Dr. Barbara Seals Nevergold

“The Power of Love…Building Bridges, Tearing Down Walls” is the theme for the Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. luncheon to be held on Monday, Jan. 15 at 11:45 a.m. The event, sponsored by the Northern Chautauqua County Juneteenth Celebration Committee and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Luncheon Committee will be held at the Moose Lodge, 296 Lake Shore Drive West, Dunkirk. Adult meal choices are 1/2 roasted chicken, stuffed pork chops, four cheese jumbo shells, or adult chicken fingers. Luncheon only meal prices are adults $20; youth chicken finger platter 10 and under $10. The committee will be taking reservations until Tuesday, Jan. 9.

The committee will also be presenting the Janice D. Slaton, Esq. scholarships. The Juneteenth Celebration in the City of Dunkirk will be celebrating its 23rd anniversary on June 16 and June 17, 2018.

Guest speaker for the luncheon will be Dr. Barbara Seals Nevergold.

On Jan. 4, 2012, Dr. Nevergold was appointed an at-large member of the Buffalo Board of Education. She served as the President of the Board from July 2013 to July 2014. In May 2014, she was elected to serve a five-year term ending in 2019. She was elected to serve as President for a second term in July 2016 and again in July 2017. She is an active participant in many of the District’s task groups and committees. Dr. Nevergold also serves as the Treasurer of the NYS Conference of Big 5 School Districts, a statewide advocacy group representing the large urban school districts. In 2017, she was elected to serve on the Executive Committee of the Council of Great City Schools, a national organization that serves 68 urban school districts across the country.

Dr. Nevergold is a graduate of Buffalo State College. She received a doctorate degree in counseling education from the University at Buffalo. Dr. Nevergold is a lifelong educator, who taught in the Buffalo Schools, the University at Buffalo and SUNY Empire State College. She also held leadership positions in the Friendship House and Berkshire Farms foster care and adoption agencies and was the CEO of Planned Parenthood of Buffalo and Erie County, Inc.

In 1999, she co-founded the Uncrowned Queens Institute for Research and Education on Women, Inc. As a co-founder of the Uncrowned Queens Institute, Dr. Nevergold has worked to create a model for the reclamation, collection, preservation and dissemination of the biographic histories of African American women and men, www.uncrownedcommunitybuilders.com. Dr. Nevergold is the co-author of the book series, “Uncrowned Queens: African American women community builders of Western New York and Oklahoma,” in addition to authoring numerous other publications.

Her work focuses on preserving Western New York history (including the African American experience at the 1901 Pan American Exposition; the Buffalo connection to the Niagara Movement, 1905, and the life of Andrew J. Smitherman, a survivor of the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921), family history research, and women’s health and social issues. Dr. Nevergold is the co-author of, “Go, Tell Michelle: African American Women Write to the New First Lady (SUNY Press, 2009),” a book of letters to First Lady, Michelle Obama. Currently, she hosts a weekly television program, “They’ve Got Stories to Tell: Conversations with Uncrowned Community Builders.”

Dr. Nevergold has received numerous awards for professional and community service including: Distinguished Alumnus Award from Buffalo State College; the NYS Women of Excellence in Education Award, The NYS Dr. MLK, Jr. Humanitarian Award, Western New York Women’s Hall of Fame and many others. Dr. Nevergold and her husband of 50 years, Paul, have two children, Alanna Nevergold-Marrow and Kyle, and four grandchildren, Naia, Cameron, Nahri and William.

For more information and reservations, contact Loretta Slaton Torain at 363-1102.