby Touré
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In some places, the child malnutrition rate has soared to 55% and infant deaths have reached six a day, UNICEF says. Agencies are appealing for aid to boost operations in the war- and drought-stricken nation. LA Times: U.N. declares famine in southern Somalia
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For months, people have been trudging out of the desert, leaving their dead children behind and carrying those who have managed to survive. On Wednesday, the horror of hunger and death unfolding in the Horn of Africa officially got a name: famine.
It's actually a very technical term, unless you're one of those walking for weeks in a last-ditch hope to save your family.
For the United Nations to declare a famine, as it did at a news conference in Nairobi, Kenya, the rate of child malnutrition must be at 30% or higher, daily deaths at two per 10,000 people and people not have access to food and other basic necessities.
According to UNICEF, the U.N. agency that focuses on children, the child malnutrition rate in southern Somalia has doubled in a single month; in some places it has reached 55% and infant deaths have increased to six a day.
Yet the global response has been dismal. An appeal late last year for $535 million to address the need is still more than $250 million short. Officials hope the famine declaration will help focus global attention on the Horn of Africa.
Eleven-month-old Abdifatah Hassan, suffering from severe malnutrition, is cared for at a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders at a camp housing Somali refugees in Dadaab, Kenya. The United Nations officially declared famine in two regions of southern Somalia, saying child malnutrition rates exceed 30% and as many as six children age 5 or younger are dying daily. The region is suffering its worst drought in 60 years and tens of thousands are feared dead. (Roberto Schmidt / AFP/Getty Images / July 4, 2011)
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