What better way to pay tribute to Mother’s Day than to celebrate this awesome woman who displays motherly love, motherly nurturing, motherly caring, and attention toward everyone, young and old.
Some of those who have grown to know and love Dr. Adams are celebrating her art and activism on Saturday, May 11, as the City of Chicago ROCKS WITH THE DOC.
Dr. Carol Adams is now the President of Urban Prescriptives, Inc., a consulting firm that specializes in program and organizational development for educational, social, cultural, and philanthropic institutions. This venture, her latest, has been described as a “venture that merges the diverse experiences that comprise her remarkable career as an applied sociologist, social activist, and change agent.”
Her experiences have been diverse indeed, but to say they have been remarkable is an understatement.
Doing one thing at a time does not seem to be the way Dr. Adams works. She appears to have taken multitasking to a whole new level, although it’s not entirely her fault. Blame it on her reputation as someone who gets the job done effectively and creatively, which is why she is called on by so many agencies, organizations, and businesses to consult. Many of us who are unabashed admirers of this amazing woman have followed her career, which has been comprised of one exciting and important position after the other.
She became known and loved throughout the Chicago community when she served as the research director for the Center for Inner City Studies at Northeastern Illinois University. Over a ten-year period, she went from assistant director to tenured associate professor.
Then, as the first director of research and planning for the Neighborhood Institute, a division of South Shore Bank, she established several programs designed to promote community development, revitalization, and self-sufficiency.
However, her love for academia brought her back to her beloved students, as the director for Loyola University’s African American Studies Program.
After serving at Loyola for seven years, she went over to Kennedy King College where she served as dean of adult and continuing education. There, she established residencies with Muntu Dance Theatre and Chocolate Chips Theater Company.
Wherever Dr. Adams has worked, she has made a difference. While at the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) she went from directing one department to managing thirteen departments and a $500 million budget. There she also established the Museum Consortium, where local museums adopted public housing developments, and she created Made in Cabrini, a resident-centered textile company under the direction of a well-known Chicago fabric designer.
As Director of the International House of Blues Foundation, Dr. Adams established the artist in residence program and initiated the Blues Legends oral history project.
For Museums in the Park, our Shero was the Founding Director of Museums in Public Schools (MAPS) When Dr. Adams returned to Northeastern University as Executive Director of the Center for Inner City Studies, the Center experienced a new surge of growth in student enrollment, technological advancement, and community programming and collaborations.
In 2003, Rod Blagojevich became governor of the State of Illinois, and one of his first and best actions was to name Dr. Carol Adams as Secretary of the Department of Human Services, the state’s largest government agency. During her six-year tenure, the agency secured almost $250 million in new grant funding and dramatically reduced the infant mortality rate of infants born to Medicaid-eligible women.
As President and Chief Executive Officer of the DuSable Museum of African American History, Adams was the recipient of numerous research awards, grants, and honors, including the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa key.
Dr. Adams has done so much and given so much to Chicago and the nation. She started an educational services program in the Women’s Division of the Cook County Department of Corrections that included theater, poetry, yoga, and choir, as well as GED and college level courses. She published the women’s poetry in a book called “Lyrics of Locked Up Ladies” and brought poets and actors to the jail, including Nikki Giovanni. Plus, she started a Writer’s Workshop at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
Her work with the Paradise Group, and the establishment of the Midnight Basketball League is known throughout the Chicago community as an idea that we wish would come back.
Dr. Adams belongs to Chicago, but she has a special place in her heart for her home community of South Shore. It’s somewhat ironic that the Rock with Doc celebration is being held at the South Shore Cultural Center, because that Center may not been available to us had it not been for Dr. Adams and other members of the Coalition to Save the South Shore Country Club, who fought to convert the once-restricted club into the South Shore Cultural Center which it is today. But that’s not all she did for South Shore. Dr. Adams produced the first South Shore Jazz Festivals, she published the South Shore Cultural District Plan, she founded Everyday Art and also created Wordz on the Street. She established the South Shore Mural Project, as well as the Arts, Culture, and Entertainment working group, and produced the very informative and memorable conference, The Role of the Arts in Neighborhood Revitalization. She served as chairman of the Board of the South Shore YMCA, and established the South Shore Cultural Council, which sponsored Chicago’s first Black film festival.
She also co-founded the Ujimaa Learning Center, an independent Afrocentric school located at Bryn Mar Community Church.
Dr. Adams recently wrote a book of profound poems, entitled “That’s All She Wrote.” But knowing Dr. Adams, that’s not all she wrote, and we’re looking forward to much more from this awesome queen.
Happy Mother’s Day, Dr. Adams!
