Barbara Hankinson graduated with honors from Community College of Philadelphia and received a Ford Foundation Scholarship. With this she was able to attend the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Molecular Biology. For nine years (October 1985 until January 1995) she worked at Thomas Jefferson University. She initially worked as a research technician and later as the program coordinator for the Pregnancy Loss Center, a collaboration between the Divisions of Medical Genetics and Rheumatology within the Department of Medicine at Jefferson. At The Pregnancy Loss Center, she diagnosed and treated women with recurrent spontaneous abortions. This was an innovative basic and clinical research program in which women were “immunized” with their spouse’s white blood cells in hopes of stimulating a protective immune mechanism that would allow pregnancies to progress to term without immune rejection such as occurs in organ transplants. During those 9 years over 3,000 women were treated and follow up information obtained. This research and the clinical program resulted in several publications and presentations at national meetings.
In 1994 she made a career shift into the financial services industry. As an independent representative she was able to open her own office, manage and train other agents and held accountability for all compliance, state and federal regulations. Her target market is Middle American Families.
The passion and energy Ms. Hankinson brings to the Advisory Council stems from her experiences of living and working as an active leader in shaping her community. Since 1977 she has lived as a Charter Member of the Lipscomb Square Housing Cooperative, a non-profit, non-traditional homeownership initiative. Lipscomb Square was the initial stakeholder which anchored the Hawthorne Community and still serves as a Powerful Partner for future homeownership and economic development. The Cooperative has generated and preserved homeownership. Its vital mission now is to Sustain our Wealth and Transfer it to the next generation. Ms. Hankinson wants to study Gentrification from the inside out, using the Sanctuary Model.
Ms. Hankinson is an Elected Committee Person 2nd Ward 21st Division, Minority Inspector and was a PA Candidate for 186 Legislative District House of Representatives, Special Election April 2012.
Recently Ms. Hankinson applied to the graduate program at the University of Penn for the Masters of Science in Organizational Dynamics and the Masters of Philosophy Organizational Dynamics. She hopes to attain both degrees. She is a life time learner always open to new possibilities and creative ways to serve and implement positive change strategies. There are so many opportunities to engage and release the latent power in our communities. All we need is the will.