Editor’s note: Each year during Black History Month, the Denver Urban Spectrum honors African Americans who are making a difference in the lives of others. In honor of our 20th year of publishing and based on past recognition, number of times nominated and questionnaire response, we have selected (from 51 nominations) 20 recipients as the 2007 African Americans Who Make A Difference. They told us about their achievements, what motivated them to become active in their community, suggestions to address the challenges facing the community, and how they would like to be remembered. Once you read their profiles, you will understand why they were chosen.

Michael Perry Ayers
Executive Director, DBAF
As Denver’s guru of African American culture, Michael Perry Ayers, executive director of the popular Denver Black Arts Festival, has been promoting and supporting Denver’s Black visual and performing arts for many years.
“It is imperative for African Americans to educate and stimulate people about cultural awareness, to celebrate their heritage and acknowledge their legacy for the generations to come.” He challenges every African American citizen in Denver to attend one cultural event every month. “If this were achieved,” Ayers said, “every cultural venue and activity would fill up and further support the African American culture in Denver.”
Ayers is committed to the well-being of the Denver African American community, and he hopes to restore Five Points to a cultural hub of commerce and regain the existence of a healthy business climate.
Ayers would like to be remembered as the guru of African American culture in Denver, a purveyor of fun, and one who was a steward of caring about the keeping the culture.

Darrick Brown
Sr. VP, Wells Fargo Bank
Entrepreneur
Darrick Brown is often times referred to as “the Clark Kent” of Denver. He is the senior vice president at Wells Fargo Bank by day, and also the vocalist and band leader for the Jazz fusion band Latitude Experience at night. Brown is very well connected in the small business community, and serves on a number of local boards.
Brown also owns the club Jazz at Jacks, located in the Pavilions in downtown Denver. Brown and the Jazz at Jack’s crew will often open their doors to non-profit organizations looking to host their events.
Some of Brown’s most notable accomplishments include serving on the committee to reopen Manual High School and becoming the first vice chair for the Colorado Black Chamber of Commerce. He believes he owes it to the community to take an active role and give back to his native Denver because he recognizes that many mentors have helped him along the way.
“I would like to be remembered as an innovator and trendsetter,” Brown said.

Chelsye J. Burrows
VP Programming, Starz Entertainment
Chelsye J. Burrows is the vice president for programming publicity at Starz Entertainment. In her position, she has worked on public and community relations, while opening opportunities for people in the cable, film, and entertainment industries. She has been an advocate for diversity in her work with the National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC), as well as her professional career with Starz, where she strives to promote African American filmmakers, directors and producers in various venues.
Brown feels the biggest challenge facing the African American community is to protect its image and ensure it is promoted in a positive way. “To do this,” she said, “they should have some control of the way the media depicts African Americans and other ethnic groups.”
Brown would like to be remembered as an individual that has made a positive influence on the way African Americans and other minorities are depicted in the media.

Lisa M. Calderon
Legal and Social Policy Director
Lisa M. Calderon is a very active member of the Denver community. She holds two degrees, is the legal and social policy director for the Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence (SPAN), is a part-time faculty member for CU Boulder’s Women and Gender Studies Department, and is active on several local boards and committees.
A Denver native and life-long community activist, Calderon speaks to the need for increased visibility of African American women and youth issues related to violence against them. She is also a vocal critic of laws and public policy initiatives that disproportionately impact and target young people of color (“Broken Windows Police Policing,” Denver Urban Spectrum December 2006).
Calderon is best known in the community as an antiracism trainer and educator and for her activism for safer and healthier communities by addressing issues of domestic violence. She would like to be remembered as a woman who wasn’t afraid to challenge white supremacy or patriarchy in order to provide children with a safer world and healthier homes to grow up in.

Stephanie Cross
City Council Aide
Stephanie Cross is a woman who works for the Denver community every day. As a council aide to Councilwoman Elbra Wedgeworth in Denver City Council’s District 8, she uses her position to assist many residents and community organizations. She is the founder of SMOC (Single Mothers Of Color, Inc.), an organization designed to assist working singe mothers of color. “This is an invisible group of women,” Cross said, “because they blend in with the daily societal details and needs of everyday life, but their family functionality and struggles are different than the norm.”
Cross’ choice to take an active role is passed down to her by her mother, who used her own community involvement to teach Cross to do the same with her time, energy and resources. Cross is best known as a woman who chose to live in the neighborhood she was raised, take advantage of the opportunities she was presented, despite all the odds and obstacles, and who matured into a contributing member of society while never forgetting her roots.
“I’m fulfilling my purpose,” she said, “and that’s how I want to be remembered.”

