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When Jamaican educator Dr Karren Dunkley first came to the United States from Jamaica, little did she know that her initial challenges would ultimately lead her to the US Department of Justice where she serves as one of two Black consultants who oversee the implementation of a program to end racial discrimination and harassment in Utah’s Davis County school district.

Not the Best Beginning

Internationally acclaimed and award-winning educator, Dr Karren Dunkley, overcame a rough introduction to the United States when she moved from Jamaica on a student visa, including near homelessness, juggling three jobs to pay school tuition, and depending on an elderly cousin and even strangers for help meeting her basic needs. “Life was so hard,” she remembers, “it was nothing like I had envisioned.”

Early Life, Disappointments, Achievements

Dr Dunkley’s journey began in Ensom City, St Catherine, Jamaica, where she attended Dunrobin Primary School and St Catherine High School. She did sixth form at Wolmer’s High School for Girls. After high school, she worked at several jobs in Jamaica – front desk clerk at a hotel, a Spanish interpreter – before traveling to the US on a student visa in 1992. Among her early disappointments was not being able to afford the tuition and boarding costs at Howard University where she had applied. Subsequently, she applied to St John’s University Queens, New York, and completed her BA in government and politics there. She went on to earn an MA in International Law, then obtained a second MA in Education, and a PhD in Organization and Leadership at Columbia University. She received national recognition in 2011 when she addressed a congressional briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington DC on the Family Engagement in Education Act. Dunkley also became a member of the education transition team for New York City Mayor Eric Adams after his election.

Current Duties and Responsibilities

Her current responsibilities as a US Department of Justice consultant are focused in four areas: professional learning centered on training in Utah’s Davis County School District; engaging with families, students, staff, and the community; altering school culture by ending the environment of racial harassment; and fighting discrimination. Her efforts in these areas have included conducting countywide focus groups with children, parents, and community stakeholders. While her reports have been completed and submitted to the DOJ, her work in Utah continues until racial harassment and discrimination in the state have lessened. Dr Dunkley shared that, on her first visit to Utah, she was an “object of curiosity,” even among Black school children who had never seen a Black professional woman interact with white parents or give orders to the white school establishment. Only about nine percent of the population of Utah is Black, and Dunkley faced some hostility when she first arrived, as some people believed she and her team were there to impose DOJ initiatives on the state.

Giving Back

Among De Dunkley’s many accomplishments, she says she takes the most pride in her work with the Jamaican Diaspora. She has been the Global Jamaican Diaspora Council member for the US Northeast Region for three years, working with Jamaicans in need and connecting them to relevant resources to improve their lives. She notes that her love of giving back stems from her personal knowledge of “the kindness of strangers,” and she is proud of the fact that Jamaicans always seem to strive to better themselves.

Continuing Influence

Dr Dunkley continues to have an influence on educational policies and practices throughout the US and is in high demand from school districts in New York, Philadelphia, and Utah. Her reports to the DOJ on racial discrimination and harassment have been made public and a focus of US media. She was also featured in articles in Vanity Fair and Black Enterprise magazines.

Photo – Facebook

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My favorite basketball team is the Golden State Warriors.  Their motto is STRENGTH IN NUMBERS.  I love their style of playing the game of basketball.  Michelle and I are basketball freaks.  Ever since I met Michelle we have been balling together.  I call it LOVE AND BASKETBALL, which happens to be one of my favorite movies also.  Michelle is a Miami Heat fan so we have bouts of rivalry throughout the season of basketball.   The truth is we go at each other on the basketball court but once home we leave it outside the house and continue our marriage.  I love the competition and so does she.  The funny thing is, Michelle is the one who got me playing that game. I was a soccer player being from Jamaica.

I just love the Warriors because they really do play together and the strength they have together in numbers is what allowed them to win so many championships together.  Your marriage needs strength to survive.  One key ingredient to a healthy and thriving marriage is INTIMACY.  I must be honest that when I first heard that word I thought of only one thing, SEX.  I have come to learn that intimacy is not just sex although sex is a vital part of every happening marriage relationship.  God created sex as an intimate act between husband and wife to be enjoyed within the confines of marriage only, and many married couples run with this luxury, with all right, but it is not the only thing God created for husband and wife to be intimate.  If you are married and just having sex and think you are being fully intimate with your spouse, you are missing out BIG time.  Yes, you must enjoy each other sexually but there are three other aspects of intimacy that are so powerful and vital for any marriage to be wholesome and great.  These three other acts of intimacy combined with sexual intimacy is the strength in numbers that your marriage needs to be a winner.  Here they are:

Emotional Intimacy

Have ever kept your feelings inside and not tell your spouse?  Do you share your heart with your spouse.  If not, you are missing out.  Your emotions can bottle up inside of you and burst out the wrong way.  You are married so you can share thoughts, dreams, feelings and just about anything personal with each other.  Your wife is your rib.  Your husband is your sidekick.  Add this portion of your life to the sexual desires and you are creating a closeness that only a man and woman in marriage can enjoy as they become one flesh.

Spiritual Intimacy

I love this part of intimacy.  The truth is there is a liar and thief waiting to steal your joy you built together.  When you said “I DO” this thief is upset and does everything to bring division in your marriage.  But when husband and wife are on the same page spiritually, it is two against one.  The devil cannot divide a married couple who are standing on a solid foundation of spiritual oneness.  When both husband and wife are having a close relationship with God, they experience a powerful bond of spiritual togetherness.    Nothing beats the power of a couple praying together, expecting God to move in their marriage together, reading the Bible together and applying what the Bible says to their marriage together.  This is another part of intimacy I believe is of such vitality and will lead to greater sex.

Relational Intimacy

There was a time when Michelle and I were not relating whatsoever in the marriage and there was such a thick cloud between us many years ago.  Thank God we did something to clear that cloud.  We decided to turn off television, the thing that stood between us relating, for one full year.   We had to make a conscious effort to save our marriage relationship and we are now enjoying relating to each other on such a high level.  He now laugh more and enjoying our time together as I make tea for her and sit together and relate about anything in the world.  It is such a joyful moment that we both look forward to.  You need to relate to elevate your marriage relationship.  This can be a great time to share your sexual dreams and desires with each other in the confines of privacy.

May your fountain be blessed,
    and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
¹⁹ A loving doe, a graceful deer—
    may her breasts satisfy you always,
may you ever be intoxicated with her love.  Proverbs 5:18-19

Huddle up and enjoy every moment as you both pour out to each other in intimate moments with all four aspects of intimacy that God created for your marriage to be filled with love, joy, peace and harmony.

Contact information:  Carim Hyatt’s Profile – edit (dot.cards)

Get your copy of STAYING MARRIED BECOMING ONE FLESH AT: https://www.amazon.com/STAYING-MARRIE…

Be encouraged as you watch our TBN video interview on marriage.

About The Author

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