Johney Brooks (February 7, 1933 – October 1, 2016) was an American educator, who worked for the US Department of State and the Peace Corps, mainly in Africa but also at embassies in Turkmenistan and Papua New Guinea.
Early life and education
editBrooks was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, the daughter of sharecroppers Thomas A. Johnson and Beulah Johnson.[1][2] She was raised in Texas and California. After a time in the military, she earned a bachelor's degree in biology from California State University, Los Angeles, earned a master's degree in chemistry at the University of Arizona, and trained as a teacher.[3] She completed doctoral studies in international and comparative education at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).[1]
Career
editBrooks joined the United States Air Force in 1951, during the Korean War, and was honorably discharged in 1953.[1] She was a chemist in Los Angeles, taught high school in Los Angeles and Compton,[3] worked as a school administrator in Sacramento[4][5] and Pomona,[6] and was an assistant professor at Humboldt State University.[1]
From 1969 to 1971, Brooks taught science teachers for USAID in Uganda.[3] From 1982 to 1985,[7] she was the appointed director of Peace Corps work in Gambia.[8][9] She worked at the Bahá'i World Centre in Haifa. She held embassy posts in Tunisia, Niger, Sierra Leone, Guyana, Turkmenistan,[10] and Papua New Guinea.[1]
Personal life
editBrooks was an adherent of the Bahá'i faith.[11][12] She had two children:[3] her daughter Alexis Brooks de Vita is a professor of English at Texas Southern University,[13] and her son W. Abdullah Brooks is a public health physician on the faculty at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.[14] Brooks died from complications of a stroke in 2016, in Lake Katrine, New York, aged 83 years.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f "Johney Brooks Obituary". Albany Times Union, via Legacy.com. October 5, 2016. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
- ^ "Obituary for T. A. Johnson (Aged 75)". Tyler Morning Telegraph. 1977-01-20. p. 11. Retrieved 2022-02-04 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d "Black culture 'model'; Her enthusiasm spells success". Progress Bulletin. 1977-02-13. p. 13. Retrieved 2022-02-04 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Acting School Chief". The Sacramento Bee. 1981-06-19. p. 39. Retrieved 2022-02-04 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Baha'i to Hear Speaker". The Chico Enterprise-Record. 1981-06-24. p. 12. Retrieved 2022-02-04 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Schools Hire Two New Aides". Progress Bulletin. 1976-09-10. p. 6. Retrieved 2022-02-04 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Lazarus, Mark D. (1985-08-16). "Peace Corps Seeks Black Volunteers". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 7. Retrieved 2022-02-04 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ United States Congress Senate Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations and Related Programs (1984). Foreign Assistance and Related Programs Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1985: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, United States Senate, Ninety-eighth Congress, Second Session ... U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 291.
- ^ Eisele, Julie (1985-08-01). "Iowans Help Peace Corps Fight Hunger". The Gazette. p. 5. Retrieved 2022-02-04 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Ashgabat". State. 361: 44. December 1992.
- ^ "Local Scene: The Baha'is of East Yolo". News-Ledger. p. 1. Retrieved February 3, 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
- ^ "Child Education". California Aggie. January 13, 1982. p. 1. Retrieved February 3, 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
- ^ "TSU Online: Faculty Profiles". Texas Southern University. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
- ^ Brooks, W. Abdullah; Zaman, Khalequ; Goswami, Doli; Prosperi, Christine; Endtz, Hubert P.; Hossain, Lokman; Rahman, Mustafizur; Ahmed, Dilruba; Rahman, Mohammed Ziaur; Banu, Sayera; Shikder, Arif Uddin (September 2021). "The Etiology of Childhood Pneumonia in Bangladesh: Findings From the Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) Study". Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal. 40 (9S): S79–S90. doi:10.1097/INF.0000000000002648. ISSN 0891-3668. PMC 8448409. PMID 34448747.