Rhonda Fields
Training Manager, United Airlines
Many people see Rhonda Fields as a pillar of strength. Since the death of her son Javad Marshall-Fields and his fiancée Vivian Wolfe on June 20, 2005, Fields has fought tirelessly to make changes in Colorado state law to better protect victims and crime witnesses; changes which were successfully enacted in July 2006. Fields has been very active in the community, earning several awards for her community outreach and services in Denver and other African American communities around the metro area.
“Intimidation of victims and witnesses undermines the functions of the justice system by denying critical evidence to police and prosecutors. Guns, gangs, drugs and poverty are major problems facing the African American community, and through education, qualities like respect, self control, tolerance and humility can be cultivated in developing proper attitudes towards life and healthy resolution of conflicts and differences,” Fields said.
Fields would like to be remembered as Javad Marshall Fields mother, who was called to bring peace in the presence of hatred and violence.

Bishop Kevin J. Foreman
Pastor, Urban Word Church International
Bishop Kevin J. Foreman is the senior pastor of Urban Word Church International and first assistant presiding bishop in Greater Destiny Assemblies International. In the Denver area, he is best known for his musical endeavors in the city and the ministry, which has been recognized by the Colorado Gospel Music Hall of Fame. He has been active in ministry in the Denver area for almost 10 years, and is recognized for being somewhat radical in his approach. This includes building Denver’s first and only Christian based lounge, Club V.
Foreman has chosen to take an active role because he sees people crying out for truth and change. He feels the biggest issue in the community is its self isolation. “Many are still stuck in a wilderness, slave-like mentality talking about “the man.” We must create and be the change that we wish to see, and we have got to stop settling,” Foreman said. 
Foreman wants to be remembered as someone who beat the odds and didn’t become a statistic, but rather used his tribulations to cause reformation.

Angela Hutton-Howard
Executive Director, Aurora Education Foundation
Denver native Angela Hutton-Howard is best known for her work in education, real estate, and the non-profit community. Currently, she is the executive director for the Aurora Education Foundation.  She served as the executive director of the Foundation for Educational Excellence in Green Valley Ranch and as a board member for Mile High Montessori.
Hutton-Howard has been instrumental in assisting African American families realize their dreams of homeownership through her work as a real estate broker. In the non-profit area, she has assisted schools in Far Northeast Denver obtain grants and funding for programs and projects that benefit those communities. “The biggest challenge facing the community is divisiveness. And because of it, the community cannot support itself or its members,” Hutton-Howard said. Her life-long dream is to establish a non-profit organization that supports, assists and encourages young African Americans to reach their full potential. This organization would be an avenue for young people to have the opportunity to explore different and varied career paths.
Hutton-Howard would like to be remembered as a wonderful mother, sister, friend, daughter and spirit-filled woman of God who had a passion for life and bringing joy to others.

Frances E. Jefferson
Regional Administration, US Dept. of Labor
Frances E. Jefferson is the regional administrator for the Women’s Bureau here in Colorado. In this position, she makes sure organizations in the community receive program funds and information on government programs. She has directly helped members of the community by hiring two African American senior women, a college graduate and a single parent, for contracted positions.
As a third-generation Denverite, Jefferson has had the opportunity to observe the economically slow growth in the African American community, as compared to other minority groups. She believes that, because she is in a position to make decisions, she should make a difference. “Even with a very small budget, I have a responsibility to make sure the community, which is often neglected, is aware of federal government programs and they are included in the selection and distribution process,” Jefferson said.
Jefferson would like the community to remember her as a compassionate, giving woman and a hard worker who cared about her community and mankind.

Richard Lewis
President/CEO, RTL Networks, Inc.
A committed father and member of several community boards, Richard Lewis is also a successful entrepreneur. He is the founder, president and CEO of RTL Networks, Inc., an IT services and solutions company. He is also a self-proclaimed champion of the Colorado Black Chamber of Commerce’s Chamber Connect program, which identifies and brings together “up-and-coming” African American businesspeople and entrepreneurs, introduces them to resources and guidance available to support them, and facilitates continued community involvement.
In addition to supporting the economic growth of Colorado-based Black-owned business, Lewis is co-founder of the Denver Black Professionals Consortium, a bi-annual African American-themed networking event that attracts more than 700 Black professionals to hear featured speakers like Mayors Webb and Hickenlooper. Lewis shows the community that people can effect change today and shape the future through involvement, participation and hard work.
Lewis would like to be remembered as a loving father to a fantastic son, and by his philosophy “We are each stronger, when we are all stronger; therefore, we must all do our best at whatever we do and support one another.”

