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| Affiliation | Republican |
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2004-01-01 |
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| Name | Joseph P. Watkins |
| Address |
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
Unknown
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| Contributor | eddy 9_99 |
| Last Modifed | Scott³
Dec 04, 2009 10:51am |
| Tags |
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| Info | Joe was born in Queens, New York and raised in the Queens neighborhood of Bayside. He attended Public School 31 where he was selected salutatorian of the graduating sixth grade class and Junior High School 158 before winning a scholarship to the Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts. He completed his bachelors degree at the University of Pennsylvania in History and a masters degree in Christian Education from Princeton Theological Seminary.
After serving as a college campus minister for several years following Princeton, Joe joined the staff of newly-elected US Senator Dan Quayle as assistant state director in 1981. While there he was selected as one of the "Fifty Young Leaders of the Future" by Ebony Magazine in 1983 and as one of the "Ten Outstanding Young Hoosiers" by the Indiana JayCees. He also won the JayCees state and national public speaking competition "Speak Up" in 1983.
In 1984 Joe became the first African American candidate to be selected by the Indiana GOP to run for the US House of Representatives. He was endorsed by US Senator Dan Quayle, the late former President Gerald Ford and Vice President George Bush and was highlighted at the Republican National Convention as well. He lost to incumbent US Representative Andy Jacobs in the November election.
After working with the Saturday Evening Post and Crossroads Christian Communications, Joe returned to Philadelphia in 1986 to work as an assistant to president Sheldon Hackney at the University of Pennsylvania. Taking a leave to work in the 1988 Bush Presidential Campaign, Joe was tapped to work on President-elect Bush's transition team after the November election. From there he was selected to join the President's staff as the associate director of public liaison in the White House. He served in that capacity until May of 1991, when he left the White House to start his own consulting firm. The Wall Street Journal noted his departure as well as one of his new clients -superstar singer Whitney Houston.
In 1994 Joe ran in the Pennsylvania US Senate primary before losing to Rick Santorum. In 1995 Safeguard Scientifics, a Pennsylvania based publicly traded venture capital firm funded Joe and others to form Advent Capital Management Partners.
Joe has spoken at numerous college and high school commencements, including the Middlesex School in 2001, where he served as a trustee from 1996 until 2000 and again from 2001 until 2007. He has also been appointed by former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge and President George W. Bush to serve on state boards and national commissions. Besides serving on the board of Youth INC, Joe is a member of the boards of the Lankenau Hospital, Main Line Health, Steppingstone and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
Since 1998 he has been the pastor of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, the oldest African American Lutheran Church in Philadelphia.
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