Rev. Marina Antoinette Skinner
September Bethune Sweetheart 2015
Rev. Marina Antoinette Skinner, a social justice advocate, is a member of the Denver Branch of the National Council of Negro Women and serves on the Executive Committee as the Audit Chair and Social and Economic Empowerment Chair. She is a member of the Colorado Springs Branch of the NAACP and the CO/MT/WY NAACP State Conference, where she served as climate justice chair (2014). Prior to relocating to CO, she worked with the North Carolina NAACP and President Dr. William J. Barber on the internationally recognized nonviolent Moral Monday Campaigns. She has worked diligently with several other local, national, and international nonprofit and grassroots organizations on issues disparately affecting African Americans and other disenfranchised populations.
Rev. Skinner is a native of Brooklyn, NY and grew up in Taylorsville, NC. She is a university educator and administrator at Everest University and president and CEO of FRESH Colorado, Inc., an environmental sustainability nonprofit. She is the owner and founder of Marina Antoinette Skinner Company (“MASC”), a professional management consulting, corporate training and motivational speaking company based in Colorado Springs, CO. She previously worked and taught at Forsyth Technical Community College (NC), University of Phoenix (NC), Wake Forest University, School of Divinity (NC), and Winston-Salem State University (NC). She also previously held several management positions in banking, legal, engineering, and manufacturing corporations in both NC and New York City.
She is an ordained minister of the Rowan Association of NC and currently serves as an associate minister under Rev. Dr. Cleveland A. Thompson, senior pastor at Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church (North Campus) in Colorado Springs, CO. Previously, Rev. Skinner served as an associate minister under Rev. Dr. John Mendez, pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, NC. She also served as the third vice president of the Minister’s Conference of Winston-Salem & Vicinity, after previously serving as secretary for four years.
Rev. Skinner received the Master of Arts, Bachelor of Arts, and Associate of Arts Degrees in Business Administration from Saint Leo University in Tampa, FL. She is a doctoral candidate for the Doctor of Management Degree in Organizational Leadership at the University of Phoenix (AZ). Her doctoral dissertation is on spiritual leadership among African-American Baptist clergy. Additional studies include Mass Communications and Human Communications at NC A&T State University (Greensboro, NC), UNC-Asheville, Hunter College (New York City), and Winston-Salem State University (Winston-Salem, NC). Rev. Skinner is mother to Frankie (27), Oriana (19) and Benjamin (16) and proud grandmother of twins Ursula and Frankie, III (2 ½ years old).