Maxine mimms academy
- •
Pioneering teacher Maxine Mimms champions education opportunities for Black adults in WA
Lifelong teacher and advocate Maxine Mimms’ career in education changed course nearly 50 years ago while she was eating breakfast at the since-shuttered Browne’s Star Grill in Tacoma’s historically Black Hilltop neighborhood. She overheard two women say a Black teacher left town to teach white students in Olympia — leaving them with fewer options for a higher education.
“I leaned over and said, ‘You’re probably talking about me,’” said Mimms, 94, now of Shelton, Mason County. “They were very embarrassed, but we had a wonderful conversation.”
This interaction, at a time when Mimms was commuting from Tacoma to Olympia to teach public policy at The Evergreen State College, blossomed into Mimms schooling Black adults around her kitchen table — and eventually becoming the first Black woman in Washington to found a four-year college, with the creation of the college’s Evergreen Tacoma campus in 1982.
The school, based in that same Hilltop neighborhood, was created to provide
- •
Dr. Maxine Mimms: A Legacy of Education, Empowerment, and Enduring Friendship with Dr. Maya Angelou
Dr. Mimms unwavering dedication to empowering historically excluded communities and her leading-edge efforts in establishing the Tacoma Campus of Evergreen State College have left an enduring mark on generations of lives.
From her early days as a social worker in Detroit to her influential role as Founder of Evergreen State College, Dr. Mimms was driven by a profound commitment to education and social justice. Her work was not just a profession but a calling, one that she pursued with passion and resilience.
Dr. Mimms was a mentor to many, guiding students and educators alike with her wisdom and compassion. Her belief in the transformative power of education led her to create opportunities for those who might otherwise have been left behind. She was a friend and confidant to luminaries such as Dr. Maya Angelou and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and served on the advisory board for the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa.
H
- •
Dr. Maxine Mimms, best known for founding the Tacoma Campus of The Evergreen State College, worked as a teacher, social worker, educator, administrator, trainer, professor, mentor, consultant, public speaker, and as a mother, and even held a position at the U.S. Department of Labor in the Women's Bureau. To start Evergreen Tacoma, as the campus is commonly known, she gathered people around her kitchen table and figured out how to best meet them where they were on their educational journey. She became known for her ability to look for the genius in everyone. The rigorous and well-defined framework of Evergreen State College's Tacoma Campus was the product of Mimms's Ph.D. studies. Her 1977 doctoral dissertation developed the underlying points from which the campus would operate. After retiring from Evergreen, Mimms created the Maxine Mimms Academies for children who had been suspended or expelled from school, served as a consultant for other schools attempting to craft their own approach to addressing disparities in education, and continued to dedicate her life to the service of ot
Copyright ©armywing.pages.dev 2025