Fort Wayne Urban League Names Grant-Overton CEO

Cosette Grant-Overton

Listen to this story

Subscriber Benefit

As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now

This audio file is brought to you by

0:00

0:00

Loading audio file, please wait.

Speed
1.00

• 0.25
• 0.50
• 0.75
• 1.00
• 1.25
• 1.50
• 1.75
• 2.00

The Fort Wayne Urban League has appointed Cosette Grant-Overton president and chief executive officer. She is an entrepreneur and has more than 25 years of combined executive and senior level management experience. Grant-Overton’s experience includes 15 years as CEO of a self-owned company, while also serving as an in-house adviser and consultant to small businesses, nonprofits and government entities. She also has a background in the Urban League and is a former tenure-track professor in educational leadership and policy at a Research 1 institution.

Grant-Overton recently served one year as a visiting professor and senior researcher in change management in higher education that included a lecture workshop series in Shanghai, China. While overseas, she trained and developed Chinese business, technology and educational leaders. Grant-Overton also introduced these leaders to cutting-edge work and best practices on equity and inclusion fostering more diverse leadership, and better positioning ethnic minorities and women to compete in the global marketplace.

She has written numerous scholarly publications on fast breaking issues affecting education and workforce development, which includes several peer-reviewed co-authored books, like “Handbook of Urban Educational Leadership” with two solo-authored books now in press and has lectured nationally and internationally on the same. Further, Grant-Overton has deep-seeded roots in the National Urban League Movement, having served the organization in a myriad of ways, first serving as a volunteer, then later serving as a two-term national secretary of the National Urban League Young Professionals, an auxiliary of the National Urban League.

She holds a doctoral degree in Educational Foundations and Leadership and has done additional graduate studies in public policy and economics. Grant-Overton as an undergraduate degree from Dillard University in New Orleans and has been very active in educational and civic boards.