CONFERENCE SPEAKERS
Robert Woodson, Sr.
Founder & President, The Center for Neighborhood Enterprise
Robert L. Woodson, Sr. is Founder and President of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise. His social activism dates back to the 1960s, when as a young civil rights activist, he developed and coordinated national and local community development programs. During the 1970's he directed the National Urban League's Administration of Justice division. Later he served as a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. For more than four decades, he has promoted the principles of self-help and neighborhood empowerment and the importance of the institutions of civil society. Dedicating his life to helping low-income people address the problems of their communities, in 1981 Woodson founded the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise for the purpose of strengthening and advocating for those neighborhood-based organizations struggling to serve their communities. The Center has provided training and capacity-building technical assistance to more than 2,600 leaders of community-based groups around the country. He was instrumental in paving the way for resident management and ownership of public housing, and brought together task forces of grassroots groups to advise the 104th Congress, the Pennsylvania Legislature, and the Wisconsin Assembly on welfare reform. He has consulted cabinet officials, numerous governors, members of Congress, academicians, business leaders, and the news media. Because of his achievements, he holds a unique position in America as the only person ever to have received both the liberal and conservative worlds' most prestigious awards-the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur "genius award" Fellowship and The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Prize, as well as the Presidential Citizens Medal.
