Amelia Moore, 2023 President's Lifetime Achievement Award winner, focuses on advocacy

A child advocate and educator all about female empowerment, Amelia Moore helps inner city girls find a path in life.

Moore’s work with a South Bronx step team of girls known for stopping gun violence in their community for 276 consecutive days was recognized by former New York City Mayor DeBlasio in 2018. The girls lived in a dangerous housing facility in New York City, she said.

When Moore met the girls, she said she fell in love with their energy and zeal for their cause. She was excited for them for their accomplishment and their reward.

In addition to the six girls appearing on ABC television in Los Angeles and being recognized by celebrities, they performed in front of 20,000 at the Barclay Center in New York and sponsored by Facebook traveled to the South of France.

“It never matters where you’re from,” she said. “It matters where you want to go and how to get there.”

Moore know where she’s from

The recipient of a 2023 President's Lifetime Achievement Award puts it all in perspective, Moore said. As a doer, she acts on her goals instead of reacting, so receiving the award and getting the kind of response she has received because of it has been special, she said.

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“I tell my teams all the time that do-ers do, and do-ers don’t really realize what they’ve got done until after it’s done and someone else tells them ‘hey, this is what you did’ because you’re always looking at the next thing you need to do,” she said.

She said the biggest reward she gets is seeing the end result and the impact of her efforts in any community that is her focus whether it’s in New Bedford where she was raised and returns to regularly, in New York City where she also makes her home, and elsewhere.

"If you leave someplace better than when you came, that to me is the reward,” she said. “If you can be the difference that makes the difference no matter how hard it is, no matter what sacrifice you make, then that’s the reward,” she said. “That’s really been the story of my life.”

Recognized as a giver, the SheEO of Buzz Builder, her consulting firm, said most of the awards she has gotten have been due to other people recognizing the work she has done, but she credits her beautiful support circle of friends that she calls family for really supporting her endeavors as she does for them.

Moore has received multiple awards, but the Power Women in Business Award was one of the most exciting awards she has gotten because it recognizes the power of women doing their thing while giving love and getting love, she said. She has also received the Danny Glover Humanitarian Award.

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Moore, also known as Ameliaismore, said it’s a choice that anyone can make to be an advocate.

Growing up giving in New Bedford

That first night in New Bedford, sitting in her grandmother’s bathtub without hot water, had her thinking that her parents, Francisco “Fudgie” and Theresa “Penny” Santos, had lost their minds moving from New York City. Looking back, she wouldn’t change a thing.

Her grandmother would talk to her in half Cape Verdean and half English and she learned about her Cape Verdean culture. When she was raised in New Bedford, no one locked their doors and they could ride around on their bikes without their parents worrying about them.

While she divides her time between New Bedford and New York City, it continues to be very special to her. She was returning to the city from New York, got off the bus and hailed a taxi, and the driver knew exactly who she was and where she lived on Acushnet Avenue.

She said her cousins and other members of their generation from a very young age learned about politics, speaking up and being part of your community by following in their parent’s footsteps. It stuck with her and became part of her character.

A child and woman advocate, she said she doesn't believe the voices of the children are being heard.

“People are determining and predicting and defining what's right for a child not understanding the children don't think like them,” she said. “They're making them little adults but they're not.

One of the first things she did after graduating from Boston College was work with an organization to offer children a program in Monte Park because she notices as an educator that a lot of inner-city children who don't go to camp lose what they've learned over the school year. They practiced lessons in art, cooking, math and reading, played volleyball that summer and played in the water sprinkler.

“Just looking at that makes me feel so good, just to know that you know you have impact,” she said. “I think what's so beautiful about New Bedford is that it is it’s own little utopia, it’s own little special place based on the culture and community.”

In the late 80s and early 90s it was it was really tough time in New Bedford with the children being teased and she organized a Yo MTV Raps visit in New Bedford with Dr. Dre and Moses Barrett to meet with them and to present them with a key to the city.

“Again, it’s about giving back and pushing forward, and I think that has always been my motto,” she said. “No matter how far up you go, never forget where you came from.”

Her life in the music business

Music was always a big part of her life growing up. Her father sang Cape Verdean music to her mother all the time and music was all around her, all before she started her music career. As a child, she was interested in modeling and had short stints as a model, but she was all about having a voice.

She found it.

“The entertainment business, now looking back, I was very naive, but I’m so much of a do-er and I love challenges so that's what motivated me,” she said.

She worked in the garment industry before marrying a record producer and moving from Brooklyn to New Jersey and getting into the music industry. She started off in an administrative position and got into the black music division of Atlantic Records representing Roberta Flack and Brandy, two of her favorite singers.

It was where she wanted to be. At that time, Jay-Z and Damon Dash were just starting Rockafella when hip hop producer Ski Beatz was on Atlantic.

“I didn’t even know the relationships I was building you know because of the people that I was meeting at that time would last me a lifetime,” she said.

Moore doesn’t allow anything to hold her back. She describes herself as a very strategic person, so if there was an obstacle in her way, she would overcome it by doing her research, like when she wanted to move up to become an A&R assistant.

When her boss, Kevin Woodley aka DJ Sugar Daddy, was looking for a permanent assistant and holding interviews, she made it known to everyone in their unit that she was interested and asked for their support. She got the job.

She said her cousins and other members of their generation from a very young age learned about politics, speaking up and being part of your community by following in their parent’s footsteps. It stuck with her and became part of her character.

Moore’s career sharing her voice

Today, Moore is an author, having recently released the book “SheEO Vs CEO: An Executive Handbook” after leaving Atlantic Records to work as A&R administrator for G String Records learning about the international and the business side of it, both looking for talent but doing all the contracts.

She then started her own company before a friend referred her to a new client, Ruff Ryders Records, featuring DMX and before convincing them she should become part of the team due to all the work she had to do and was named general manager working with all men.

She said she came to realize that communication is the key when working with men doing business so her book guides women through the process of creating effective communication with men and learn to say ‘I want to work with’ instead of ‘I want to help.’ She said positioning is critically important.

She also said that men put women in boxes, but women don’t do that, so she created the four ‘e’s” putting men into four categories for women to deal with them better.

The emperor takes you under his wing and wants you to succeed. The enforcer sees what you’re not doing from a man’s perspective and wants to tell you what you need to do to connect with other men. The false enforcer doesn’t like taking orders from a woman and tells you what you do and don’t need to do so you give him directions instead so you don’t have to answer to the other men.

Then there are the eggheads who don’t like to answer to women. She said it’s best to head them off from the start and warned them they won’t like the idea. The fourth is the everyday dude who seems sweet but goes to a male coworker to try to bypass her.

Having left the executive role, Moore has returned to being an artist with acting, singing and comedy roles and also working as a television host on the Manhattan Neighborhood Network, with producers from the Black Entertainment Television channel.

She’s also going to be executive producing a new show on the new network, Nubiantv.net and said she remains committed to passing on a tradition of advocacy and doing what needs to be done.

Standard-Times staff writer Kathryn Gallerani can be reached at kgallerani@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @kgallreporter.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Amelia Moore, a woman of many talents, seek to have a positive impact