Campus Speaker & Board of Advisors Member - Star Parker

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Star Parker is the founder and president of CURE, the Center for Urban Renewal & Education, a 501c3 non-profit think tank that provides a national voice of reason on issues of race and poverty in the media, inner city neighborhoods, and public policy.

Prior to her involvement in social activism, Star Parker was a single welfare mother in Los Angeles, California. After receiving Christ, Star returned to college, received a BS degree in marketing and launched an urban Christian magazine. The 1992 Los Angeles riots destroyed her business, yet served as a springboard for her focus on faith and market-based alternatives to empower the lives of the poor.

As a social policy consultant, Star Parker gives regular testimony before the United States Congress, and is a national expert on major television and radio shows across the country.

Currently, Star is a regular commentator on CNN, TBN, CNBC, CBN, FOX News, and the United Kingdom's BBC.

She has debated Jesse Jackson on BET; fought for school choice on Larry King Live; defended welfare reform on the Oprah Winfrey Show, and spoke at the 1996 Republican National Convention. Most recently, Star appeared as co-host on Barbara Walter’s show The View.

Star Parker’s personal transformation from welfare fraud to conservative crusader has been chronicled by ABC’s 20/20; Rush Limbaugh; Readers Digest; Dr. James Dobson; The 700 Club; Dr. George Grant; the Washington Times; Rev. James Robison; Christianity Today; Dr. D. James Kennedy, Charisma, and World Magazine. Articles and quotes by Star have appeared in major publications including the Washington Post and the New York Times.

Star has written three books. Her autobiography "Pimps, Whores & Welfare Brats" was released in 1997 by Pocket Books, "Uncle Sam's Plantation" is released by Thomas Nelson in the fall of 2003, and "White Ghetto: How Middle Class America Reflects Inner City Decay" was released in 2006.

In 2010, Star ran for the Republican Congressional seat in California’s 37th District and was unanimously elected. Though she did not win, she increased Republican votes in the district.

Today, in addition to heading CURE, Star is a syndicated columnist for Scripps Howard News Service, offering weekly op-eds to more than 400 newspapers worldwide, including the Boston Herald, the Dallas Morning News, The Orange County Register, San Diego Union, Arkansas Democrat Gazette, the Washington Times, and the Star and Stripes, the largest paper serving the men and women of our Armed Forces.