Murk’s Creator: Eleanor Murkey

Eleanor Murkey is a dynamic certified life coach, motivational speaker and brilliant “thought generator”.

Her personal story of resiliency, triumph, and success that led her from a young girl classified as EMH (Educational Mental Handicap) to Dean of a multi-million-dollar college campus.

Her unique style and approach have sparked hundreds to clench insightful visions and turn them into realities. She has inspired many more to find creative solutions resulting in hundreds of testimonials of successful outcomes for individuals both personally and professionally. She helps people envision their own success.

Her life journey was wrenching and inspiring. She says, she was born wired with a little corky unique inquisitive style. She once put her hand in fire to see if it would burn.

Murkey has always been a person that will take chances. She loves to prove people wrong about her capacity to get things done, and she loves to get them done her way. They usually turned out ok.

Murkey is the retired Dean of the College of Lake County after thirty-five years of service. She is credited with leading the effort which turned a three-room outreach center of the College of Lake County into a major multi-million dollar, accredited, degree conferring, and award-winning Community College Campus where she served as the Dean.

Murkey created many flagship programs to promote college services to the under-served communities of Northeast Lake County, IL.

Murkey is regarded as an innovator in the fields of Leadership, Management, and Goal Achievement.

Murkey is a founding member and Program Director of Trinity Universal Center, Inc., a holistic center for positive youth, family and personal development, created by Dr. M. Jeanne Dolphus Cotton. She is responsible for over $250,000 of grants for Trinity’s “Getting It Together” and youth programs.

Additionally, her community service runs deep including:

Executive Director of the Waukegan/North Chicago Cares Mentoring Movement, an affiliate of the National Cares Mentoring Movement, founded by Susan L. Taylor, Essence Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, and is the largest and most universally recognized organization recruiting African American mentors.

Coordinator of the PEN OR PENCIL Program (POP). This organization blends history, social studies, civic education, economics and service-learning standards into an experiential learning framework that invokes critical thinking and skills development. Participants are motivated through productive peer influence to choose the road away from incarceration and toward the benefits of a quality education.

Chairman of the Board

Chairman of The Waukegan Housing Authority, Chairman of board Vista Health System,

Chairman of Trinity Universal Center, Inc.,

Murkey’s memberships include: Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., the National Alliance of Faith and Justice, National Council Negro Women, Inc., Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASLH), National Alliance of Black School Educators, The Schaumburg Society, The Association of Blacks in Higher Education, The National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice, Coalition to Reduce Recidivism (Waukegan Township),U-can Be the Change and a Life Member of the NAACP.

Murkey holds a Master of Science Leadership Development and a Bachelor of Science Urban Studies Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, Illinois.

She is the first recipient of the “Eleanor Murkey Overcomers Award” appropriately named in her honor. This annual award presented by The National Alliance of Faith and Justice, Inc recognizes future recipients, adult or youth within the POP affiliate or partner network, who have demonstrated emotional strength, courage, resilience, and victory over barriers, disadvantages, or disabilities.

Other Awards include: College of Lake County Board of Trustees’ Illinois Outstanding Citizen Award; American Association for Women in Community Colleges’ HERculean Award; The Presidential Who’s Who among Business and Professional Achievers; Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Waukegan Alumnae Chapter Achievement Award; State of Illinois Senate Recognition; Coalition Latinos Undios de Lake County Community Service Award; Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. Rho Tau Chapter Meritorious Service Award; The Puerto Rican Society for Outstanding Leadership and Service, and the Coalition to Reduce Recidivism Chairman’s Award.

Her motto is, “Your Past is not your Potential.”