Black American wealth has dropped dramatically during the latest recession. The recent meeting between Rev. Al Sharpton, Marc Morial, Ben Jealous and Barack Obama underscored the urgency of dealing with the financial challenges currently being faced by African Americans. One of the critical areas in which black people are being hit hardest is home ownership. Many millions of Americans are now "upside down" in their mortgages, meaning that they owe more money than their home is worth. Yes, this can be financially devastating.

1) Tell us about your career path over the past 15 – 20 years.

First let me say that I have been truly Blessed to have the opportunity to live within my purpose. I am doing exactly what I want to do, which is to serve and provide inspiration. I have met my Purpose in Person! I have enjoyed a very peaceful career in higher education thus far. I started as a Hall Director at The Ohio State University and moved up as Coordinator of the Mentoring Program, Director of Retention, Executive Assistant to VP of Business Affairs and adjunct professor before leaving Ohio State. I went on to Washington State University, where I served as Director of The Office of Multicultural Student Serves and Assistant Professor in Educational Leadership. It was at Washington State University, where we started Your Voice TV Show. After leaving WSU, I accepted a job at Florida State University as Associate Dean for Education and Associate Professor Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. I earned tenure at FSU. I also served as Executive Producer and Host of Your Voice TV. After leaving FSU, I accepted job as Dean of The School of Graduate Studies and Full Professor of Educational Leadership. Currently I am Professor, President and Executive Editor of InSpire Magazine! I have just started producing and hosting B-InSpired Talk Radio www.binspiredtalkradio

I'd like to ask you a quick question that I ask my students here at Syracuse University. It is also a question I had to honestly ask myself when I thought I was on top of the world after spending 12 years going through college and graduate school to earn a PhD in Finance (which was unbelievably difficult). The question is this: Do you have financial security? If you don't have financial security, do you at least have job security? If you believe your job is secure, then how many jobs do you have?

If you are like most Americans, you probably have just one job. I am not here to tell you that this is wrong. But, I am here to tell you that you might want to rethink what it means to be economically secure.

I did an appearance last night on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 to discuss the issue of Health care reform. This has been heavy on the mind of our president for his entire first year in office and has led to quite a few political battles on Capitol Hill. Health care is in serious jeopardy, as the cost of entitlement programs such as Medicaid/Medicare and Social Security threaten our nation's economic security. Our national debt has risen to unprecedented and frightening levels, and our politicians have little incentive to do anything about it.

One additional problem that we are running into on the issue of health care is the fact that our nation doesn't have enough Primary Care physicians. These doctors are incredibly important, since they are the first line of defense against illness in America.

A movie production company claims that it paid $30,000 dollars for footage of the late Christopher Wallace, also known as "The Notorious B.I.G.," and never received that footage from the estate. Kaushi Entertainment and Dro-Entertainment are arguing in court that they signed an agreement in 2007 to buy archival footage of Biggie from RocDarling Films, the production company run by a rapper named Damion Butler.

There's an old saying that goes something like this: "If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime." The point is simple: teaching something to someone is better than giving something to them. I believe this to be especially true when it comes to our kids. But the subtler point of the "fish story" is incorrect: the person who really benefits is NOT the person learning how to fish. It is actually the person who owns the land that the pond is on, who rents that land out to people teaching each other how to fish. In other words, it's the OWNER of the business who builds wealth and actually possesses power, nothing less.

Wesley Snipes, a man who has been most recently recognized for his problems with the IRS, had a very interesting response to a media question about the man who crashed his plane into an IRS building. The man was having tax trouble, similar to Snipes.

"What's new?," said Snipes, who argued that tax problems have been in existence since the founding of America.