Iris Carr
Joining the NSA during WWII, she fought diligently, though quietly, for better opportunities for talented but underutilized employees.
Tag Archives: African Descent
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Lillie Berry
The first African American woman in the NSA to give instruction in signals analysis and the first African American woman assigned as an Agency recruiter.
Wilhelmena Ware
Chief of the Learning Center at the NSA, where she was instrumental in instituting a number of programs, including the implementation of the sign language course.
Dr Deborah Prothrow-Stith
Massachusetts’ first woman Commissioner of Public Health, as well as its youngest, where she established the US’s first Violence Prevention Office at a state health department.
Fleet Master Chief April D Beldo
The first woman and first African-American in multiple Navy positions, including the first female Command Master Chief of an aircraft carrier and the first female Command Master Chief for recruit training.
Jesmyn Ward
Jesmyn Ward is the acclaimed author of the novels “Where the Line Bleeds,” “Salvage the Bones,” winner of the 2011 National Book Award, and “Sing, Unburied, Sing,” winner of the 2017 National Book Award. Her nonfiction work includes the memoir “Men We Reaped,” a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the 2020 work “Navigate Your Stars.”
Dr Jennifer Richeson
Social psychologist whose research has illuminated how identities – particularly racial identities – are formed and shaped through interactions with others.
Marian Wright Edelman
Founder and President of the Children’s Defense Fund and an advocate for disadvantaged Americans for her entire professional life.
Sissieretta Jones
Sissieretta Jones sang for kings, presidents, and to audiences around the world, becoming the highest paid African-American entertainer of the late 19th century.
Xernona Clayton
Civil rights leader and pioneering broadcasting executive best known as the founder and CEO of the Trumpet Awards (1993), an annual awards program celebrating African-American acheivements televised by the TBS network and distributed internationally to over 185 countries.