Umoja Elders Council

By DNA research, Elder Baba Eric Anthony Ivory can trace his maternal ancestry to the proud Mende people of Sierra Leone. His Mende name is Sundima — a boy born on a Sunday. In Ghana, his Ga name for Sunday is Kwasi or Kwesi.

His Umoja purpose and his why as an Elder is drawn from an old African proverb: to listen and provide wisdom and insight not because elders are always right, but because they have more experience at being wrong.

Elder Ivory became a member of the Umoja Elder Council in 2024 and joined the Board of Directors as Elder Council representative in 2025. His experiences in education span 39 years, including student club advising, EOP/S Counseling, Coordinator of TRIO SSS, and serving as an original co-founder of the Umoja Community at Modesto Junior College. He has taught Umoja-focused courses and provided counseling in direct service of Umoja students throughout his career.

Outside of his professional life, he loves growing his own vegetables almost year-round, fishing, exercising, cooking, and traveling. He is educationally, emotionally, and spiritually trained as a collage and decoupage artist whose work focuses on the diversity and commonality of human experiences.

Elder Theresa "T" Ford, a daughter of the Great Migration and Professor Emerita, served the students of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca College District in the San Diego area for thirty-three years — primarily as a Counselor and later as a Professor of the Humanities.

She was at the forefront of developing an Umoja program for Grossmont College after attending a Daraja conference geared toward the success of African American students. Elder Ford's first Umoja conference was in 2006, and her commitment to serving students in various capacities has never wavered.

She currently teaches in the Black Studies and Africana Studies Departments at San Diego Mesa College and San Diego State University, respectively.

Elder Tom deWit has been blessed to serve in the Umoja Community for nearly four decades. Fueled by the Ethic of Love that radiates from thousands of Umoja students and practitioners, he works to grow Umoja as a Power Base on his home campus of Chabot College and across California and Washington. He is committed to creating Live Learning spaces where the brilliance of students of African descent can shine brightly across institutions.

He is first and foremost an Umoja English teacher and one of the founders of the Umoja Community — with no permission and no money — who had the fortune to collaborate with amazing colleagues who gave thousands of intentional and deliberate hours to make Umoja an indomitable force for Black students in higher education. He is particularly proud that Umoja has always brought students directly into the center of its professional development spaces, where communal intelligence is built together.

When not immersed in Umoja, Elder deWit serves as chief negotiator for the Chabot-Las Positas Faculty Association and works with Teach Earth Action (TEA), an organization focused on climate justice and a healthy, thriving planet. He is a second-generation child of Thomas deWit and Connie Galindo, a proud partner of 42 years, and the father of three beautiful children. His passion is that the community continues to gift its minds and spirits to Umoja's great mission — abiding by the goals and dreams of students and their families.

Elder Ernie Bridges' motivation as an Elder is formed and informed by a lifetime of learning. It embodies the essence of his being and serves as a foundation rooted in African-centered principles (MA'AT), upon which he bases his actions, reactions, thoughts, words, and speech. His leadership ethic is clear: Educate. Advocate. Empower. Impact.

He is a long-time educator in African American Studies, having taught at Fullerton College (retired) and California State University, Fullerton (retired). While at Fullerton College, he served as Faculty Advisor and Advisor/Mentor to several campus organizations, including the Black Student Union (BSU), and as campus Founder/Coordinator of the Umoja Community. He was also an instructor of African American History for the 100 Black Men of Orange County and an advisory board member to the "Passport to the Future Program."

His background includes many years as a Human Relations Manager for several Fortune 100 Companies, and he has served as a board member for the California Umoja Community Education Foundation, the Western Region Council on Black American Affairs (WRCBAA), and the G.R.E.E.N. Foundation. He also served as President of the Southern California Council on Black American Affairs (SCCBAA).

Elder Bridges holds a bachelor's degree in education, an MBA with an emphasis in Industrial Relations, and a Ph.D. with an emphasis in Religious Studies. His guiding principle: All is mind, and the universe is a mental and spiritual creation.

Baba Clyde Phillips is a retired professor of Counseling, a co-founder of the Umoja Community Education Foundation, and today serves as an Elder on the Umoja Council of Elders. A graduate of Cal State Long Beach, he committed his life's work to uplifting African diasporic students within California's community colleges.

Clyde served through Educational Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS) at Cypress, Santa Ana, El Camino, Long Beach City, Irvine Valley, and Orange Coast Colleges, and served as regional coordinator for several years. He built community at every stop — starting Black Student Unions, mentoring student leaders, and reminding young people that they stood on the shoulders of their ancestors.

At Orange Coast College, where he served more than 30 years, he brought Umoja to campus in 2010, shaping it into a space of belonging and excellence for Black students. His "porch talks" and deliberate, culturally grounded counseling gave students not only academic guidance but also healing, affirmation, and purpose. He was told it could NOT be done at OCC — and he did it anyway, leaving a legacy that continues to this day.

On a statewide level, Phillips helped expand Umoja from a handful of colleges to more than 50, carrying forward the principle of unity. He abides by the proverb: "To go fast we may go alone, but to go far we must go together." Baba Clyde is a proud father of two, a Buffalo Soldier Historian, and a Black Cowboy of the Golden West.

Elders and Ancestors have provided Elder Denise Marshall-Mills with the knowledge, lessons, and examples needed to establish and sustain community. Their presence in her life reminds her of the obligation and responsibility she carries to serve — and to do so in ways that nurture and uplift people of African ancestry.

She has had the privilege of serving over 40 years as an educator at both the secondary and college level and is a founding member of the Umoja Community Education Foundation. She was one of the faculty members who developed the Diop Scholars Community of Learners at Cosumnes River College in Sacramento, California. She has served as EOPS Coordinator, EOPS Counselor, General Counselor, and Adjunct Professor, and developed an African-Centered College Success course that became the core course for Umoja cohort classes.

She also served as an Academic Counselor and Summer Bridge Coordinator at CSU Sacramento, and at the secondary level as a Social Studies Teacher and College Counselor. She was privileged to spend summers working in programs including Upward Bound, Summer Bridge, the I Have a Dream Foundation, and the National Youth Sports Program (NYSP).

She currently serves as an Umoja Elder and as a member of the African Diasporic Education Summit (ADES) Planning Committee. She enjoys traveling to West African countries and looks forward to exploring even more African and Caribbean destinations. She is blessed to be the sixth of nine children born to Joseph and Odessa Marshall, and she cherishes time with family, friends, the ocean, and pickleball. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from CSU Dominguez Hills and an M.A. in Counseling & Guidance from Loyola Marymount University. I am my Ancestors' wildest dreams — and they are mine. Ase!