Name: Kimberly Coleman
My Bio
I am one of six children, born and raised in Tulsa, OK. I was fortunate to have an extraordinary grandmother who served as a community educator, advocate, and caregiver who supported single mothers in the neighborhood; my mother was one of those single mothers in need of help. I watched my grandmother, Ms. Jefferson, share her food and home with hundreds of mothers and children. I observed her share wisdom through counseling and watched her stretch meager resources for strangers. This lady was the patriot of our family; she worked to empower the entire community. This example of servanthood and humility inspired my personal and professional transformational leadership style. When I grew up, I attended and graduated from Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama, with a Human Development & Family Studies degree. I was the first person in my family to receive a bachelor's degree. At Oakwood, I learned how to balance life and work and how to serve the community. After I completed college, I moved to the Monterey-Salinas Valley area in California.
I have over 20 years of work experience supporting the most vulnerable, disabled, adolescents, and ex-offenders.
· I worked for Interim Inc, a private nonprofit organization that provides a unique combination of support services, housing, and treatment for adults with mental illness. I worked as an Employment Training & Job Development Specialist for sixteen years. My responsibilities included coaching and training clients on obtaining and maintaining employment through job coaching and retention support.
· I also worked as a Juvenile Institution Officer for seven years at Monterey County Probation Department. I provided one-on-one counseling with minors to decrease inappropriate behavior by establishing trust, setting clear limits, and ensuring safety. I counseled youth on inappropriate behavior, responsible attitudes, and consequences of action and conducted crisis intervention and conflict resolution sessions.
· I worked for one year at Volunteers of America, a re-entry center for newly released female and male ex-offenders. I worked as an Employment Counselor teaching ex-offenders how to seek and obtain employment. By encouraging them to change their mindset from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset, they were empowered to forge new directions and take agency for their lives.
· I worked for Goodwill Industries as a Placement Recruiter for seven years. I had the opportunity to support a larger community of disenfranchised, underprivileged, underserved individuals in the south/west part of Dallas, TX. I coordinated over one hundred employers and community resources for over 1000 individuals to assist and support a smooth transition into the job market.
I served my community as a youth leader in my church and as a Young Life leader to local youth. My life has been full of service, giving back what was given to me. In my pursuit of serving and providing needed resources, there were doors I could not open for my clients or myself because that required higher education. After much prayer and persuasion, my Grand Canyon recruiter persuaded me to attend a Grand Canyon open house day in Arizona. I flew to Phoenix, AZ, participated in this event, met the professor, and was motivated to pursue my dream. I enrolled on April 14, 2022, and began pursuing a master's degree in social work.
Currently, I live in Dallas, TX, and work for Abacus Corporation as a Corporate Recruiter. I attend Grand Canyon University part-time. I am driven by my strong work ethic, which allows me to show up for my family, friends, and the community I serve time and time again. My faith in God, the people I have loved and supported, and my life choices all exemplify who I am– a strong woman dedicated to serving others.
Creative Expression @ Hickory Trails Mental Health Hospital
I had the opportunity to serve as a clinician in training at training at Hickory Trails Mental Hospital. While there I learned how to pay close attention to the patients, through observation, active listening, asking the appropriate questions to challenge and engage patients that required more than just a yes or no response. My main responsibilities while there were to led and facilitate process groups. During these groups the patients shared their struggles and concerns. Patients received multiple perspectives from those in the group, support, encouragement, compliments when strengths were displayed and positive feedback was given in a safe and confidential environment. The art work presented was a group I led and facilitated. Their assignment was to create a project from paper plates, cups, tissue paper, tape, and glitter. The art projects are what the patients created. The focus and purpose of the group was how to use what you have , if used properly one can create something beautiful. I wanted to see how resourceful the patient could be with what they were given.
Community Support
Rising Against
A Pandemic: Virtually
I'm passionate about finding people jobs. For the past six years, I have built relationships with employers all over the Dallas community, met with over a thousand clients and worked to stay informed about the newest development in the labor market. The Dallas Westmoreland Career Center location started off with between 10-20 people coming in person daily to take advantage of services like resume assistance, mock interviews, hiring events, job fairs and other work shops. Nothing in my many years of experience could have prepared me for wat happened in March 2020. The world stopped as Covid-19 took over.
Our services transitioned from finding employment opportunities to finding food resource all over Dallas, email and zoom training in order to send resource information to clients. We also trained clients on how to apply for unemployment benefits. We created a food pantry calendar of all the opportunities to where to go to receive food weekly. I made in my mission to make 30 calls a day to check on my clients, they began to depend on those check-in call, and the resource information we provided. those call clients were the only resources some received during the Pandemic.