A Man Who Inspires People

Lloyd Dennis

Biography

Personal Credo

As free human beings we have three things we can use to build lives and community: our time, our money and our votes and to the extent that we are conscious and purposeful in using those three we will succeed in building both lives and a better place to live.

A Rich and Broad Range of Experiences

After graduating from St. Augustine High School and serving as the sound and light technician for the historic Free Southern Theater in New Orleans, Lloyd entered the Air Force during the Vietnam Era and distinguished himself by achieving first place honors in all of his electronics and management training courses, receiving Airman of the year Award for the Third Weather Wing based on his performance at his first and only duty assignment where he also achieved the rank of Staff Sergeant (E-5) in less than three years, setting a base record. at Blytheville AFB in Arkansas.

During his military stint, Lloyd took advantage of additional training opportunities to further his technical abilities in electronics and computer technology and upon separation from the military took the first of several positions in which he would serve as "the first black" person to ever have the job in New Orleans. From servicing and installing electronics on tug boats and ships in the river, to having site responsibility for the Burroughs computers and check reader-sorters his team installed and maintained for the Federal Reserve Branch in New Orleans, to becoming the National Service Coordinator for Kalvar microfilm duplicating company, headquartered in New Orleans, Lloyd Dennis worked and traveled in many interesting and demanding situations before becoming self employed.

From the time of his first child's birth during his military service, Lloyd Dennis has become an accomplished photographer, published nationally and internationally. He is completely self taught as a photographer, even though later he himself would teach photography to others as the photography teacher for three years at L. E. Rabouin Vocational High School, a life shaping experience wherein he learned, first hand, that young people were teachable when they felt respected, believed they were cared about and were helped to connect the dots between what they were learning and lifestyle. Before he retired from photography his was one of the well respected photography and video production companies in the area.

Realizing that poverty and low academic motivation and achievement had become cyclical in a persistent sub culture of male absent childrearing that left young people completely void of knowledge about forming and maintaining family life , since 1993 he has written a weekly "Love Doctor" column in Data Newsweekly and from April of 1999 to the fall of 2003 he brought his insights about relationships, children and community to the WODT audience on The Love Doctor Show which aired weekly. He is also the Author of "His Way Works" an easy to read humorous but insight filled book designed to communicate to young people the how-to and benefits of loving, conscious and purposeful family living.

Since the Storm he has produced several documentaries about Katrina’s impact: “Coming Home” a film to help people make better choices about the how and when of returning, “Education In Exile” about the young people who returned to New Orleans leaving schools in places where they were treated like refuges and “Renaissance Village” about the plight of those who survived the storm to live in the largest FEMA trailer camp outside of Baton Rouge. As a filmmaker he has contributed to the conversation about education reform in New Orleans by producing “A History of Public Education in New Orleans” in conjunction with historian Al Kennedy and “Focus on Success” a film that investigates the inner working of four diversely governed open admission public elementary schools in New Orleans that are successful with the children.

Lloyd Dennis has worked with young people all his adult life, from being the only coach for children in the Lincolnshire community of Marrero, as a mentor in the Big brother program, to working with Rescue One with the Urban League, teaching photography at Rabouin High School, as mentor to a group called Youth Remix in Algiers. These were experiences that led him to co-found the "Silverback Society" an organization which recruits, trains, coordinates and supports a growing corps of quality volunteer role models who provide mentoring and manhood training for eighth grade boys and inspire them to become men who will have the capacity to provide for and protect their children and break the cycle of male absent childrearing for their generations to come.

In August of 2012 Lloyd retired from photography and accepted the challenge from local business leaders to work full time as CEO of Silverback Society, Inc. to accelerate the vision of the Silverback Society to full scale where every little boy in elementary school in New Orleans will experience the mentors and Manhood Role, Responsibility and Respect curriculum of the Silverback Society as he passes through eighth grade, before he faces the academic and social challenges of high school.

In 2012 he was a Champion for Children Honoree for the Louisiana Children's Defense Fund, was the 2013 Man of the Year for the New Orleans Association of Black Social workers and also that year accepted a Champion for Change Award for the Silverback Society from the Crescent City Chapter of Links, Inc. In April of 2014 he was awarded a three year W. K. Kellogg Foundation Community Leadership Network Fellowship, one of 120 fellows selected nationally for the leadership development fellowship's inaugural class.

In 2013 Lloyd retired from the board of Efforts of Grace (ASH Cultural Art Center) after having served thirteen years a its board president. He now serves as one of the founding members on the board of the Orleans Public Education Network and for twenty five years on the Community Relations Council of the New Orleans Job Corps where he also shows up every two weeks to motivate new arrivals.

In 2014 he was selected as a recipient of the Children's Bureau of New Orleans "Children's Hero Award" and completed Rockwood Institute's "Art of Leadership" leadership development course.

He is involved in a forty seven year love affair with his wife, Anne and has three adult children and three grandchildren. Lloyd Dennis believes in young people and knows how brilliant they are when caring adults support, guide and encourage their efforts.