Biography of Ida Byrd-Hill

Ida Byrd-Hill is a Futurist, Change Agent and Author who is the  President of Uplift, Inc. a non-profit  Idea Incubator. She has created a portfolio of educational ideas including 

• Hustle & TECHknow Preparatory High School - an urban cyber school for alternative youth, 
• Upheaval Media, LLC - a Publisher of Education related materials 
• The Jetsonaire Club - www.jetsonaire.com, a membership site for inventive minded people.  

She is the author of 5 individual college and career preparation books:

Breakin’ Out of Your Financial Funk!

My Daily Odyssey Journal

Follow Your Inner Compass Teen

Me and My Big Career

Escape to College

She has launched a book series, Chronicles of a Young Inventor , which is the backstory for Fluke ^TM – the wealth building game of accidental inventions and a new rap song, Billion Dollar Duke.

She is, often quoted by the local media for her educational advocacy activities. She thrives on social innovation, idea incubation and the creation of financial productive companies,  and communities.

 Ida Byrd-Hill graduated with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Economics in 1989 from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. She has been groomed in the Leadership Detroit Class XX and MSHDA Contractors School. She is a book lover - an information maven -  a radical activist who believes applied Information and knowledge is power. She has spent  22 years fighting to transform the lives  of individuals with applied information.  

First as a Human Resources Specialist   in recruiting for McNamee, Porter and Seeley, Trustcorp Bank (now Key Corp),  Domino's Farms Services,  and F-O-R-T-U-N-E  Personnel Consultants of Detroit. At the height of this profession, she placed technical attorneys in the patent, environmental and FDA areas  in FORTUNE 500 corporations around the world.
 
Secondly as a Financial Professional for Republic Bancorp Mortgage, ADT Security Systems, AXA Equitable and the Harvard Group Wealth Management licensed through AXA Financial for 10 years.  She managed 353 million in assets annually. She educated 2200 individual clients and 10 corporate clients including the UAW/ Chrysler where she trained 1000 people with her financial planning course titled SMART MONEY- the Financial Fitness Course.

Lastly as a Change Agent for Uplift, Inc., she has personally led the transformation of 4 public schools:

Detroit School of Arts                                                           2008-2009

• Instituted Integrating Math and Science in Every Day Life workshop
• Served as Evening/Weekend tutor Carnegie Math Credit Recovery Algebra/Geometry
• Michigan Merit Exam Math proficiency increased to 17.58% from 12.70%
• Michigan Merit Exam Math Science proficiency increased to 27.27% from 23.53%

Hustle & TECHknow Preparatory High School                  2006-2007

• Created unique English class to solve illiteracy problem
• Class moved schools’ collective Lexile Reading grade level from 4.2 to 7.8
• Sent three quarter finalist to the National Vocabulary Championship
• 80% graduation rate,  100% postsecondary matriculation
• Educational Program of the Year 2007, Automation Alley

Duke Ellington Conservatory of Music and Art                 2005-2006

• Orchestrated merger of two existing  Detroit Public Schools.
• Increased Middle School MEAP scores to 84% in Reading  from 44%
• Enhanced teacher –parent partnership
• Increased parent involvement at home and at school

Hanstein Elementary                                                            2002-2004

• Orchestrated increase in MEAP scores  to 78.1% in Reading in 2002-2003 from 28.1% 2001-2002
• Orchestrated increase in MEAP scores  to 69.1% in Math in 2002-2003 and 39.1% 2001-2002
• Enhanced teacher –parent partnership
• Increased parent involvement at home and at school

Ida Byrd-Hill is a speaker who can unleash the power of radical change within every individual or organization grounded in financial acumen.

She is also the mother of twins, Kevin and Karen Hill.  Kevin is a freshman at Rochester Institute of Technology, in Rochester, NY. Karen is a freshman at Western Michigan University.