A Novel Retirement for Dr. Verna Cole

Dr. Verna Cole, Class of 1976, recently retired from a career in education and social service administration. That said, retirement doesn’t mean that her plate is completely wiped clean.

Verna is working on a novel about life in America for an immigrant Jamaican family in the early 2000s.

“This ‘coming to America story’ introduces readers to life transitions for a Caribbean family. In pursuing the American dream, they have exchanged their middle-class life for the rewards and challenges of the Big Apple. Re-establishing roots will require understanding and adopting new working-class identities as American citizens, and black Americans, in a multi-cultural setting,” revealed Verna of the plot.

Verna currently has five publications in print including her 1999 dissertation, “African Village: A case study of an African-centered public elementary school.” She holds three degrees: a Bachelor of Arts in geography and economics, from Dartmouth College; a Master of Divinity in counseling and administration from Yale University; and a Ph.D. in education from the University of Pennsylvania.

When we last spoke with Verna in 2007, she was the emergency management liaison for the Philadelphia School District. She then went on to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where she served in various positions including outreach manager and education and development liaison.

Verna retired in 2018 from a post with the State of Delaware. She was a department program analyst in Delaware’s Department of Health and Social Services. She had also served as a training administrator in the Division of Social Service for the state’s Health Department.

“I am proudest of re-instituting the Leadership Academy for emerging leaders at Delaware’s Health and Social Services and working with the CEO of Benchmark Communications, Inc., and the Chairman of the Creating WE Institute to create and tailor an assessment tool to assist senior leaders in achieving extraordinary results
for the citizens of Delaware,” explained Verna.

Verna resides in Abington, Penn. She has one son, Adamah, who lives and works in New York.