| PITTSBURGH—The University of Pittsburgh African American Alumni Council (AAAC) will present 10 honorees with its Distinguished Alumnus Award during Pitt’s Homecoming weekend. The awards will be presented at AAAC’s annual dinner and meeting at 6 p.m. Oct. 24 at the Wyndham Garden Hotel, Forbes Avenue and McKee Place, Oakland.
The honorees and their areas of achievement are as follows: Darryl L. Baynes, science education; Bebe Moore Campbell, letters; Judith Davenport, dentistry; Adena Johnson Davis, nursing; Helen Faison, education; Earl F. Hord, banking and economic development; Frederick S. Humphries, higher education; Robert R. Lavelle, finance and real estate; Alfred L. Moyé, business; and Tuskegee, Ala., Mayor Lucenia Williams-Dunn, government. Williams-Dunn will deliver the keynote address.
Biographical information on the 10 honorees follows.
Darryl L. Baynes, president and CEO of the Minority Aviation Education Association (MAEA), founded the association in 1993 while pursuing a pilot’s license. The MAEA encourages minorities and women to pursue aviation and aviation-related careers. Having expanded into many disciplines and offering more than 60 programs, MAEA has grown into one of the largest science and math outreach organizations in the nation. Baynes received the Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Pitt’s College of Arts and Sciences in 1994.
After teaching elementary and middle school for five years, Bebe Moore Campbell pursued a career in writing. She is the author of six novels. Three of her novels, Brothers and Sisters (Putnam, 1994), Singing in the Comeback Choir (Putnam, 1998), and What You Owe Me (Putnam, 2001) were on The New York Times Book Review’s bestseller list. She has written articles for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times as well as for Ebony, Essence, and Black Enterprise magazines. While at Pitt, she helped found the Black Action Society and participated in protests that led to the establishment of the Department of Africana Studies. Campbell received the Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education from Pitt’s School of Education.
Long-time Pittsburgh dentist Judith Davenport became the first African American woman to be elected chair of the Carlow College Board of Trustees. Davenport serves on Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) Board of Visitors, is a director of the Howard Heinz Endowment and the Sheridan Broadcasting Corporation, and is a trustee for the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater Foundation, the Andy Warhol Museum, and the Birmingham Foundation. She holds a master’s degree in maternal and child health services from GSPH and a doctoral degree from Pitt’s School of Dental Medicine. In 2000, she retired from private dental practice.
Originally denied admission to Pitt’s School of Nursing because of her race, Adena Johnson Davis became Pitt’s first African American nursing student after the federal government mandated that to receive federal money, schools of nursing had to accept Black students. The mandate was in response to the shortage of nurses during World War II. Davis graduated with the Bachelor of Science degree in nursing in 1947. In 1991, Pitt established the Adena Johnson Davis Scholarship in Nursing, which annually awards a four-year tuition, room, and board scholarship to one freshman African American nursing student.
Helen Faison became director of the Pittsburgh Teacher’s Institute Program after retiring from a 43-year career in the Pittsburgh School District, where she began as a teacher and eventually became interim superintendent during the 1999-2000 school year. In 1968, she was the first minority woman to serve as a high school principal. Faison is an emerita member on Pitt’s Board of Trustees and a recipient of Pitt’s Outstanding Alumna Award. In 1993, Pitt established the Helen S. Faison Undergraduate Scholarship Program for African American Students. Faison earned the Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, and Ph.D. degrees in education at Pitt’s School of Education.
Earl F. Hord, founder of the Minority Enterprise Corporation of Southwestern Pennsylvania, has served as president of Independence Bank of Chicago—at the time the largest Black-owned bank in the United States that merged with Chicago’s Shore Bank in 1995—and executive vice president of Dollar Savings Bank in Pittsburgh. He was also director of economic development for Allegheny County, deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, and aviation commissioner for Chicago’s three airports. Hord serves on Pitt’s Board of Trustees as well as on the Board of Visitors for the College of General Studies and the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business. He received the Master of Business Administration degree from the Katz School.
Frederick S. Humphries, president and CEO of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, was president of Florida A&M University from 1985 to 2001. During his tenure, the university’s enrollment more than doubled, and more African Americans received a Florida A&M baccalaureate degree in a single year than they did from any other college or university. Humphries, who earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Pitt’s College of Arts and Sciences, serves on the board of directors for Wal-Mart Stores and for Brinker International. He served as a trustee on Pitt’s Board of Trustees from 1992 to 1996 and served on the College of Arts and Sciences Board of Visitors from 1992 to 1997.
Robert R. Lavelle, executive vice president of Dwelling House Savings and Loan Association, has been providing high-risk marginal loans in disadvantaged areas since 1957, when he joined the association as director and moved Dwelling House’s office into his real estate company, Lavelle Real Estate. He was the first lender to target Pittsburgh’s Hill District. Since 1970, Dwelling House has made more than a 1,000 mortgages, with over 95 percent made to African Americans. Lavelle received the Bachelor of Business Administration degree in accounting from Pitt’s Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business. While writing for the Pittsburgh Courier, he earned a master’s degree in real estate and insurance at the Katz School. Pitt’s Robert R. Lavelle Scholarship annually awards a four-year tuition, room, and board scholarship to one freshman College of Business Administration student.
Alfred L. Moyé was director of university relations for Hewlett Packard from 1995 to 2000, after serving as Pitt’s vice chancellor for student affairs and associate professor in the Department of Chemistry. Since 1996, he has served as a special trustee on Pitt’s Board of Trustees and on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Board of Visitors. Moyé earned his Ph.D. in chemistry at Pitt’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
Mayor Lucenia Williams-Dunn is the first female mayor of Tuskegee, Ala. She is executive director of the Tuskegee Macon Country Head Start Program and president and CEO of DDL, an international corporation that engages in economic development opportunities for communities and small businesses. As director of the Bethune Program Development Center of the National Council of Negro Women, she helped start programs in education, health, community, and business development. She received her Ph.D. from Pitt’s School of Education.
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