www.power-living.com

Advisors

"I not only use all the brains that I have,
but all that I can borrow."
-- Woodrow Wilson

We continue to build a team of seasoned and inspirational advisors.  Below are the members of our current "circle of support."

Janie Sykes-Kennedy is a 40-year veteran of international media and culture. President of Sykes-Kennedy & Associates, Inc. since 1984, she has produced marketing materials, written articles, and books, and served as consultant to various corporations, organizations and individuals. As an actress, journalist and business executive, she has worked and performed in cities throughout the U.S., Africa, Australia, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. In the 1950’s, she and her husband, Dr. James Scott Kennedy, owned and operated one of the first multicultural theatre companies in New York City. In the early ‘60’s, she operated ID: Inner Dignity in Brooklyn, New York – a learning center focused on promoting self-esteem in girls. In the late 1960’s they lived in Africa, working at the University of Ghana and producing for the 1966 First World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar, Senegal, and the First Pan African Cultural Festival in Algiers, Algeria in 1969. In the ‘70’s, they were invited as Fulbright scholars by the Prime Minister of Australia to live in Adelaide and introduce African-American and African culture, via theater and other art forms, to that continent. They also worked as producers for the Papua, New Guinea Independence Arts Festival in 1974. Later in the 1970s, Ms. Sykes-Kennedy was the Title I Coordinator of a pilot program for the State University of New York for “Learning Through The Arts” and taught acting at The College at Old Westbury in New York. In the late 1980’s, she was invited by the U.S. Housing & Urban Development and the Department of Commerce as one of 14 delegates to go to the People's Republic of China on the first trade mission of American women. After that trip, she secured a contract from the China Building Technology Center and started a new company, China Today, Inc., which for five years, distributed Building in China. She received her BA in Economics and Accounting from Howard University, MA in African Culture and Theatre at the University of Ghana, and MS from the Graduate School of Journalism – Columbia University.

John Hope Bryant is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Operation HOPE, America’s first non-profit social investment banking organization. Since its founding in 1992, John Bryant has raised more than $30 million in grant funding for his effort and more than $200 million in lending commitments for low-wealth homeownership and small business creation. A national community leader cited by the past four sitting U.S. presidents for his work to empower low-wealth communities across America, Mr. Bryant works in active partnership with more than 250 banks, insurance companies, credit unions and corporations, along with government and community leaders, and directs the activities of nine non-profit Operation HOPE initiatives operating in nine states, 15 cities and the District of Columbia. On October 18th, 2004, the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, nominated Mr. Bryant as one of 237 young leaders selected from around the world to serve as a member of the new Forum of Young Global Leaders. On June 13th, 2004, he became a Presidential appointee when U.S. President George W. Bush appointed him to a 4-year term on the non-partisan U.S. Community Development Advisory Board for the CDFI Fund at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Mr. Bryant has received more than 400 awards and citations for his work to educate, inspire and empower low-wealth communities nationwide. Awards include the Use Your Life Award from Oprah Winfrey in 2001, being named a “Community Hero” by People Magazine in 2002, and being named “One of America’s 25 Most Generous Young Americans” by WORTH Magazine in December, 2002. He has served as goodwill ambassador to the U.S. for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva, Switzerland, and in 1998, became the first African-American in history to be knighted by German nobility and the royal House of Lippe. On May 8th, 2004, Mr. Bryant received an Honorary Doctorate Degree of Human Letters from Paul Quinn College in Dallas, Texas. Mr. Bryant has served on several corporate and community boards and is the author of Banking on our Future. He resides in Los Angeles with his wife Mrs. Sheila Jenine Kennedy-Bryant.