Opalanga D. Pugh
Griot/Storyteller/Cultural Activist
Opalanga D. Pugh is a cultural activist and griot, a storyteller in the tradition of West African culture, who through entertainment and the power of the spoken word, teaches and informs the tribe or village. The community best knows her as a 21st century urban griot in the African oral tradition. As a weaver of community, a bridge maker, and cultural caretaker, she creates stories and ceremonies to welcome and name newborns, honor our ancestors and elders, and challenge our youth. She is the founding member of the Colorado Chapter of AAFANTE (African Americans Forming a New Tribal Existence), who with other community and national leaders, hosted the first Colorado Underground Railroad Odyssey Training.
“The work for this new millennium, as I see it, is emotional healing and nurturing relationships, and I plan to do my part by working with individuals and smaller groups in the healing arts, personal rituals, life review, and breath facilitation,” Pugh said.
Single with no kids, Pugh feels she is married to the community and what she grows is culture. “But, I’d like to be remembered as having made a difference in the cultural world view of the community – by using the cultural arts as tools for the healing, empowerment and celebration of the human spirit.”

Rev. Dr. Anne Rice-Jones
Retired Educator/Licensed Minister
Rev. Dr. Anne Rice-Jones is best known in the community for inspiring and encouraging others. She is a retired Jefferson County school teacher and is licensed in ministry by the Missionary Baptist Church. She has been extremely active in the community, offering her time, finances, cars and love to several organizations and people in her community, even providing foster care for 15 children and aiding a family displaced by hurricane Katrina.
“It is important to support the community and provide role models for current and future generations,” Rice-Jones said. She has always desired to give and share her time, talents and resources as a Christian, and most of her giving takes place in aiding foundations. The Rose of Sharon Ministries was formed in October 2006 as an outreach ministry. Her future plans include collaborating with community service groups and ministries to promote and support programs for families, the homeless and the elderly.
“I would like to be remembered as a woman who served her neighbor and modeled the way of Jesus,” she said. She wants to be noted as a philanthropist who believed we could do a lot with a little faith.

Michael Richardson
Program Director, J.P. Beckworth Mountain Club
Colorado’s peaks are no match for Michael Richardson. In fact, he’s climbed all of Colorado’s 54 Fourteeners (mountain peaks over 14,000 feet in elevation). He has also scaled his way to the program director position for the James P. Beckwourth Mountain Club, and acts as a mentor, positive role model, and leadership/wilderness instructor for at-risk metro Denver youth in the Club’s Outdoor Education Center program. He is proud to have exposed them to people, places, cultures and opportunities they would not otherwise have been exposed to. These experiences provide a new perspective on life, college, career, and a general appreciation for who they are and their unlimited potential.
When asked why he chooses to take an active role, Richardson feels that all adults have an obligation to effect positive change in the community. “We are the moral compass that our youth look to first, and we must not fail them, and we all benefit when we work toward a common goal,” Richardson said.
“I would like to be remembered as a common man with a great appreciation for the natural world and a commitment to youth development.” He would like to look back on his work in the community and know that he has helped develop strong, self-confident, socially and morally responsible young adults who are leaders among their peers.

Dr. Faye Rison
Adjunct College Professor
Dr. Faye Rison is an adjunct professor at Colorado Technical University and retired professor from Metro State College. She is best known in the Denver community as a community activist, volunteer and founder of the Breast Cancer Awareness Project. She is also the founder of the Christmas project Toys for Kids, and has served on several boards and projects in Africa. She has received many awards for her dedication to making the world a better place.
Rison chooses to take an active role because she believes it takes the effort of everyone to see the world become a better place. She wants to initiate and facilitate dialogue, programs, and projects to increase, mobilize and strengthen the network of people committed to building the world that we want to live in. “We can lead best by doing, demanding education for all and focusing on individual empowerment,” she said.
Rison believes education is the biggest challenge facing the African American Community and feels the system must move from a baby-sitting, pass or fail system, to education that enables the population to examine and highlight initiatives, teach key issues for action, demand synthesis and evaluation.
Rison would like to be remembered as an educator, professor, and a nurse committed to building relationship that initiative positive change to make the world a better place.

Sandra D. Shreve
Retired Education Adminstrator
Sandra D. Shreve is the president of the League of Women Voters of Denver, and is a retired assistant superintendent for Aurora Public Schools. She spent 33 years working in various roles in education. Since retiring, Shreve has been heavily involved in volunteer work in the community serving in many organizations and on many boards. Most of the work that she has done, and continues to do, has been on behalf of all members of the Colorado community, with a special love for the arts. She has received numerous awards for her contributions to the community, most recently the Girl Scouts’ 2006 Women of Distinction Award.
Shreve says she likes giving back to those communities that have sustained and nurtured her. She sees many challenges facing the African American community, including poverty, unemployment, gang violence, housing, poor health care, and lack of education at the top of her list. As an educator, she feels “we must instill and nurture the value of education within our children today and find ways to improve our schools and keep our kids in school.”
In the future, Shreve would like to get all of Denver’s diverse communities more engaged in the electoral process. She would also like to chronicle the lives and contributions of outstanding Black women of Colorado to inspire future generations of African American children.
“If anything...I would like to be remembered as someone who was a caring sister and loyal friend who did not judge others without first trying to walk in their footsteps.”

