Brenda Palms Barber
Brenda Palms Barber is Executive Director of the North Lawndale Employment Network and Founding CEO of Sweet Beginnings, LLC.
Brenda Palms Barber has been the NLEN Executive Director since its founding in 1999. She has a Master of Science degree in nonprofit management from the Spertus Institute.
Brenda has also launched the Sweet Beginnings social enterprise, generated an annual budget in excess of $2.4 million, and received numerous awards including one of the first MacArthur Foundation Awards for Creative and Effective Institutions in 2006 and the prestigious 2015 Bank of America Neighborhood Builders and 2012 Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards.
Brenda is an Aspen Institute Ideas Fellow, 2008 and in 2013, was awarded the Cardiss Collins Trailblazer Award. She has raised the profile of NLEN through national media including CNN, the NBC Today Show, CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley, and a recent TEDWomen Documentary and featured on the Lifetime channel.
