---Author and motivator George Fraser leads first annual networking conference for Black America, PowerNetworking 2002, June 20-23---
George Fraser’s “PowerNetworking Conference 2002- Leveraging Our Global Resources” will be held in Cleveland, Ohio’s Convention Center from June 20 to June 23. This event will be the first annual professional networking training conference for people of African descent. "There is a pent-up demand in the African American community for learning and developing networking skills," said George C. Fraser, FraserNet CEO and PowerNetworking Conference founder. "This conference is not as much about why, as it is about how. How to succeed and what you must be doing to connect and succeed... and then using your successes to model, inspire and teach others, and thus uplift our community one person at a time over time" said Fraser. The conference will include a dream team of other top motivational speakers and African American civic leaders from around the world including: Author, ABC correspondent and former host of BET Tonight Tavis Smiley; Rev. Jesse L. Jackson; motivational speaker Les Brown; Rev. Al Sharpton; professional orator and author Patricia Russell-McCloud; renowned scholar Dr. Asa Hilliard III; author and spiritual leader Dr. Myles Munroe; former U.S.Representative Rev. Dr. Floyd Flake; and George C. Fraser. Grammy nominated gospel singer, author and motivator Bishop T.D. Jakes will highlight the PowerNetworking Conference on June 21 at6p.m. Popular gospel recording artist Donnie McClurkin will open for Jakes, at what is expected to be a sell-out crowd. Born June 6, 1957, Jakes has a 26,000-member megachurch in South Dallas called Potter's House. Jakes recently signed a contract with Hallmark for a line of "Loose Your Spirit" inspirational greeting cards. Almost 30 workshops will focus on how to network for: career building, entrepreneurial success, and wealth creation. Other conference highlights include a Town Hall Meeting, "The State of Entrepreneurship in Black America - Where do we go from here;" three motivational plenary sessions; a Success Gift Shop and an "African Marketplace." An African American Business Hall of Fame Gala, with inductions of media mogul Oprah Winfrey, BET founder Robert Johnson, and Motown founder Berry Gordy, will also be held during the conference weekend. The Hall of Fame is a $100 million project with a goal of building a world-class structure to honor Black business professionals from the past and into the future. For full conference registration information visit frasernet.com or call (216) 912-6308, ext. 330. Stay tuned to www.UnityFirst.com for the latest news about the conference.

---Be inspired—
Enjoy www.Unityfirst.com’s new inspirational column by motivator Jewel Diamond Taylor. Read this week’s message by going to UnityFirst.com and clicking on Jewel’s photo. Be inspired!

----Summit on Leading Diversity---The third annual Summit on Leading Diversity recently convened in Atlanta, Georgia. Some of the nation’s leading diversity authorities offered practical solutions for leveraging diversity and creating productive work-cultures in a global society. The Summit provided attendees with a year’s worth of dedicated research and the only forum to network with fellow practitioners to exchange diversity success stories and lessons learned, while building a lasting support network. Actor and entertainer Edward James Olmos spoke at the event and shared the following statistic: 52% of the children in America , five years or younger are Latino and half of today's Latino kids don't graduate from high school. Also, former U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexis talked about a simple, but useful progression to evaluate diversity efforts at various stages: 1) Awareness, 2)Advocacy, 3) Action, and 4) Accountability. Go to www.UnityFirst.com for a photo featuring Summit Co-chairs George Kaye of Lesley University, and Martha R.A. Fields, and President and CEO of Fields Associates along with Alexis Herman.

---U.S.: Diversity in the nation's largest law firms----
The Minority Law Journal (MLJ) reported that the total percentage of minority attorneys at the nation's largest law firms exceeded 10% last year for the first time, but that their advancement remains uneven. In its annual Diversity Scorecard survey, MLJ found that minority representation had actually declined at some firms, and that most growth in minority hiring took place at the associate level. The magazine conducted its study in conjunction with The National Law Journal's annual survey of the largest firms in the country. Complete results and tables are available in the Spring 2002 issue of the magazine, and will be available online at www.minoritylawjournal.com on May 1. Attorneys of color are overwhelmingly concentrated in the associate ranks at the country's largest firms, the MLJ reports, and fewer make partner. Last year minorities composed 3.9% of all partners and 14% of all associates at these firms; in 1991 they represented 2.4% of all partners and 6.8% of all associates. Overall, Asian Americans continue to make up the biggest and fastest-growing segment of the minority population at big firms, although they are slightly outnumbered by African Americans at the partner level. A total of 206 firms, with more than 87,500 lawyers (more than 54,000 associates and 33,000 partners), reported minority data for the survey.

