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By Michael Chamness
IASA Director of Communications
When Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch talks about
valuing diversity, she speaks not only from her own
experience, but from her heart and a vow she made
to her dying mother. Overcoming poverty,
discrimination and illiteracy in a barrio in Laredo,
Texas, Kickbusch became the highest ranking
Hispanic woman in the Combat Support Field of the
U.S. Army.
Having served 20 years, attaining the rank of
Lieutenant Colonel and positioning herself for a
promotion to General, Kickbusch retired from the
Army in 1996 because of her mother’s final wish.
“She wanted me to go home and to fight poverty
and discrimination wherever kids might be. She told
me ‘We are here to serve.’ She died three weeks
later,” said Kickbusch, who founded Educational
Achievement Services, Inc. in 1994. She estimated
the company’s outreach has had an impact on more
than a million children in more than 1,000 school
districts.
“People talk about wanting to be a voice for
children and school districts have administrators,
principals, teachers and staff that have an opportunity
to provide support, so the questions become: How far
will we go?, and Will we go the extra mile?”
Kickbusch said. “Young children are at our mercy.
They come to us with hope and the promise that we
want what’s best for them.”
An inspirational speaker who has gotten rave
reviews across the country, Kickbusch will be a
Kickbusch sees public education
as ‘great equalizer’ in land of diversity
Thursday, October 1
Second General Session
9:15 - 11 a.m.
Consuelo Kickbusch
Valuing Diversity