Skift Take
The foundation for positive change laid down by Muhammad Ali's character and conviction rings as true today as the day his gold medal story came to life in the 1960s. Erin Herbert says she is grateful to be able to impart his messages to tourists at the Louisville museum created to honor The Greatest.
Even before she was born, Erin Herbert's professional fate seemed to be tied to one day working for the greatest boxer the world has seen in this lifetime. As Herbert retells it, her mother and young brothers were walking on the streets of New York one day when they met the man who famously said he could "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." Muhammad Ali not only met them, but shadowboxed with her brothers too, an example of the simplicity of this complex and globally renowned man.
It's this memory along with her love for education, social justice, and humanitarian causes that led her to the Ali Center in Louisville, where chose a job over working in academia. As well as her great respect for Ali and the incredibly large and important platform the center in his hometown offers, Herbert said can really bring about change, make a difference in the community that Ali loved so much and allows engagement on a globally powerful platform.
Born in Long Island, New York, and raised in New York, Slidell, Louisiana, and Kentucky, Herbert said trajectory to her dream job to the Ali Center, a museum and educational center honoring the legacy of Muhammad Ali in Louisville, began at home. Her dad shared a birth year with Ali and liked "The Greatest," lived his life grounded in service to others and made the world a slightly better place, Herbert said.
[caption id="attachment_430826" align="alignright" width="300"] Ali Center tourguide Erin Herbert in front of a painting of Muhammad Ali. Photo courtesy of the Ali Center[/caption]
Her professional path included stints at Junior Achievement, an organization helping prepare youth to succeed and the World Affairs Council, focusing on education in international affairs, humanitarian causes and working with the U.S. State department's international visitors leadership program or person to person exchange program, she said.
And it was through her work at the World Affairs Council and taking groups to the Ali Center that Herbert first started interacting with the center's staff. In 2011, when she saw a job opening, she applied and was hired. Thus began her decade-long and counting adventure with the Ali Center.
"I've always felt that strange and deep connection to Muhammad in that he is my father's generation. For me, Muhammad is the greatest. And I pinch myself everyday coming to work, (knowing) that I happen to have this incredible platform to create education programs, to promote social justice and prom