---Disparities in treatment of depression---
Under a $359,987 grant from Aetna and the Aetna Foundation, a researcher at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine will work to improve communication between primary care physicians and African-American patients who may be suffering from depression. Lisa A. Cooper, M.D., MPH, is the principal investigator for the three- year study, which is entitled, "Using Patient-Provider Communication Skills Training to Improve Depression Care for African Americans." The project aims to improve primary care physicians' communication skills as they relate to African-American patients with depression. Under the Aetna grant, Johns Hopkins will create a CD-ROM that uses real actors and actual physicians to depict specific aspects of negotiating treatment for African-American patients with depression. The Johns Hopkins grant is part of more than $850,000 in research grants earmarked for projects that identify and test practical means of reducing or eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in health status and the delivery of health care.

--- NAACP seeks justice in Cracker Barrel case---
Kweisi Mfume, president & CEO, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) said the NAACP joined a race discrimination class action lawsuit brought against Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. (Cracker Barrel) primarily to eradicate a pattern of discrimination against African American customers at many of its restaurants. The amended complaint was filed Thursday in federal court in Rome, Ga. on behalf of 42 plaintiffs. The suit charges the restaurant chain with discrimination against African American customers. Mfume said: "The NAACP is not seeking any money as an organization from this case. Cracker Barrel cannot buy our pain. The NAACP's interest in this lawsuit lies in securing injunctive relief against Cracker Barrel's practices. This injunctive relief consists of, among other things, diversity training and education of Cracker Barrel employees, and monitoring of Cracker Barrel service to African-Americans so that we may remedy and prevent their mistreatment. Nationwide injunctive relief on behalf of African Americans is the primary means of affecting that objective."The plaintiffs and witnesses have accused Cracker Barrel of engaging in a pattern of discrimination against African American patrons, reporting discriminatory violations in more than 200 cities. Cracker Barrel is one of the nation's largest restaurant chains, with approximately 450 restaurants in 41 states. It employs more than 40,000 people. According to the amended complaint, the restaurant's discriminatory conduct includes: denying service to African American customers and their associates; allowing white servers to refuse service to African Americans; seating African American customers and their associates in a segregated area (often in the smoking section of the restaurant); and requiring African American customers and their associates to wait longer to be seated or served than white customers.

---Harvard's Cornel West goes to Princeton---Enhancing its strong program in African-American Studies, Princeton University Saturday appointed to the faculty Harvard University Professor Cornel West, the acclaimed teacher and scholar of religion, and Eddie S. Glaude Jr., a Bowdoin College professor known for his work in African-American religious studies. Writer Chang-rae Lee, whose award-winning novel "Native Speaker" recently was recommended as the book to be read and discussed collectively across New York City, was named to a senior faculty post in Princeton's Humanities Council and creative writing program. "I am excited to return to the greatest center for humanistic studies in the country," West said. "I look forward to being a part of President Tilghman's vision that promotes high quality intellectual conversation mediated with respect."

---Jazz in New York---
Join jazz vocalist Patricia Adams on Friday evening, April 19th at Yvonne’s Southern Cuisine restaurant in Pelham, New York for an evening to remember, with Jon Weiss on piano. According to Dave Nathan, All Music Guide, “Her ability to put together a musical road atlas sets Adams apart from many of the jazz vocalists on the contemporary scene.” Yvonne's Southern Cuisine is located at 503 Fifth Avenue, at Sixth Street Pelham, New York. For dinner reservations, call 914-738-2005. DIRECTIONS: Take exit 12 off the Hutchinson River Parkway (either North/South). Turn left at the STOP sign and then a right onto E. Lincoln Avenue. Go through four traffic lights and turn left onto Fifth Ave. Yvonne's is on the left corner. Plenty of free parking behind the restaurant and on this well lit street.

----Job Opportunity of the week: 2002 Price Fellowships for HIV Prevention Leadership---The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is accepting applications for the Price Fellowships for HIV Prevention Leadership program, which offers individuals from community-based non-governmental organizations (NGOs) committed to preventing HIV infection, an opportunityto work closely with health professionals at the national level. Three individuals will be selected as Price Fellows. They will spend four weeks, (August 5-30, 2002) at the CDC in Atlanta, where they will work closely with CDC scientists and health professionals .Applications must be postmarked by Monday, May 1, 2002, 5:00 p.m. Preferably, applicants will have worked for a minimum of two years in HIV prevention with an NGO and have an understanding of HIV/AIDS prevention at the local and state level. For more information, contact Maestro A. Evans at the CDC, at (404)639-0960.

Thanks for reading Unity First Online. If you know of people who should receive Unity First Online, please encourage them to sign up for the newsletter via www.UnityFirst.com.

###

Thanks for reading Unity First Online. If you know of people who should receive Unity First Online, please encourage them to sign up for the newsletter via www.UnityFirst.com.

###