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About the 2007-2008 Alexis Knox Fellows
Lillian Walker Shelton
.aspx) Lillian Walker Shelton was born in Philadelphia on May 17, 1975. Being her parent’s only daughter (she has two brothers) and also having mostly male cousins she learned very quickly about women’s rights and empowerment. This continued through her high school and college years as she took part in community groups like the Catholic Youth Organization, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated, and Big Sisters of Philadelphia. Ms. Walker Shelton went forward to earn a bachelors degree in Sociology from St. Joseph’s University. Using this degree and also because she wanted to live on another coast of the United States, Ms. Walker Shelton lived in Seattle, Washington. While she lived there she worked for the YMCA at Bailey Gatzert Elementary School and the Big Brothers Big Sisters of King County. Later, Ms. Walker Shelton decided that she would like to work in the legal profession along with helping others and that lead her to her current position as legal secretary at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Currently, Ms. Walker Shelton enjoys being a member of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), and volunteering with Tamika and Friends (www.tamikaandfriends.org), and M.S. Y.A.N.A. (Multiple Sclerosis You Are Not Alone www.msyana.org). From her volunteer activities and recent completion of a graduate certificate program in Conflict Resolution, she came up with the idea of dialogue groups for young women who are members of the blue collar workforce. Working Women need support and resources to help them be successful. She is hoping that the dialogue groups will reach a population that is not typically represented in the Younger Women’s Task Force and also give them empowerment.
Lillian's Fellowship Project
My project description is that I would like to do dialogue groups with young women who are workers with the goal of giving them support and helping them toward individual empowerment. This will be done with a group which is partners with the Washington Area Women in Trades (WAWIT). Groups like WAWIT take low income women and; teach them a trade, professional development skills, help them with continued education, and also help them with job placement. The dialogue groups will be centered on a lot of the feedback from the participants but, I would like to schedule the groups in a way so we can also have someone come in and talk to them about getting their finances together, support networks for working women, and women in the labor movement. I would also like to have dialogue sessions that include helping women identify obstacles to successful careers, substantive discussions around how to overcome these obstacles, discussions of leadership in family, at work, and in the community.
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Younger women’s task force • 1701 K Street NW Suite 400, Washington, DC 20006 • (202) 293-4505
©2007 National Council of Women’s Organizations. All Rights Reserved.
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