Agnes Varis was an American businesswoman and philanthropist who was the founder and president of Agvar Chemicals Inc. and Aegis Pharmaceuticals.
Renee Chenault-Fattah is an American journalist and former co-anchor of the WCAU NBC 10 News at 4 and 6 p.m. on weeknights in Philadelphia. She is married to former U.S. Congressman Chaka Fattah of the 2nd Congressional District of Pennsylvania.
L. Scott Caldwell is an American actress perhaps best known for her roles as Deputy U.S. Marshall Erin Poole in The Fugitive (1993) and Rose on the television series Lost.
Ella Joyce is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Eleanor Emerson on the Fox comedy-drama sitcom Roc, which originally ran from 1991 until 1994.
Myrlie Louise Evers-Williams is an American civil rights activist and journalist who worked for over three decades to seek justice for the 1963 murder of her husband Medgar Evers, another civil rights activist. She also served as chairwoman of the NAACP, and published several books on topics related to civil rights and her husband's legacy. On January 21, 2013, she delivered the invocation at the second inauguration of Barack Obama.
Mary Schmidt Campbell, is an American academic administrator and museum curator. She was the 10th president of Spelman College serving from 2015 to 2022. Prior to this position, she served as a curator and as the director for art museums, as the director of the Commission for the Department of Cultural Affairs of New York City, and for many years as the Dean of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.
Jeffrey B. Kindler is an American healthcare executive and private investor. He served as chairman and CEO of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer from 2006 to 2010. Kindler has later served as CEO of Centrexion Inc., and chairman of the GLG Institute.
Silda Alice Wall Spitzer is an American businesswoman and lawyer who was the First Lady of New York from January 2007 until March 2008, when her then husband, Eliot Spitzer, was governor. She has worked in the private, nonprofit, and public sectors in the areas of green/sustainability issues, youth service/education, and human rights and women's financial and other empowerment.
Geoffrey Canada is an American educator, social activist and author. Since 1990, Canada has been president of the Harlem Children's Zone in Harlem, New York, an organization that states its goal is to increase high school and college graduation rates among students in Harlem. This initiative serves a 97-block area of Harlem replete with at-risk children. Canada serves as the chairman of Children's Defense Fund's board of directors. He was a member of the board of directors of The After-School Corporation, a nonprofit organization that aims to expand educational opportunities for all students. Canada's recommendation for educational reform is to start early using wide-ranging strategies and never give up.
Julissa Ferreras-Copeland is an American politician. She is the former New York City Council Member for the 21st district from 2009 to 2017, which includes portions of College Point, Corona, East Elmhurst, Elmhurst, Flushing, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Jackson Heights and LaGuardia Airport in the New York City borough of Queens. During her tenure, Ferreras-Copeland served as the chairman of the Finance Committee. She was the first woman, the first person of color, and the youngest member to be elected Finance Chair. She is a Democrat.
Neema Barnette is an American film director and producer, and the first African-American woman to direct a primetime sitcom. Barnette was the first African-American woman to get a three-picture deal with Sony. Since then, she accumulated a number of awards, including a Peabody, an Emmy and NAACP Image Award.
Dorothy Stoneman is the founder and former CEO of YouthBuild USA, Inc. and former chairman of the YouthBuild Coalition, with over 1,000 member organizations in 45 states, Washington, D.C. and the Virgin Islands. She has been widely recognized for her contributions to the civil rights movements, poverty elimination efforts, and the emergence of the youth development field in the United States. Among the numerous awards she has received, Stoneman was awarded a MacArthur "genius" Fellowship (1996), and the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship (2007).
North General Hospital (NGH) was an American private, not-for-profit, voluntary teaching hospital located in New York City in the East Harlem section of Manhattan at Marcus Garvey Park. It was founded in 1979 to replace, as tenant, the Hospital for Joint Diseases (HJD), which vacated its East Harlem facility and moved that same year downtown to East 17th street at Stuyvesant Square. NGH was the only minority-run, voluntary teaching hospital in the State of New York. NGH was also the only private (non-public) hospital in Harlem. After 31 years, North General Hospital closed in 2010 under financial duress of bankruptcy.
Frances Elizabeth Williams was an American actress, activist, theatre producer, organizer, and community worker. Williams was the first black woman to run for the California State Assembly in 1948 on the Progressive Ticket and served on the boards of the Screen Actors Guild, Actors' Lab, and Actors Equity. She represented the World Peace Council at the first Angola Independence Celebration in 1975, and co-founded the Art Against Apartheid Movement in Los Angeles in the 1980s.
Reba White Williams, is an American author, philanthropist, and expert on fine art prints. As a novelist, her influences include Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. She and her husband, Dave H. Williams, built the world's largest private collection of American prints; they also founded the Print Research Foundation. She and Dave Williams are also co-creators of the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction.
Jennie Louise Touissant Welcome, born Jennie Louise Van Der Zee and also known as Madame E. Toussaint Welcome, was an African American visual artist who made influential photographs and films with her husband. She is associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Van Der Zee, who referred to herself as "the foremost female artist of the race," is recognized as being one of the only African American women filmmakers from the silent film industry.
Stephanie Kugelman is a retired advertising executive, branding expert and executive mentor. She is the former Vice Chairman and Chief Strategic officer of Young & Rubicam Inc, which was a publicly traded S&P company until its acquisition by British holding company WPP plc in 2000 for $4.7 billion. Her career at Y&R started as a junior researcher and she remains a Vice Chairman Emeritus of the company. As a brand strategist, since 2011 has most recently served on the public boards of Whole Foods Market, and Young & Rubicam Inc, and sits on the board of Home Shopping Network(HSN). She is also Vice Chairman of Solera Capital, a New York private equity firm.
Cecilia Suyat Marshall was an American civil rights activist and historian from Hawaii who was married to Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American U.S. Supreme Court Justice, from 1955 until his death in 1993. She was of Filipino descent. Her life is featured in the National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian and she was recorded by the Library of Congress regarding her experiences with civil rights in the United States. In the 1940s and 1950s, she served as a stenographer and private secretary for the NAACP in Washington, D.C.
Etnah Rochon Boutte was an American educator, pharmacist, and clubwoman. She taught French at Fisk University and in New York City. She was executive secretary of the Circle for Negro War Relief during World War I.
Lillian Anderson Turner Alexander (1876-1957) was an educator, social worker, civil rights activist, and club woman active in St. Paul, Minnesota and New York City. Before 1918, she was known as Lillian A. Turner with her first husband's surname. After 1918, she used her second husband's surname and was known as Lillian A. Alexander.
