OBSERVER - Beverly A. Carroll

Beverly A. Carroll is the founding Director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Secretariat for African American Catholics and has served in this capacity since 1988. She is a national known speaker on the church's responsibility in affirming diversity. She has authored numerous articles on the affect of racism, and advises the U.S. bishops on their efforts of evangelization in the African American community.

Beverly was the former director of Baltimore's Urban Affairs Office. In her capacity as chief advisor to the Urban Vicar, Ms. Carroll administered an inner city scholarship program and assisted parishes in program planning and identifying financial resources. She trained priests and religious assigned to the city and instituted literacy programs in several parishes. The Baltimore native earned a Bachelor's degree in Administration from the University of Maryland and a Masters in Liberal Arts from Towson State University. She received the 1998 Woman of the Year Award from Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. and the Martin Luther King Award for work in civil rights.

Ms. Carroll currently serves on the Holy Name Province of Franciscans' African American Committee, and Initial Formation Committee, the Advisory Committee for the Institute for Black Catholic Studies, Board member of Bon Secours Health System of Maryland, and is a trustee for Siena College. In 1996, Ms. Carroll led a delegation of African American Catholic women's participation in an international meeting of women in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Ms. Carroll received an Honorary Doctorate of Human Letters from Siena College in 1999.