Dr. Russell William Simpson
Medical Doctor
Dr. Russell William Simpson has been caring for African American patients in the Montbello community and others for more than 25 years. He is best known for helping people control their blood pressure and diabetes, and being an educating voice on high blood pressure, breast cancer and prostate cancer. Most notably, he has acted as the voice of health for the community, speaking with pharmaceutical companies and African American churches about the health care needs of the community.
“The biggest challenge facing the African-American community is lack of knowledge on the silent diseases and allowing unnecessary health conditions to go untreated for years,” Simpson said. His future plans include teaching the community about the dangers of allowing high blood pressure, prostate cancer, diabetes, and female cancers to go untreated.
Simpson would like to be remembered as a caring, compassionate individual who has helped the African American community recognize and understand several health conditions that can be easily treated.

Dr. Claudette Evette Francois Sweet
Vocalist
Dr. Claudette Evette Francois Sweet is a gifted vocalist and has been a community activist for more that 40 years.  She is an entrepreneur, retired educator, project coordinator, photojournalist, and the wife of Rev. Robert Sweet. She is best known as the lady with a powerful mezzo-soprano voice and as a teacher, who helped students learn to read and remain in school. She has been recognized for her efforts in the community with several awards, and in November 2006 was a guest for the Women’s Fall Empowerment Seminar Ministry in Houston, Texas.
Sweet chooses to take an active role because her parents were great role models and taught her to give back to the community. “I’ve always felt a sense of commitment, especially related to activities that directly improve the quality of life for children, youth and the elderly,” Sweet said.
To Sweet, the African American community’s greatest challenges are ignorance, poverty, education, respect for other, dispelling the myth of ‘Willie Lynch,’ and loving one another as Christ commands us to. As an elder, she would like to help resolve these challenges by sharing her gifts and stories of self-determination, teaching 365 days of the year, not just during Black History Month.
She’d like her legacy to read: Dr. Sweet tried to help somebody. Her living was not in vain.

Ora Watson
Addiction Supervisor
Ora Watson is an addiction supervisor at Denver Health, where she supervises substance abuse controllers working with people who have addiction issues. She is best known in the community for organizing services for Denver’s homeless population, which include many African Americans dealing with substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, and domestic violence issues. Last year, she founded a non-profit program that assists homeless clients with psychological and substance abuse issues, treatment, and housing placement. Her position with Denver Health enables her to tap into various services that most people who do not work in this area are unaware of.
Watson feels she has been blessed by God to have had a good life, though not without its own challenges. She has developed a desire to aid those who are less fortune or need help dealing with life’s challenges. One day, she would like to open her own non-profit program for African American women with substance abuse and psychological issues. Based on her experience in this area, women, especially women of color, are underserved.
Watson would like to be remembered as a person who loved God and her family and one who tried to help those in need.

Ann E. White
Business Development Rep III
Working in the Stapleton Workforce’s Office of Economic Development, Ann E. White is best known for her community outreach. She is dedicated to assisting displaced individuals in the Denver community through job preparedness and career opportunities.
Over the last year, she has provided a full range of business services to more than 75 businesses in the Stapleton Redevelopment Project. Over the last five years, she has worked to bring focus on economic development to the Denver community, especially on small and start up businesses and special populations with barriers to employment.
White chooses to take an active role in the community to give back in appreciation to those who helped her and provided her with opportunities. She gives back because she wants to strengthen Denver’s communities and set an example for this and future generations.
“I’d like to be remembered as a person who cared about people, gave back more than I took, had strong character, and was honest with Christian values.”

Linda J. Williams
President AALI/Licensed Professional Counselor
Linda J. Williams is a licensed professional counselor and the president of the African American Leadership Institute, which recently completed the graduation of 11 AALI adult leadership classes for a total of 135 graduates since 1995. For years, Williams has also worked with youth leadership programs to introduce inner city youth to outdoor education, and offering diversion workshops to youth who have been awarded diversion through Mayor Webb’s Safe City Program. These youth, approximately 4,000, have had the opportunity to learn more about their ability to excel academically, spiritually and economically.
“We are born to give back, so that others will have the opportunity to continue to make this world a place of peace, harmony, prosperity and unity. The beauty of Africanism is that we always prove that the world is a place of beauty, even in the midst of the storm and suffering,” Williams said.
Williams would like to be remembered as a compassionate, knowledgeable and caring person who believes that we all have talents and should respect one another, so that those talents can be developed to their fullest.