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Biography

Karen Roebuck is a person who picks her fights carefully. Once she chooses a path she sticks closely to it, whether it is the right school for her daughter or the establishment of Breath of Encouragement.  At Eastern Iowa Community College District, she is the Equal Employment Officer, the Diversity chair, and works with those sixteen and over seeking to earn a GED.  She is also the Assistant Artistic Director of Imani! Dancers.  Her activities don't stop there.  Recently she organized a fashion show to raise funds for her first stage production, “Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.”  With both productions she used many people who have never been on a stage before. She has made her life’s purpose one of empowering people through encouragement, education, dance, acting, or modeling, whatever will improve the life of another.  

Transcript

Date of Interview: April 24, 2010

Zack Conover: And your name is?

Karen Roebuck: Karen Roebuck.

Zack: And where are you from?

Karen Roebuck: I’m originally from Dayton, Ohio.

Zack: How did you get here?

Karen Roebuck: Well, my husband had wanted to attend Palmer College. Palmer is where a chiropractor begins.

Zack: Were you ever involved in the Civil Rights Movement?

Karen Roebuck: No. I was just kind of like born during that area. I was just coming on the scene.

Zack: What’s your education? Did you have troubles with your education at all? When you were
in high school or college or anytime at all?

Karen Roebuck: Actually no. I have an uncle who was a very advocate in education. I do have a bachelor’s degree in Organizational Communications from Wright State University.

Zack: What is Organizational Communications?

Karen Roebuck: Organizational Communications, it deals with more or less the organization of companies; businesses, teaching them how to communicate, how to form committees.

Zack: What is your job now?

Karen Roebuck: Well my job now is I am the EEO officer; Equal Opportunity officer for Eastern
Iowa Community College District. I am also their diversity chair as well as program facilitator for sixteen to twenty-one year olds who are trying to get their GED.

Zack: What is a GED?

Karen Roebuck: General Education Diploma.

Zack: Why did you want to do this job?

Karen Roebuck: Well, the Dean there, Peg Garrison always told me, “If I’m going to talk the talk, I need to walk the walk”. What she meant was, I always had a passion for education and getting others, encouraging them to go back and get their education and so that was more of a fit. Also when it dealt with diversity I was always out in the community doing things, bringing different cultures together, participating in multi-cultural programs. So she said, “You know Karen, this is a great fit for you.” Then the EEO position kind of just fell in there, because it was just a part of the package deal.

Zack: What is the EEO position in the package deal?

Karen Roebuck: The EEO position is the Equal Opportunity Officer, whereas if someone has a discrimination complaint in the areas of race, religion, harassment, disabilities, age, sex, then they can come to me with that complaint and I’ll try to see how we can resolve it.

Zack: And it that all part of the package deal? Like, what is a package deal?

Karen Roebuck: When I talk about the package deal, those three positions equal a full time position.

Zack: Oh, I see. Do you have to be like qualified in certain areas to do this?

Karen Roebuck: I think you have to be qualified to be in any area, but with those different positions you have to have the ability to get along with others, the ability to start programs, also to encourage others. With the EEO you have to stay abreast of new laws and make sure that you’re doing this right.

Zack: Do you like your job?

Karen Roebuck: I do! I really do, because I have the opportunity to be flexible with what I do. Sometime it can be overwhelming though, I’m not going to lie, it can, because when you want to do a good job, you tend to put in more hours than what you think it requires. When it comes to developing programs, and that’s something I get to do with all three of them, is to develop workshops or bring in people to speak. What else can I tell you about those positions? I am fortunate enough to be able to work with students as well as staff and administration.

Zack: Students from what age and where?

Karen Roebuck: Actually students from age sixteen and older.

Zack: Awesome. Where’s your job located at?

Karen Roebuck: I’m housed out of the Career Assistance Center, which is at 627 West 2nd Street, in Davenport, Iowa.

Zack: And do you have any other activities that you do outside of your job that you like?

