Expert Areas: Speaks to teenagers and young adults at various youth functions about Character Development, Consequences of Decision Making, Achieving Your Goals, Becoming Leaders, and Improving Self-Esteem.
Description: Retired Military, High School Graduation and Assemblies, Colleges, Youth Rallies, Youth Retreat Programs, and Youth Conference Speaker; Workshop Leader; Spoken to 5000 youth over 18 years, Dedicated to Raising Morally Responsible Youth.
Biography: Darrell is a Youth Development veteran with over 18 years experience and previously served as an Assistant Youth Director in Virginia, a Youth Director in Seoul, Korea and Maryland for the Army's second largest congregation. He is a facilitator for the Virginia General Convention Youth Retreat, the Evangel Boot Camp Youth Conference, and the Urban Youth Workers Institute Reload and National Conference. His knowledge and experience has helped many young leaders and youth workers throughout the country. Darrell has a heart for today’s youth and is a contributing writer for Interlinc's music based life studies.
He is the co-founder and network coordinator for Alliance Seminars and the Alliance Youth Network, which consists of over 200 youth leaders dedicated to reaching teenagers influenced by Hip-Hop Culture. He is also one of the Advisory Council Members for the National Network of Urban Youth Workers and the Urban Youth Workers Institute. His desire is to help youth experience positive growth, help them develop great character, and make them young productive leaders in society. He has received the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, American Legion, and Lacey B. Ivory Community Service Award for his dedicated work with youth.
Darrell is also an exceptionally gifted leader, teacher, coach, and mentor who is known for finding ways to challenge young men and women to realize their potential and produce exceptional results. On top of that, he served his country for 20 years in the United States Army until his retirement. He was assigned to the White House Communications Agency where he supported Presidents Bush and Clinton as an Operations Coordinator and Vice Presidents Gore and Cheney as a Communications Officer. He led several very successful Presidential missions which included a rapid deployment to Miami, Florida to inspect Hurricane Andrew Damage; Normandy, France for the 50th Anniversary of D-Day; Kuwait City, Kuwait; London, England; Tuzla, Bosnia; Lyon, France for the G-7 Economic Summit and Mexico City, Mexico for the APEC Summit. His ability to motivate others, build, and lead high performing teams was unmatched.
He earned several distinguished honors through military competition boards such as Soldier of the Month, Soldier of the Quarter, and Soldier of the Region. He was also commended for his selection as one of two finalists in the Soldier of the Year Competition. In 1992, 1994, and 1995, he was bestowed the honor of Unit Noncommissioned Officer of the Year and he is part of Agency history as a WHCA All-Star Team member. Furthermore, Darrell was also selected as the 2000 White House Communications Agency Senior Noncommissioned Officer of the Year so he knows what it takes to go from mediocrity to excellence. Following the tragedies of September 11, 2001, Darrell was selected as 1 of only 5 individuals to provide emergency communications 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for the Vice President of the United States of America, until his retirement. He superbly transformed young men and women from various walks of life into exceptionally competent, confident communicators who provided the highest quality of support to the Executive Office of the President.