2022 ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARD RECIPIENT BIOGRAPHIES
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Walter Hood ’81
Over the last decade, Walter Hood has become America’s most decorated landscape designer. He received the 2017 Academy of Arts and Letters Architecture Award, 2019 Knight Public Spaces Fellowship, 2019 MacArthur Genius Fellowship, 2019 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, and the 2021 Architectural League’s President’s Medal award.
Hood established Hood Design Studio in Oakland, California, in 1992. His completed projects include the landscape of the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, and the Detroit Rosa Parks Neighborhood Master Plan. He currently serves as the Woo Chair for Design Excellence at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design.
COLLEGE OF ARTS, HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
John A. Houston, J.D. ’74
John Houston is a senior judge with the United States District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego. Nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate, Judge Houston has had the significant responsibility of exercising jurisdiction over federal criminal and civil matters. He is active in numerous local continuing legal education programs and with the Black Law Student Associations at San Diego’s three law schools. Additionally, he has served on the North Carolina A&T Board of Visitors.
WILLIE A. DEESE COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS
Melanie Glover, CPA, CISA ’04
Melanie Glover is a Certified Public Accountant in the states of North Carolina, Florida and Washington, D.C., and is also a Certified Information Systems Auditor. She has extensive experience working with clients in the design, implementation and assessment of processes and controls that impact their business.
Currently, Glover is a partner within Trust Solutions at PricewaterhouseCoopers and serves as the firm’s Relationship Partner for North Carolina A&T. Additionally, she serves on the University’s Executive Advisory Council for the Willie A. Deese College of Business and Economics.
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Shirley Taylor Frye ’53
Shirley Taylor Frye started her professional career in Greensboro, North Carolina, as a public school teacher. She taught second-grade and exceptional children and later taught briefly at Bennett College. Throughout her career, Frye has been a devoted community volunteer. She led the integration of Greensboro’s two segregated YWCAs in the 1970s. Greenboro’s newest YWCA building is named in her honor.
Frye is married to the former North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Henry E. Frye. She has been involved in more than 100 former and present associations and affiliations and is the recipient of more than 25 honors and awards, including the 1985 Governor’s Order of the Long Leaf Pine Award and the Triad Business Journal’s 2022 Women in Business Special Achievement Award.
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Jerome Myers, PE, PMP, MBA ’05
Jerome Myers is the developer and founder of The Myers Development Group LLC, where he helps people invest in multi-family real estate to create generational wealth. Myers is also the founder of DreamCatchers, a boutique coaching firm that supports first and second generation wealth creators. Through these entities, Myers lives out his childhood dreams of helping people manifest the things they imagine and live by his motto, “dreams should be real.”
Since leaving corporate America after building a $20 million division, Myers has become one of the most sought after thought leaders in the multifamily development space. He has been successful at making his and others’ dreams real through his philanthropic and community activism. And, his passion for growing minority participation in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines has driven him to chair the marketing subcommittee for the Richmond Minorities in Engineering Partnership Board, establish the first fully endowed engineering scholarship at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, routinely give inspirational keynote speeches and mentor young professionals who are working in STEM disciplines.
JOHN R. AND KATHY R. COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SCIENCES
Clara Leach Adams-Ender ’61
While a student at North Carolina A&T, Clara Leach Adams-Ender participated in the Woolworth’s sit-ins to desegregate its white-only lunch counter. In 1975, she entered the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, where she became the first woman to earn a master's degree in military arts and sciences degree in 1976. She graduated from the U.S. Army War College in 1982, the first African American Nurse Corps officer in the Army to do so.
In 1991, General Adams-Ender assumed command of Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and served as deputy commanding general of the Military District of Washington. After retirement from the army, she published her autobiography, “My Rise to the Stars: How a Sharecropper’s Daughter Became an Army General.”
COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Sonja N. Hines ’92
In 2006, Sonja N. Hines founded H&S Resources Corporation, which evolved into Akata Global in 2019. Akata Global is a provider and leader in the construction, fuel management and logistics services industries. As president, CEO and owner of Akata Global, Hines sets the company’s vision and strategic direction and is responsible for the management and oversight of Akata’s global operations.