Karen Roebuck: I do, I do. Actually I am a dancer by trade. I perform modern, ballet, African dance. Ballet is basically my heart, but I’m more trained in modern. I am the Assistant Artistic Director to the Imani Dancers Studio for Cultural Arts, whereas Dorian Byrd is the Artistic Director there. I have my own organization called, “Breath of Encouragement” which was launched in October 11, 2009 where I held my first fashion show, which was called, “Sassy Shoes and Bags to Brag” at the Figge in downtown Davenport and that was pretty cool. It was a, basically highlighted shoes and purses. And I call it “a rainbow of flavor”, because I had people from all over. I had different cultures: Hispanic, Iranian, African, African American, white; you name it, beautiful women that agreed to model. Kohl’s department store and Dillard’s they really helped me out in supplying different lines of clothing, shoes and purses.

Zack: Did you ever experiment with fashion design at all?

Karen Roebuck: No. The reason why I ended up putting on “Sassy Shoes and Bags to Brag” was my ultimate goal was to; which I did accomplish, was to put on a production called, “Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh” and that was the first major production that I wanted to do. Years ago, Dorian and I had put it on with some elementary school kids. It was a play in which my ex-husband had written. I always said, “This needs to be put on by adults.” So, I kept putting it into the hands of other people and they were like, “Aw Karen, I can’t do it, I can’t do it.” Sounds like, “Ok, Lord, You’re telling me something. I guess I’m going to have to do it by myself.” And I said, “OK. If this facility is available, then I’ll do it.” So I went to the Capitol and so I was like, “Do you have December 5th and 6th available?” He was like, “Yes.” And I was like, “You have got to be kidding me.” So from then on, I was like, “OK it’s a go.” So I had to generate some capitol and so I was like, “You know a fashion show would be great!” Well, didn’t know all that it took to put on a fashion show. The great thing about it was that I had two wonderful people to help me out. That was Althea Saunders and Julie Bowen. ’Cause they were like, “What is your vision Karen?” I told them what my vision was and they took it and ran with it. All I had to do ’cause I had the models, ’cause I would look at people, “You know you’d make a great model.” They were like, “What?” “Seriously you would make a great model.” So I ended up with thirteen models. I also had some friends from Ohio ship which shipped some shoes in for me from Monique’s shoes, to help out with the fashion show also. And Gerry, I had a jazz band there also. I mean it was just the whole ambiance. You can ask people and they were like, “Sure I’ll be a part of that.” I was like, “Really?” Actually Tyla Cole and Michael Bailey were the MC’s for that. Everybody that was involved was just great. I had a DJ who did the music, Doc. Anderson. It was just wonderful, it was wonderful. So the proceeds from that went to help with the play, “Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh” which was a multi-cultural play. We had a 109 cast, if you want to look at it that way; it was like eighty-six people who were actually cast, but the rest of them were in the choir, so they were part of the cast also. That ranged from age four all the way up to; I think I had someone who was over sixty in the play. I had families; I had fathers with their daughters who participated in the performance and it was two days and we had about 400 people attend.

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Zack: So was it a big hit?

Karen Roebuck: For the first one, I really can’t complain, ’cause nobody knew who I was at the time. People were like, Wow! They went out and were telling other people about it. I heard someone say “Well, you should’ve put it on another weekend.” I was like, “We had it for two days.” We’re going to put it on again in 2010 because of the overwhelming response for that. It was just an opportunity to have people who never had a chance to act giving them that chance to act. Like I said it was families that were involved. And some people were like, “How can you get that many people together?” I had one lady who used to always tell me, “Baby, that’s a big production. That’s a big undertaking you’re taking all by yourself.” And I was like, “Huh? What are you talking about?” ’Cause I never thought about it because people would meet at different times; when I see that, I thought it was a small production. Then when we all came together for the first time, like Saturday’s day performance, it was like, “OK.” I had a cousin fly in and she’s like, “How many you have in there?” I was like, “Uh, about fifty.” Then my sister was like, “Eighty.” And I was like, “Did you include the choir?” She’s like, “Ninety-six.” I was like, “Did you include that choir?” and she’s like, “A hundred and nine.” I said, “OK.” But, it was just fabulous, you know, to empower people. I’ve gotten so many responses after that just saying, “You know, Karen, thank you for giving me that opportunity.” I also do workshops. I’ve had the opportunity to do two, two keynotes presentations actually within a week’s time. I was a keynote at a youth empowerment last Saturday, and the title was, “Success is Calling Your Name” and then I had the opportunity to the keynote for the Davenport Title One, Title Twenty? Parent Project this past week.

Zack: What is the Parent Project?

