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BIOGRAPHY:  Dorothy Elizabeth Hill

Dorothy Elizabeth Hill is the first to note that as a mother of five, her primary achievement has been family centered. Her path of work experience from retail clerk at Berger's, to secretary at the International Institute, to her current position as President of the Langston Hughes Institute, have exemplified personal values and social responsibility.

Dorothy's professional career in community service began in 1965, when she fought with the Community Action Organization (CAO) in the war on poverty. She helped establish Buffalo's first Youth Opportunity Homes for troubled girls. After fifteen years as facility Director for three of these homes, she retired from the New York State Division for Youth. Still highly motivated by community needs and educational possibilities, she went back to work and created community-based projects such as Learning How to Learn About Africa seminars, and the Reading Room housed at the Humboldt YMCA. In addition, Dorothy was one of the founders of the Nile Valley Shule an African-centered private school. Also an entrepreneur, she became a merchant of fine fashions and fabrics.

Today, as the President and CEO of the Langston Hughes Institute, she has taken on the institution-building mission of revitalizing and developing this 32-year-old organization as a premiere art, cultural, and training center in Western New York.