Thursday, May 11 2017
Walgreens executive Steve Pemberton has a personal success story of facing seemingly insurmountable odds in the foster care system. After years in the system and enduring neglect and abuse, he emerged as a success. He tells Charlotte Talks host Mike Collins his story and talks about how he helps others in the same situation, by telling his story.
Steve Pemberton is a successful executive at Walgreens, and is, in fact, the first chief diversity officer in the company's history. But before he achieved that success,he overcame seemingly insurmountable odds- he was a child in the foster system in Massachusetts for 11 years, starting at the age of five, not knowing who his family was, and enduring abuse and neglect and a system that didn't help him.
Pemberton's book, A Chance in the World, is the story of his difficult path through the foster care system, and how he came through that difficult childhood to become a college graduate and successful executive who now devotes a large portion of his time working in support of children in the foster system.
Steve Pemberton is in Charlotte to speak to the Children’s Home Society of North Carolina and while he's in town, he joins Mike Collins to tell his story. North Carolina has troubling numbers when it comes to foster children aging out of the system.
That number is up from years past, so we'll also be joined by a foster care expert to discuss the numbers and how these children can be helped.
Guests:
Steve Pemberton, chief diversity officer at Walgreens and author of A Chance in the World, a memoir of his childhood in the foster system.
Rebecca Starnes, vice president of Family Education with the Children’s Home Society of North Carolina.
Event:
Steve Pemberton is the keynote speaker at the annual event for the Children’s Home Society of NC in Charlotte on May 11. Info here.