Monica Guyot

Monica Guyot is the President of GAP Incorporated, dba GAP Community Child Care Center and Executive Director of the Center. GAP stands for the first initial of the last name of the three women who began GAP CCC, Monica Guyot, Aisha Abubakar and Juana Puentes. The GAP was incorporated in 1982 and the Center doors opened on October 18, 1982.

Prior to opening the GAP Center Monica participated in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's in Mississippi where she also worked for the CDGM (Child Development Group of Mississippi).

Ms. Guyot is a former member of MACECD, Mayor's Advisory Committee on Early Childhood Development.

She met her husband in Mississippi and they married in Washington, D.C. Together they have two children and three dogs. After they married they returned to Mississippi where they continued to work in the Movement. They now reside in Washington, D.C.

Monica continues to work as Executive Director and enjoys creating and having the benefit of working with a wonderful staff and parents.

Honorable Zinora M.Mitchell-Rankin

Zinora M. Mitchell-Rankin was born in the District of Columbia and was educated at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, where she graduated summa cum laude and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1976 and at George Washington University's National Law Center in Washington, D.C. where she received her Juris Doctorate degree in May 1979. Zinora Mitchell-Rankin was admitted by examination to the Bar of the District of Columbia on December 17, 1979.

Shortly after graduating from law school she accepted an appointment with the Department of Justice Honors Program and was assigned to the Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch as a trial attorney. During her tenure with the Civil Division, Zinora Mitchell-Rankin's legal practice included affirmative and defensive civil litigation before the United States District Courts, United States Court of Appeals, Untied States Bankruptcy Court, and the United States Claims Court.

On June 26, 1982, she was appointed as an Assistant United States, Attorney of the District of Columbia. In that office, Zinora Mitchell-Rankin served in both the United States District Court and in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. In addition she served as the Administrative Assistant United States Attorney from March 1987 until May 1988. Zinora Mitchell-Rankin was then appointed to serve as the Executive Assistant for Management and remained in that position until her nomination to the Superior Court.

On January 12, 1990, Zinora Mitchell-Rankin was sworn in as an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Since that time, she has served in the Civil, Family and Criminal Divisions of the Court. She served as the Presiding Judge of the Family Division from January 1999 through December 2000. Prior to serving as the Presiding Judge of the Family Division she served as Deputy Presiding Judge of the Family Division for two (2) years. Prior to her current assignment as Drug Court Judge she served in the Misdemeanor Branch of the Criminal Division.

Zinora M. Mitchell-Rankin and her husband Michael Lee Rankin are the proud parents of three (3) sons, John Michael Rankin, Everett Mitchell Rankin and Michael Joseph Mitchell Rankin; and one (1) daughter, Lee Elliott Rankin.

Honorable Anna Blackburne-Rigsby

The Honorable Anna Blackburne -Rigsby serves as an Associate Judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. President Clinton appointed Judge Blackburne-Rigsby to the bench in July 2000.

Prior to her tenure as an Associate Judge, Judge Blackburne-Rigsby served as a Magistrate Judge for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Preceding her appointment as a Magistrate Judge, Judge Blackburne-Rigsby was the Deputy Corporation Counsel for the Family Services Division of the Office of the Corporation Counsel of the district of Columbia. In that capacity she supervised the prosecution of child abuse and neglect cases, domestic violence cases and child support enforcement cases. Previously, she served as Special Counsel to the Corporation Counsel. Prior to joining the Office of the Corporation Counsel, she was a litigation associate at the law firm of Hogan and Hartson, from 1987 - 1992. Judge Blackburne-Rigsby is a 1987 graduate of Howard University School of Law, and received her undergraduate degree from Duke University.

Judge Blackburne-Rigsby is an instructor for the Harvard Law School Winter Trial Advocacy Workshop. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Washington Council of Lawyers and former member of the Board of Directors of the D.C. Rape Crisis Center. She is a member of the Judicial Council of the Washington Bar Association. She is also a member of the National Association of Women Judges. Judge Blackburne-Rigsby served from 1993-2000 as a coach and mentor for the St. Gabriel's Catholic Youth Organization Girls Basketball team. Judge Blackburne-Rigsby is a member of the NAACP.