Karen Roebuck: Well, it was their parent conferences, let’s put it that way. It was conferences, their parent conferences which is really awesome. The title of that was, “I Am My Child’s Greatest Resource.” So if you could see all of my ventures, or what I dabble in, it’s always about empowering people because that’s what Breath of Encouragement is about. It’s about promoting positive, or impacting the community positively in the areas of financial, spiritual, mental, through the arts or through education because that’s what I do. I like to empower people. Whether it be through my dancing or whether it be through my workshop, or just encouraging them, that’s what I really have a passion for doing. I am in the process of working on “The Wiz” which will be performed the third weekend of August 2010.

Zack: What school did you go to when you were young?

Karen Roebuck: Elementary school, high school, college?

Zack: High School

Karen Roebuck: High School, I went to Colonel White and actually we’re putting on our thirty year reunion this coming May! Yes, yes, yes, yes! It’s really interesting because we have this kind of joke. I’m the one who kind of spearheaded it and we always laugh because I’m like, “I live in Iowa; you all live in Ohio and I’m the one who’s getting this going. But, it’s such a wonderful group of former classmates, that once I just kind of got it going, they’ve taken it and just exploded with it. Matter of fact, before coming here, I was talking to the, Laura, who’s kind of pulling it together, and you know she was running some things by me; so they kind of still call me and consult with me, “What do you think about this?” and “What do you think about that?” But that’s the inside joke, “It took Karen to come from Iowa to get us started.” And we all just laugh about it, but I’m excited to go back; I really am.

Zack: Have you been to every reunion since then?

Karen Roebuck: Well, we’ve only had one. That was in 2002. And every time I would run into people, they’re like, “Oh, we’re going to have another reunion, we’re going to have another reunion.” We always do it! I called a meeting together last year and we set a date and they’re running with it. So we’re excited about it.

Zack: Did you have any integration in your school? Was it segregated, was it anything like that?

Karen Roebuck: Elementary school, it was integrated, but at the same time it was more segregated, also. I mean we had whites and blacks that attended elementary school, but you only hung around, like all the black kind of cliqued, you know, but you knew the white people, but you just kind of cliqued. In the elementary school that I went to I never thought about it, but my uncle, who’s about the same age I am, he went to an all black school. He used to always say, “I envied you,” when he got older, he said, “because you went to a great school.” And I was, didn’t think about it, as far as elementary school. He said, “You guys learned a lot at your school.” And they didn’t learn as much as we did. He didn’t learn as much as I did at his school. I never thought about it ’til you grow older you realize, “Oh, wow, I guess I did have an advantage over you.” High School was integrated. It was more integrated in High School than Elementary School in terms of the groups of people that you kind of socialize with. I mean I can remember Sherrie, can’t think of her last name, in Home Ec. us being more together and talking. In college, when I went to our community college, I mean, you’re in college, the community college is integrated. But then I left there to go to an all black school, to one of our Historically Black Colleges, Tennessee State, but then, after leaving there because that was an experience, believe you me, all historically black colleges is an experience! You get two degrees: one is the Bible, and one as a major degree. Because the organization sometimes is not as organized as it should be. After leaving there to go to an integrated school, which is Wright State University, where I did get my degree from, totally different. I mean it was like, “You mean I can call and schedule my classes?” Like this was, “Wow!” Whereas at Tennessee State, they had the gym, and you go and you register for your classes. Well when you get up to registration, they say that class is closed you have to go all the way back to a table that has all of these classes on it and you have to search for another class section. Then you go back and for them to tell you again that that class is closed and you got to go back and start the process over again. Whereas at Wright State, which was a, it was a state school, but you could say it was, it was integrated, it was a much smoother process plus they had better food, too. What else can I tell you about my educational experience. I took a couple of graduate courses because the school that I had taught at, the church school that I had taught at, they paid for you to get your Master’s but you had to go to Lincoln, Nebraska for classes. Although the school was integrated, my classes, I was the only minority there. Being in those classes, it was like, you felt like you represented the whole African American community because whenever a racial issue came up as it pertained to African Americans, they look for you. And I had to tell them one day, I said, “Hold it! I can’t speak for the whole African American population. I can only tell you from my point of view.” Which was kind of interesting, also, ’cause there’s two things you don’t bring up: You don’t bring up O. J. and you don’t bring up Clinton ’cause that just divides everybody right there. But that’s part of life.

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Zack: What about your children? Was there any segregation when you put them through school?

