About Sheila Jenine Kennedy-Bryant
Nicknames: Sunshine, Sweetie
Sheila Kennedy-Bryant is
President and Chief Executive Officer of Custom Digital Solutions (CDS), (www.customds.com), a seven-year old company
with operations in New York and Los Angeles, specializing in on-site corporate computer
software training and consulting. Major
clients include Martha Stewart Living, Colgate Palmolive, Simon & Schuster
and all of the Viacom companies - CBS, MTV, VH-1, Showtime, Nickelodeon, Nick-at-Nite,
Comedy Central, Noggin, TV Land, BET, UPN, Viacom Interactive Ventures, the
Movie Channel and Nickelodeon’s Digital Animation Studio.
Mrs. Kennedy-Bryant holds a Master’s
Degree in Interactive Telecommunications from New York University,
a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business, and, other related credentials in her
field. Prior to starting her company, Mrs.
Kennedy-Bryant was a highly sought after computer consultant for IBM’s training
company, as well as and other computer training and consulting companies in New York City.
Having lived and gone to
school on five continents, Mrs. Kennedy-Bryant has gained appreciation,
understanding and respect for world cultures and people. Her parents were international educators and
media pioneers - mother, journalist/entrepreneur
Janie Sykes-Kennedy, and father, professor/
playwright Dr.
James Scott Kennedy.
Her international experience
started as a young child growing up in countries where her parents worked. In the late 1960’s
they lived in Africa, working at the University of Ghana and producing for the 1966
First World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar, Senegal, and the First Pan
African Cultural Festival in Algiers, Algeria in 1969. In the ‘70’s, they
were invited as Fulbright scholars by the Prime Minister of Australia to live
in Adelaide and
introduce new concepts of people - African-American and African, to that
continent. They were also asked to produce for the Papau, New Guinea Independence
Arts Festival in 1973. They were the
first African-American family to live on the Australian continent. In addition, during her early years she was a
performer, a competitive athlete in swimming and gymnastics and a member of a
dance troupe.
As an adult, she studied at
the University of Madrid in Spain,
The United States International University in Niarobi,
Kenya and at Heibei
University in the People’s Republic of
China. She did professional studies in Germany and worked in Nairobi, Kenya.
Believing that public service
and giving back is very important, Mrs. Kennedy-Bryant has served as a mentor
and tutor for the Beacon Schools in her native New York City, and has been a volunteer teaching
adult literacy. She currently serves as President
of the John & Sheila Kennedy-Bryant
Family Foundation, a charitable non-profit organization focused on urban youth education
and leadership development based in Los
Angeles, California.
Education and public service
have been a family tradition which goes back to her great grandmother, Mary
Atkins, who graduated from Knoxville College in the mid 1800s; her great uncle,
James Atkins, was a member of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Black Cabinet,”
advising on education; her uncle, Dr. Joseph C. Kennedy, co-founder and
International Director of Africare, was (in 1960’s) a Peace Corps director
for the Africa region and later a Peace Corps director for the South East Asian
region; and her aunt, Dr. Lillian Kennedy Beam, was for 18 years a visionary
builder and former Vice Chancellor of the United States International
University Africa in Kenya.
Mrs.Kennedy-Bryant is involved in many social causes including being a supporting member
of the National Council of Negro Women; serving as the co-chair of Operation
HOPE’s digital empowerment program for the HOPE Inner City Cyber Café Network and
serving on the advisory board of UCLA in LA.
Mrs. Kennedy-Bryant resides in Los
Angeles, California with
her husband, Mr. John Bryant, Founder,
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Operation HOPE, Inc.
