Valerie D. Bell
Valerie D. Bell is an attorney and a public policy consultant. She is actively involved in efforts to strengthen the St. Louis region, particularly with respect to improving race relations, enhancing educational opportunity and establishing a regional vision. In that connection, she has chosen to devote all of her professional time, on a pro bono basis, to organizations and initiatives that address these and other public policy issues.Bell recently completed her second term as president of the Board of Trustees of John Burroughs School where she will continue as a board member. She is the immediate past president of the board of FOCUS St. Louis. She has also been active with Parents as Teachers National Center Inc., St. Louis Black Leadership Roundtable, the St. Louis Science Center, the Deaconess Foundation, Grace Hill Settlement House, the St. Louis Public School Foundation, the St. Louis Diversity Awareness Partnership, the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), the St. Louis Community College Foundation, Women of Achievement Inc. and Village Academy. In addition, she is a member of the Board of Advisors for the Independence Center and the President's Advisory Cabinet for the Girl Scout Council of Greater St. Louis. She is an appointed member of the Metropolitan Forum and an elected member of the St. Louis Forum.
She is on the task force charged with monitoring implementation of the St. Louis school desegregation settlement agreement. She has served as a trustee of Fontbonne University, cochair of the Regional Governance Policy Group, member of the Civic Progress Dialogue Committee and vice president for Learning at St. Louis 2004.
Bell is a graduate of Princeton University where she attended the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She received her juris doctor degree from Harvard Law School and her master's degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.