Prof. Charles Ogletree visits Jamaica - facilitated by Growth Facilitators

Growth Facilitators was instrumental in the recent visit of Harvard Law School professor and Barack Obama Senior Advisor Charles Ogletree to Jamaica. Professor Ogletree was a guest of SET (Students Expressing Truth), as very successful project in the Jamaican prisons. Growth Facilitators arranged for Prof. Ogletree to be the guest speaker at the American Chamber of Commerce of Jamaica Speaker Series luncheon. In the photo above Prof. Ogletree greets Richard Chen of Super Plus and his niece Katherine Chen, while Marguerite Orane, GF partner, looks on happily!

Below is the guest speaker introduction presented by Marguerite:

The second of 6 children born to an African American couple in California in 1952, Charles Ogletree had instilled into him very early the transformative power of education. His parents, now deceased, did not complete high school, and were therefore delighted that they lived to see their second child graduate from Stanford and Harvard universities and go on to a stellar career as the Jesse Climenko Professor of Law at the Harvard Law School.

Author of numerous publications and recipient of countless honours and awards, Prof. Ogletree is a prominent legal theorist who has made an international reputation by taking a hard look at complex issues of law and by working to secure the rights guaranteed by the Constitution for everyone equally under the law. He has examined these issues not only in the classroom, on the Internet, and in the pages of prestigious law journals, but also in the everyday world of the public defender in the courtroom and in public television fora where these issues can be dramatically revealed. He furthers dialogue by insisting that the justice system protect rights guaranteed to citizens by law and to this end, he established the Charles Hamilton Institute for Race and Justice at the Harvard Law School.

It is this perspective and passion that piqued his interest in the prison system in Jamaica, the plight of prisoners and the possibilities for their rehabilitation. First involved in 1989 in the Reverence For Life prison project, Prof. Ogletree continues today to play an active role in the SET project.

Prof Ogletree and his wife, fellow Stanford alum Pamela Barnes, are proud parents of two children. They are true friends of Jamaica, visiting and vacationing here regularly. Enjoying our beautiful beaches in Negril and fishing in Portland, they particularly savour our spicy cuisine, hot pepper, coconut water and of course Red Stripe beer!

In 1988 Prof. Ogletree met a young student in his Harvard Law class. He saw something in that young man then, both having come from disadvantaged backgrounds, yet ending up at the most prestigious law school in the United States, and, many would say, the world. Prof. Ogletree became that student’s mentor, navigating him very successfully through the maze that faces an African American at Harvard. When that former student decided to run for the presidency of the United States, Charles Ogletree stepped to the plate as one of his senior advisors. That presidential candidate is of course, Senator Barack Obama.

Please join me in welcoming Prof. Charles Ogletree Jr., advocate for equality and justice for all and a friend of Jamaica.