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Brenda Council | Thomas Warren |
The program, also sponsored by the campus Employee Diversity Network, will be from noon to 1 p.m. in the Storz Pavilion on the lower level of Clarkson Tower. The program is free and open to campus staff, faculty and students. The public also is invited to attend. Free lunch refreshments will be served for the first 250 people in attendance.
“We consider ourselves very fortunate to have both Chief Thomas Warren and Brenda Council speak here together,” said Myrna Newland, M.D., associate professor in the department of internal medicine-anesthesiology, assistant to the chancellor and coordinator of the Martin Luther King Holiday Commemoration committee.
“Chief Warren and Brenda Council share a history of success in Nebraska that is truly remarkable. What better way to honor Dr. King than to have a conversation with two African American Nebraska family members who have shown time and again how to take the opportunities available and break new ground.”
Thomas H. Warren Sr. is a 21-year veteran of the Omaha Police Department (OPD). He was appointed to the position of Chief of Police in December 2003 by Mayor Mike Fahey – the first African American in Omaha’s history to be named Chief of Police. Chief Warren leads the largest law enforcement agency in the state of Nebraska – a department that consists of 764 sworn officers and 239 non-sworn personnel and an operating budget of $77 million. He was the accreditation manager for the OPD when the agency first achieved national accreditation status in 2001. Then, he guided the OPD through the re-accreditation process in 2004.
Chief Warren is a 1979 graduate of Omaha Technical High School. He earned his bachelor’s of science degree in 1983 from Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, with a double major – criminal justice and sociology – and a minor in psychology. He received his master’s of science degree in criminal justice (and a minor in public administration) from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 1989.
Chief Warren is the coordinator of the Omaha Police Athletic League and has received a long list of honors and awards during his career. Some of his honors include the OPD Employee of the Year in 1999;
Malcolm X Foundation Community Service Award and American Red Cross – Heartland Hero Award in 2003; and the Omaha Public Schools A+ Award and induction into the Boys and Girls Clubs National Hall of Fame in 2004.
Married to wife, Aileen, Chief Warren has three children, Jessica, 17, Thomas Jr., 15, and Alexandra, 13.
When Chief Warren needed a role model growing up, he only had to look across the family dinner table at his big sister, Brenda, for can-do inspiration. Council — also born and raised in Omaha — graduated from Central High School near the top of her class in 1970. She received her undergraduate degree in 1974 from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and her law degree from Creighton University Law School in 1977. She served several years as an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board in Kansas City, specializing in unfair labor practice charges. Then she joined Union Pacific Railroad’s legal department in 1980 where she rose to become the chief labor counsel.
Council was elected to the Omaha Board of Education in 1982, subsequently serving two terms as vice president and four terms as president. She chaired the Governor’s Task Force on Excellence in Education in 1983 and was western regional president of the National Caucus of Black School Board Members. In 1993, she was elected to the Omaha City Council where she chaired the council’s solid waste and keno lottery committees, as well a serving on the enterprise zone committee.
In 1994, Council challenged Hal Daub in the race for mayor. She lost, but gained 43 percent of the vote. In the highly anticipated rematch in 1997, Council was just 735 votes short of unseating the incumbent mayor. Since that campaign, she has been in private practice with several of the state’s leading law firms. She also is a panelist on the weekly KETV-7 talk show, “Kaleidoscope,” hosted by Ben Gray.
Council has earned numerous awards and honors. They include the Urban League of Nebraska’s National Prominence Award; selection as the Nebraska Outstanding Young Woman; the Teacher’s College Alumni Award of Excellence; the African American Award of the Western Heritage Museum and installation as the 62nd Face on the Floor of the Omaha Press Club. Council even graced the cover of Ebony magazine – the largest African American publication in the world – with her husband, Otha, in July 1996. The feature story was “Husbands of Powerful Women: Caring, Confident Spouses Talk about Life in the Shadows of High-Profile Mates.”
The Martin Luther King program also will feature several display tables of materials highlighting the multicultural and diversity-related programs and activities by UNMC and The Nebraska Medical Center, as well as a collection of books from the Aframerican Bookstore.
For more information about the program, contact Walter Brooks at 559-5768 or e-mail wbrooks@unmc.edu.