Karen Roebuck: Yes. When my daughter started preschool/kindergarten, here in Davenport at our church school, she was the only minority at the school, which was real interesting because when we came here to look at, before moving here we came here to look at Palmer and see what kind of school we were going to put her in. I was excited because it was a two room school house, I was like, “Oh wow, ‘Little House on the Prairie’.” Our first time visiting that school, the teacher/principal tells me you know there is a black church and I was like, “I know.” In the Adventist system you have two conferences. You have your general conference and you have the black conference. So I kind of knew what she was talking about, I knew when she said there was a black church, but I’m saying, “Why would you tell me that? You should be happy that we are here and try to encourage us and try to keep us here.” So then after going to the black church and looking at their facility, which was nice, but they were in the basement of the church. That lady tells us, “You know why you are moving here there’s no jobs here.” I’m like, “OK.” So any way, we ended up moving here and so my daughter did end up attending the church school and as I said she was the only minority there. It was quite interesting, because like when I would French-braid her hair, they would rub her hair to see how it felt. It came to a point that our church couldn’t afford a teacher and our sister church, which was predominantly black church needed a facility, because their student population was growing. So the pastors decided to merge the two, because it would benefit both of us. Well, quite a few of our members at our church, wasn’t too happy about that merge. There was an issue about not sending their children because they didn’t want them to learn about black history. I was like, “Hold up! Nobody said anything when my child was the only minority at the school and when you all would rub her hair,” I said, “nobody said anything about that.” I said, “I didn’t say anything.” Then my husband at the time had told them, he said, “When you go home tonight and you look up at the traffic light, remember that it was a black man who invented it.” Then I also proceeded to tell them, “Do you know the probability of ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’ in the Quad Cities?” I don’t know if you know about “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” with Sydney Poitier; it was a movie? With Sydney Poitier was an African American male and then his fiancée was a white lady. They were going to her parents, so it was like, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” because her parents didn’t know that he was black.

Zack: Ohhh, that makes sense.

Karen Roebuck: So I can’t think of the actress name at the time. [editor’s note: Katharine Houghton] So that’s why I was like, you don’t know the probability, because it was shock for me when I moved here to the Quad Cities to see the large percentage of interracial marriages. I was like, “Wow!” especially coming from a predominately black community, where you see most black people together and to come here and see the interracial, it was like, “Whoa!” It was kind of overwhelming at one time, but then you get adjusted to it.

Zack: How did you choose Communication Organization as a major?

Karen Roebuck: OK. When I was growing up I really wanted to be a psychologist, OK? But I did have a, I love math and science. So going off to college, I was like, “You know engineering sounds pretty good, or bio-chemistry.” So when I first went off to college my major was bio-chemistry. But I always had this engineering idea in my head. So then I switched to mechanical engineering, because I love to tinker with things, also, and design things. So, I stayed in it for about three years and so then I left college and went back home. I had just dropped out of college, I was like, “You know...” I thought that I was in love at the time, so that’s why I ended up dropping out of college, don’t do that. So then I ended up meeting my husband and he was like, “You need to go back to school.” And I was like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.” And he said, “You need on concentrating on getting out not so much concentrating on a major.” So he said, “What would you be interested in?” I was like, “Maybe communication, maybe business.” So he went and got a couple of majors and he told me to look over them and communications just seemed to fit. And he was like, “That would be great for you, it fits your personality you love to talk to people, you like organizing things.” So basically that is how I ended up in Organizational Communications. Every now and then, I still want to go back and get that mechanical engineering degree, but as I get older I am like, “I’ll let one of my children do that.”

Zack: How does dance come into all of this?

Karen Roebuck: I started dancing when I was in the third grade. My mother took me to see a
cousin perform and she said, “Do you want to do this?” and I said, “Yeah.” Dance is just something, it, dance is that stress reliever for me. When, I can just put my foot on the dance floor it just does something to me. You can always convey a message through dance when you can’t convey it anywhere else. Picking the right music, the right moves, is just; it’s something that anyone can get into. It really is. I do! I love dance. If I can make money doing it, that’s probably what I would be doing, but right now it’s just a hobby of mine.

Zack: Do you have any advice for me or for any of the people watching the interview?

Karen Roebuck: Do I have any advice? Stay true to yourself. Treat people the way you want to be treated. Just try to make the world a better place.