Epps signed on at SIUE as director of the National Science Awareness Demonstration Program and within a few years moved into the director's chair for the SIUE Head Start Program. He's been director of the East St. Louis Center since 1994. Completion of the new facility is expected by 2003. Epps says the University has provided lots of support and service to the East St. Louis Center. And it's all been about disadvantaged and minority children and their families.
Poor people are never on the top of anybody's agenda.
Epps doesn't want to change people for a day or a month. He's determined to change them for a lifetime. It's not about creating jobs, it's about freeing minds. I want to make them self-sufficient. I want to see that drive from within.