Earlier in her career, Hines was responsible for safety hazard program development and safety hazard mitigation support for over 400 employees at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Her numerous honors include being named on a list as a Top 100 Minority Business Enterprise and being awarded SmartCEO’s 2016 Future 50 Award. Additionally, she has served on North Carolina A&T’s Board of Visitors.
HONORS COLLEGE
Adrina Greenlee Bass, J.D., MBA ’04
Adrina Greenlee Bass is a dedicated attorney with 13 years of experience in the legal industry. Currently, she is an assistant attorney general at the North Carolina Department of Justice. In her role as assistant attorney general, she represents the N.C. Department of Transportation in eminent domain litigation and is responsible for all phases of litigation in land acquisition proceedings, including investigation, trials in the superior courts, and appeals to the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.
Bass takes pride in giving back to her community through service. She serves on the N.C. Department of Justice’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee and is a member of Wake Women Attorneys and Wake County Bar Association. Additionally, she is a member of the North Carolina A&T’s Chancellor’s Roundtable.
JOINT SCHOOL OF NANOSCIENCE AND NANOENGINEERING
Prithviraj Deshmukh, Ph.D. ’19
Prithviraj Deshmukh is a technology development process engineer in the Thin-Films Module of the Logic Technology Development division at Intel Corporation, which is the world’s largest semiconductor chip manufacturer. In this role, Deshmukh has led in formulation development, produced improvements in baseline defects, and increased functional and parametric yields. The biggest impact of his work has been cost reduction by 50%, which is a significant contribution toward the market economy.
Deshmukh is ranked internationally among the top researchers in his field. He has been recognized for providing cost-effective solutions and creating technologies that are transferred to fabrication facilities overseas, through departmental and organizational level accolades and awards.
VELMA R. SPEIGHT YOUNG ALUMNA AWARD
Ashley A. Little, Ph.D. ’08
Ashley A. Little is the CEO/Founder of Ashley Little Enterprises LLC. Little is an award-winning serial entrepreneur, TV/radio host and speaker. She has received many awards and recognitions including being named as one of the Forbes Next 1000 in 2021.
Little created the first Black-owned publishing company focused on books about the alumni and traditions of HBCUs. She created The HBCU Experience Movement to increase HBCU enrollment and alumni giving – two areas essential to the longevity of HBCUs. Little aims to bring exposure and attention to HBCU stories around the world, and she hopes to partner with more HBCUs to tell their alumni stories in the future.
JULIA S. BROOKS ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Ebony Ramsey, Ph.D. ’05
Ebony Ramsey has been an active proponent for students, equity and inclusion since her high school years. Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, Ramsey’s passion, awareness and drive have led her to become a true catalyst for change in all she does.
She received her undergraduate degree in theatre with a minor in mass communications from UNC Charlotte and her master’s in adult education with a concentration in higher education administration from North Carolina A&T. Her doctorate in higher education and leadership (research focused on Black women HBCU presidents) is from Colorado State University.
Ramsey has a passion for working at historically Black colleges and universities. She enjoys serving the community and has been heavily involved in giving back through her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. Ramsey currently serves in the capacity of assistant dean for student involvement at Maryville University in St. Louis.
HOWARD C. BARNHILL DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD
Sonja N. Hines ’92
In 2006, Sonja N. Hines founded H&S Resources Corporation, which evolved into Akata Global in 2019. Akata Global is a provider and leader in the construction, fuel management and logistics services industries. As president, CEO and owner of Akata Global, Hines sets the company’s vision and strategic direction and is responsible for the management and oversight of Akata’s global operations.
Earlier in her career, Hines was responsible for safety hazard program development and safety hazard mitigation support for over 400 employees at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Her numerous honors include being named on a list as a Top 100 Minority Business Enterprise and being awarded SmartCEO’s 2016 Future 50 Award. Additionally, she has served on North Carolina A&T’s Board of Visitors.
