Courtesy photo.

Published on: Wednesday, December 09, 2009

By Nancy Royden

Valerie L. Moore, a 2001 honors graduate of Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, has been selected Miss Black Pennsylvania 2010.

On Sept. 30, she received the title from the Miss Black USA Pageant and Scholarship Foundation Inc., a nonprofit, community-driven organization committed to addressing health and education.

Moore graduated with honors from the science and technology and Maryland child development programs at ERHS, where she was elected homecoming queen and prom queen. She was selected to participate in the America’s Homecoming Queen Pageant, in which she finished in the top five delegates.

She received a Bachelor of Science degree from Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pa. and is a second-year student at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. Moore has been involved in the student government association, the Student National Medical Association, the National Latino Health Organization and the American Osteopathic College of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. She participated in the 2009 Doctor of Osteopathy Day on the Hill, where she lobbied members of Congress to improve the state of the current health care system.

Moore has worked on the reconstruction of multiple homes during two relief mission to New Orleans; provided sight-restoring ophthalmic care to more than 1,000 patients in Ghana, West Africa and enabled more than 800 people in the small town of Neiba near the Dominican Republic-Haitian border to receive health care.

During her first year of service as Miss Black Pennsylvania, Moore is working to improve parental involvement with the platform, “Education, Civil Engagement, Social Responsibility and Personal Accountability.”

Many of Moore’s family members reside in Prince George’s County, her mother Flo Phillips said.

For information on how to support Moore or request a service project, e-mail missblackpa2010@yahoo.com.