Dr. Maxine Mimms was influenced by her grandparent’s love of Marcus Garvey and educational lectures by Howard Thurman and others at nearby Hampton University. She earned a B.A. degree from Virginia Union University and worked as a social worker in Detroit, MI. She earned her Ph.D. in educational administration from Union Graduate School.
Accompanying her husband to Seattle, she taught at Leschi Elementary School. She taught in Washington Public Schools and was the assistant to the director of the Women’s Bureau in the United States Department of Labor. She returned to the Northwest to join the faculty at Evergreen State College. Her focus on serving the educational needs of urban, African American adult learners combined with an interest in teaching inner-city adults, led to the founding of the Tacoma Campus where she served as its first Director and used her position to help satisfy the demand for adult education programs.
She is a national consultant in curriculum design and instructional methods. She founded the Maxine Mimms Academy, a non-profit organization in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood serving youth expelled or suspended from public schools. She was awarded the first annual Sustainable Community Outstanding Leadership Award.
