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Dorothy F. Bailey, a renaissance woman in her own right, brings to light the wisdom, beauty, strength and courage of women she refers to as wisdom carriers.
As she approached her 70th year of life, Bailey’s plan was to find women born in or before 1940, talk with them, listen to them and use their wisdom as a guide to the silver years of her life. She talked with mothers and sisters and grandmothers, daughters and aunts. She spoke with teachers and the undereducated, judges and some who struggled, and each had their story to tell.
Bailey was so enlightened and moved by their radiance that she brought in photographers to capture the beauty of aging and took out her notebook to share the insight of these wise women—these wisdom carriers—with the world.
Their stories are passionate, as is Dorothy Bailey, a woman who long ago chose not to keep still but to encourage others to walk in their purpose. “I believe God has a plan for me,” Ms. Bailey once told The Gazette newspaper, “I want to be all used up when I die.
author IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT Reflections and Beauty of Wise Women of Color

Recognized by Washingtonian Magazine as one of the area’s most powerful women, Dorothy Bailey is a passionate woman of service and a woman of faith. A 1998 graduate of Leadership of Greater Washington, Bailey is an active member (fifty-plus years) of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and has served as a national board member and section president of the National Council of Negro Women, Inc.

She has founded several community organizations and remains involved with local, national and international efforts today. For example, she founded and continues to chair The Harlem Remembrance Foundation of Prince George’s County (Maryland), chairs The LEARN Foundation, and serves on the Board for the Kiamsha Youth Empowerment Organization and the Royal Bafokeng (South Africa) Sister City Friendship Committee. Recently, she was elected to the National Executive Council of the Association for the Study of African Life and History (ASALH)—the organization of scholars that is responsible for the annual national Black History theme—and is also President of a local chapter.

Dorothy Bailey’s career has taken her from the public school classroom, to senior- and executive-level positions in government and the non-profit sector, to two-terms as an elected official. During her terms a member of the Prince George’s County Council, she led the Council for five years, serving as Chair for two years and as Vice Chair for three. In July of 2011, Ms. Bailey was appointed and confirmed as Vice Chair of the Prince George’s County Planning Board and a member of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.

Ms. Bailey graduated from North Carolina Central University, where she was involved in the civil rights movement. As a postgraduate student, she studied education and gerontology at Pennsylvania State University and the University of Maryland. Bailey received an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Riverside Baptist College and Seminary and serves on the board of directors for Maple Spring Baptist College and Seminary.

IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT is not Ms. Bailey’s first undertaking as a writer. In 2005, she wrote and performed an uplifting spiritual play, “A Trilogy of Faith: The Victorious Stories of Leah, Rahab, and Virginia.” As an actor, her latest performance is in the Jade Holmes film, “Three Blind Mice.”

Bailey and her husband have two treasured children, three incredible grandchildren and a terrific grandniece. She lives in Temple Hills, Maryland.