Ms. Shakir was a High School Social Studies teacher and served as District Supervisor for Social Studies and Language Arts prior to her retirement in 2005. She was the founder and coach for a championship high school debate team for ten years and founded and served as Poetry Club advisor for five years. A recipient of the Geraldine R. Dodge Education Fellowship, Ms. Shakir was also Teacher of the Year, and a recipient of the New Jersey Historical Commission History Teacher Award. Her early work life included being a presser in a laundry, a waitress, an office cleaner and sales clerk.
Her work experience also includes having been Assistant Director of Education & Outreach for a theater company, General Manager & Market Personnel Recruiter for McDonald’s Corporation, Executive Director the Tri-City Peoples’ Community Based Organization, Administrative Assistant in Mayor’s Office of Employment & Training. Nancy served as a consultant with the American Institute for History Education, as a consultant with Educational Testing Services, the United States Department of Education and the New Jersey Department of Education.
She is the recipient of the Cave Canem Poetry Fellowship, The Rutgers University Ruth Fryer Creative Writing Honors Award as well as a Dodge Poetry Scholarship. Ms. Shakir has studied at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and her poetry and short stories have been anthologized as well as having her history research articles and essays published.
A founding member and officer of the Coalition of 100 Black Women, she has also served on the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Council for the Social Studies and the New Jersey Center for Civic and Law Related Education. She was a Non-Governmental Agency delegate to the United Nations Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, and she served as a staff member at a National Democratic Convention, as a delegate for the White House Conference on Families and as a Commissioner on the Montclair, N.J. Civil Rights Commission. An anti-racist trainer she has presented at Regional as well as National Teacher Conferences.
Nancy writes opinion editorials for the Fayetteville Observer where she served as a member of the Community Advisory Board. She is a volunteer with the Cumberland County Progressives, hosts a local Progressives cable show and is a member of the Fayetteville Peace with Justice Committee, the Carolina African American Writers Collective as well as Having been a volunteer reader for the blind and a reading buddy in Fayetteville school.
Ms. Shakir graduated with a BA in History from Rutgers University and a MA in Education Administration from St. Peter’s Jesuit College.
Her other studies include Organizational Behavior at Polytechnic in Brooklyn, N.Y. and graduate studies in History at Rutgers University and Fayetteville State University. Ms. Shakir is a member of Kappa Delta Pi, National Honor Society in Education.