Kimberly Perry

Kimberly Perry (born August 1, 1970 in Los Angeles, California) is an American activist for children's rights. She leads the Kids' Movement at the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a joint venture of the William J. Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association.

Perry has worked more than fifteen years successfully mobilizing communities to create a collaborative environment in which educators, legislators and policy makers can be educated and held accountable for improving the quality of life for low-income children and their families. She is nationally respected in the advocacy community for her steadfast work in child health public policy - including access to quality health care; and food and nutrition policies that address the paradoxical issues of childhood hunger and childhood obesity.

Early life and education

Raised and inspired by two social workers and a civically active community, Perry’s early life goals were to simply work with kids so she set out to become a teacher or child psychologist.

After entering college and finding more satisfaction in the student-led rallies and protests rather than the lectures, she quickly realized that while direct service plays a role in assisting children, it was collective action that really brought about lasting structural change to positively impact children's lives. Even with that realization, she continued studies at the University of California, San Diego and then on to Norfolk State University receiving degrees in Child Psychology and Urban Education. She worked for a while teaching and creating youth development programs, but her spirit still longed for more collective action.

Activism

While conducting research for an assignment, Perry learned more about the alarming education and health disparities between children of the rich and poor. She asked her local congressman to support a bill that was being debated on Capitol Hill that would expand public health insurance to children of the working poor since members of congress and their families enjoyed health insurance supported by tax payers, as well. The congressman declined. Outraged, Perry joined a national movement to Stand for Children and spent months organizing thousands in her community to step up, march, write letters and utilize the local media to pressure the congressman to change his mind. He did. And, eventually, so did hundreds of others in Congress. The bill passed and Perry became a hometown hero. That victory, the first of many victories to follow, was the inspiration for her career in child advocacy and public service.

She went on to work for Children’s Hospital in Virginia and led a vigorous multi-year campaign to eliminate policy access barriers that provided hundreds of thousands of uninsured children with health insurance. She also worked nationally with Families USA and provided guidance to state coalitions across the country working on children’s health, Medicaid and the expansion of public health insurance programs while also making promising contributions in the movement to engage communities of color into the national health care debate.

In 2002, concerned about the rising rates of poor nutrition among children and its negative impact on their overall health, Perry co-founded [http://www.dchunger.org D.C. Hunger Solutions] a non-profit anti-hunger advocacy organization based at the [http://www.frac.org Food Research and Action Center (FRAC)] . Under her leadership, D.C. Hunger Solutions led three historic policy wins for children and youth: replaced junk food with healthier choices in public school vending machines, made school breakfast free to all public school students daily; and gave poor kids, who relied on free lunch during the school year, access to nutritious meals in their neighborhood, during the summer time. These victories were the platform for Perry’s leadership of another innovative social justice venture that organized over 150 citizens representing 14 sectors of the city (including faith-based leaders, parents, kids, media, philanthropists, corporations, small business, federal and local government) to implement a [http://www.askmehowdc.org Ten Year Plan to End Childhood Hunger] in the Nation’s Capital. Now, more than half of all children living in poverty, in Washington, D.C., have access to three nutritious meals each day. The plan is nationally recognized and is currently being replicated in a number of states across the country.

Honors

Perry is the recipient of the 2006 Consumer Health Advocate of the Year award from Families USA and a 2006 Healthy School Hero awarded by Action for Healthy Kids. Perry and her work have been featured in Parade Magazine, the Washington Post, National Public Radio, the Today Show and a host of local print, television and radio outlets. She has also served as an anti-hunger contributor to the Oprah Winfrey Show and is a sought after speaker on improving the quality of life for low-income children in America.

Community Service

In her spare time, Kimberly serves as Chair of the [http://www.dc.gov/mayor Mayor’s Commission on Food and Nutrition] and is a member of [http://www.leadershipwashigton.org Leadership Greater Washington’s] Class of 2004. For more than a decade, she has served as a volunteer ‘group facilitator’ of a weekly, self-help parent support group for families in crisis; and travels with Global Volunteers working with small rural villages in developing countries, especially the one she fell in love with many years ago, Prampram, in Ghana, West Africa.

Private Life

She is a proud mother and resides in the Washington, D.C. area.

See also

[http://www.healthiergeneration.org Alliance for a Healthier Generation]

[http://www.clintonfoundation.org Clinton Foundation]

[http://www.dchunger.org D.C. Hunger Solutions]

[http://www.frac.org Food Research and Action Center]

[http://www.familiesusa.org Families USA]

[http://www.chkd.com Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters]

[http://www.childrensdefense.org Children's Defense Fund]