ATLANTA – State Representatives Dar’shun Kendrick (D-Lithonia) today announced the passage of two resolutions at the 42nd Annual National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL) conference on Thursday, November 29, 2018. The two NBCSL resolutions encourage awareness of education opportunities in hopes of creating a more diverse technology economy on a national level and were modeled after two house resolutions that Rep. Kendrick proposed during the 2018 legislative session of the Georgia General Assembly.
“Encouraging equal access to opportunities in technology is crucial to keeping up with the demand of a growing tech economy across our state and nation,” said Rep. Kendrick. “I am honored to bring successful state legislation to the NBSCL conference and look forward to seeing the awareness these resolutions bring to the rest of the country.”
Rep. Kendrick was congratulated by Rodney Sampson, the chairman and CEO of The Opportunity Hub, Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C., and co-chair of the Georgia Blacks in Tech Policy Conference.
“I applaud and congratulate State Representative Kendrick and her willingness to listen, ideate and create state and national diversity, inclusion and racial equity based technology awareness, education, skills development, new venture creation, ecosystem building and capital formation policy,” said Mr. Sampson. “It is work like this that will help prepare people of color in America for the future of work in the 4th industrial revolution. I’m honored to be a partner in this effort to ensure that increasing innovation doesn’t isolate our nation’s majority populous. We have great work to do.”
The resolutions that passed at the NBCSL conference reflected Georgia House Resolutions 1036 and 942 with minor changes. HR 1036, which unanimously passed in the Georgia House of Representatives, encourages the State of Georgia to fund a public awareness campaign for computer science education. HR 942 encourages private corporations to provide diverse and inclusive environments for future technology entrepreneurs.
The new resolutions will become a part of the national NBCSL agenda starting in January.
For more information about the NBCSL, please click here.
Representative Dar’shun Kendrick represents the citizens of District 93, which includes portions of DeKalb and Gwinnett Counties. She was elected into the House of Representatives in 2010, and currently serves on the Interstate Cooperation, Judiciary Non-Civil, Juvenile Justice, and Small Business Development committees.
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