Shalimar Thomas credits a lot of where she is now to the people who would constantly encourage her when she was growing up in North Philly.
As a teenage mom who had her first and second sons at the ages of 15 and 16 and dropped out of high school, Thomas felt how many others may feel in the same situation: “It wasn’t looking good for me.”
But thanks to that motivation from others, Thomas soon found herself enrolling back into Simon Gratz High School and later earning a diploma from an alternative school (the second ever in her family to do so), getting into the Community College of Philadelphia, earning a B.A. in public relations at Temple University and eventually becoming the executive director of the African American Chamber of Commerce.
“I had people who saw things in me when I didn’t see them myself,” she said.
Now, with two years under her belt as the executive director of North Broad Renaissance (NBR), Thomas is responsible for being that same kind of advocate in revitalizing North Broad Street’s commercial corridor — for believing in what it can be so others will follow suit…View Full Article