Judge Blackburne-Rigsby is married to Judge Robert R. Ribsby. They live in Washington, D.C. with their 5 year old son Julian.

Vanette Graham

Vanette Graham is married and has one adult son. She has earned her B.S. degree in Psychology at Howard University and her M.SW. degree in Psychiatric Social Work at Howard University.

Her work experience includes Senior Social Worker, Child Abuse and Neglect Project; Children's Hospital Supervisor, Intake, Department of Human Services. Faculty, School of Social Work at Howard University; Director, Special Needs Adoption Project, Lutheran Social Services Currently Director, Regional Resources Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, Howard University; Coordinator of Volunteers for Abused and Neglected Children.

Her Awards and Honors include: "Social Worker of the Year" D.C. Metropolitan Chapter, National Association of Social Workers; Numerous plaques/certificates for achievement; Presentations at local, regional and national conferences/meetings; Television and radio appearances; Licensed Independent Clinician Social Worker; Member, Academy of Certified Social Workers.

Community Services: Chair, Coalition on Child Abuse and Neglect; Member of the Mayor's Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect; Initiator, First D.C. Chapter, Parents Anonymous; sits on the Board of Directors of the GAP Community Child Care Center; Numerous organizational memberships; and Elder, Southminister Presbyterian Church.

Vanette Graham is an advocate for children's rights.

Carol Gullatt

Carolyn Windsor Gullatt is currently Director of Human Resources for Africare , a private voluntary organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for rural communities in Africa. Ms. Gullatt oversees all aspects of the organization’s human resources work. She has held this position for fourteen years.

Prior to joining Africare in October of 1989, Ms. Gullatt served seven years as Associate Executive Director for the YWCA of the National Capital Area. She was responsible for overseeing the development and delivery of educational, social, and recreational program services by YWCAs in Washington, DC, Montgomery County, Maryland, and Fairfax County, Virginia and for managing program staff in those jurisdictions.

The Peace Corps employed Carolyn for twelve years {1966-1973 and 1978-1982} in various capacities, including teacher-trainer in Tamilnadu, South India; Assistant Director for Minority Recruitment, Desk Officer for Kenya ,Uganda, Mauritius and the Seychelle Islands in East Africa; and Country Director in Western Samoa, the South Pacific. Between tours with the Peace Corps, she served as a training consultant to the government of North Solomon’s Province in Papua New Guinea working in rural village development with women’s groups, and taught full-time in the School of Communication at Howard University, Washington, DC.

Ms. Gullatt currently serves on the board of directors of several community and service organizations in Washington, DC, including GAP Community School, and The Oracles Set Foundation. She is an active member and Past President of the Federal city Alumnae Chapter Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Martha Prescod Norman Noonan

Martha Prescod Norman Noonan was a field secretary and fundraiser for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee during her college years spending almost two years in the South during the early sixties. She worked on SNCC projects in Albany, Georgia; Greenwood, Mississippi; and Selma, Alabama. A student and teacher of history, Martha earned a Masters Degree in History from Wayne State University and completed 27 hours of course work towards a PH.D in history at the University of Michigan. Over a period of twelve years, she has taught various courses in African American history at the University Of Michigan, the University Of Toledo, and Wayne State University.

Over the past Twenty years, she has given a number of papers and lectures on the civil rights movement and it's place in modern history, (two of which have been published) and has also played a major role in organizing several major national retrospective conferences about civil rights activism. She has remained involved in community activism through developing and directing various programs including an anti-hunger project, a large inner-city food buying club, and a supplemental educational program for young people with sickle cell disease.

During several periods in her life, she has also been a full time homemaker raising three sons, caring for her aging parents, and now enjoying a recent marriage to her high school sweetheart. She is one of six editors, of a collection of fifty-one SNCC women's stories about their experiences in the civil rights movement, titled Hands on the Freedom Plow.