Uncrowned Community Builders

Belinda Biscoe was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. She grew up in a family where education was promoted as the key to opportunity and quality of life. She graduated from Turner High School with a distinctive diploma and attended Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she graduated Cum Laude and with General University Honors. Having received both her Bachelor of Arts degree and Master of Arts degree in Sociology from Fisk, she started work on her Ph.D. in psychology at Peabody/Vanderbilt. After marrying and moving to Oklahoma City, she completed her Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Oklahoma in 1982. She is a psychologist, an internationally certified prevention specialist and an Oklahoma certified drug and alcohol director.

Dr. Biscoe's colleagues and friends often refer to her as the Renaissance woman because of her many talents and ability to successfully juggle a tremendous workload that would drown most professionals. Her career includes having worked as Director and Evaluator of the Health and Human Behavior Video Project at Meharry Medical College. Additionally, she worked as a senior researcher in the Department of Planning, Research, and Evaluation in the Oklahoma City Public School District where she was later promoted to the position of Director of External Programs, federal, state, and local. Belinda garnered historical level funding for the district for programs including many that continue to be sustained in the community. Among them are, Positive Tomorrows, a transitional school for homeless children, Parents as Teachers, a program helping parents to become the first teachers of their children, and Even Start, a program helping parents with minimal literacy skills to promote school readiness with their children ages birth to seven.

In 1991, she co-founded Eagle Ridge Institute, a community-based non-profit organization. There she was able to compete for federal and state dollars to create treatment and primary prevention programs targeting women and their children, adolescents, and low-income individuals in need of services. Starting with one employee, today Eagle Ridge employs over 150 individuals. In 1993, she founded Higher Horizons, a corporation whose mission is to help non-profit organizations, school districts, universities, and faith-based organizations garner funding to support programs that improve the quality of life for thousands of Oklahomans. During the course of her career, she has secured funding to support Oklahoma programs in excess of $100 million dollars.

Belinda' s basic philosophy is "Go where there is no path and leave a trail. " As a founder of programs that have helped thousands of individuals, she has definitely left a trail for others to follow. She says, "Having seen the destruction of chemical addition on families and children, I wanted to establish agencies to provide services in the community for those unable to afford quality treatment."

Dr. Biscoe was, later, recruited by the College of Continuing Education at the University of Oklahoma to direct one of its departments. After three years, she was promoted to Assistant Vice President for University Outreach. In this capacity she provides leadership for over 500 individuals in 18 departments within the Public and Community Services Division. She started the first research and evaluation unit in the College, which she has grown into a full service unit employing 14 senior research scientists and research assistants. An exceptional leader who leads by example, she encourages her staff to perform at the highest possible level. Additionally, she initiated a five-year strategic planning process involving and empowering staff throughout the organization to set a course and agenda to improve daily operations and facilities, create a motivational management culture and healthy work environment, while building a strong financial foundation and infrastructure.

Belinda is passionate about research and has been conducting research on resiliency since 1994. As a result of this work, she and one of her colleagues, Ms. Betty Harris, have developed three resiliency assessment tools, one for early childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. These tools are currently used around the world. As a result of this work, she has signed a contract with a New York Publisher to write a book about resilient women. Belinda is quoted as saying, "I love making a difference in the world. Growing up in a segregated world made me very resilient and determined to make whatever contributions I could to improving the quality of life for others. "

In the volunteer sector Belinda has left a trail. As the first African American president of the metropolitan Y.W.C.A., she initiated the first strategic planning process for them that resulted in their current facility, including the battered women's shelters. Biscoe is a member of the Mental Health Expert Panel for the Bright Futures for Women's Health and Wellness for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As a former member of the U.S. Attorney's Weed and Seed Initiative in Oklahoma City, she wrote the first application that funded this effort. She is a member of Leadership Oklahoma City and serves on the board of the Oklahoma County Mental Health Association, where she secured funding for a countywide mental health needs assessment. She has served with the Salvation Army, the Links, Inc., the Oklahoma City Arts Council and the Red Cross.

She received the 2006 Adelle Robertson Continuing Professional Educator Award from the National University Continuing Education Association (UCEA) in San Diego for scholarship, leadership, and contributions to the profession within the past five to ten years, and the 2004 E. Neal Stone Superior Performance Award from the University of Oklahoma' s Administrative Staff Council. She received the Great Plains Regional 2004 UCEA Continuing Professional Educator Award, the Ebony Tribune Newspaper's Keepers of the Dream award, a program in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and has received leadership awards in education from Women in Communications and the Redlands Chapter of the Girls Scouts.

In her leisure time Belinda enjoys water skiing, knitting, crocheting, reading and gardening, including hydroponics gardening. She enjoys classical music by Beethoven and Bach as well as classical songs from Broadway musicals and rock and roll songs from the '60's and '70's. She is a member of Church of the Servant, United Methodist Church. She is the mother of two daughters, Brandi and Ashley.