Black Excellence: Ralph W. Adams, Jr.
Ralph W. Adams, Jr., a graduate of the University of Nebraska, served in the Army Security Agency in Vietnam as a linguist in 1961, and came to NSA in 1965. Widely recognized for his near-native language skills, he served multiple tours in Vietnam as a language analyst for NSA. Mr. Adams served in Vietnam also as a senior language advisor to both the U.S. Army and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). He was one of the final NSA’ers to escape before the fall of Saigon in 1975.
Black Excellence: Chidozie Ibeabuchi
https://www.mlssoccer.com/playerengagement/bios/chidozie-ibeabuchi
Chidozie Ibeabuchi leads a team responsible for providing holistic player care resources, creating career pathways, and spearheading player commercial efforts to advance the league. For over a decade, Chidozie has worked with professional athletes across various sectors of the sports industry for several major sports leagues including the NBA’s New York Knicks, the NHL’s New York Rangers, and the NFL’s league office.
Black Excellence: Edmond Dédé
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmond_D%C3%A9d%C3%A9
Edmond Dédé (November 20, 1827 – January 5, 1901)[a] was an American musician and composer. A free-born Creole, he moved to Europe in 1855. He worked in Bordeaux for more than forty years, first as assistant conductor at the Grand Théâtre and then as a conductor of orchestras at other local theaters.
His compositions include works for orchestra and for various voices with orchestra or piano, as well as an opera Morgiane, for which the score was unknown until 2007. Morgiane is the earliest known opera by an African American composer.[3] It received its first complete concert performances in February 2025.
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/03/nx-s1-4868011/oldest-black-american-opera-premiere
Until recently, the music of Morgiane only existed in a single handwritten manuscript.
Composer Edmond Dédé, a Black American living in exile in France, completed the nearly 550-page score in 1887. He thought of it as his greatest achievement. But the four-act, French grand opera based on themes from the folktale “Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves” would never be performed in his lifetime. Instead the manuscript was tucked away and nearly forgotten.
Black Excellence: Givonna Joseph and Opera Créole
https://www.operacreole.org/givonna-joseph
Ms. Joseph is committed to the culture of New Orleans, the city of her birth. This is most evident in her research on 19th-century classical music of New Orleans’s Free People of Color.
As Founder and Artistic Director of the award-winning OperaCréole, Ms. Joseph’s research has recently been featured on NBC Nightly News, NPR, and in magazines such as 64 Parishes and Atlas Obscura. She was previously honored as a “Standard Bearer ” of Louisiana culture on Le Grand Tour, a documentary for French TV, and locally on Music Inside Out. She was featured in cover articles in BreakThru Media Magazine and NOLA Boomers magazine.
Black Excellence: Roberta Hoskie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberta_Hoskie
Roberta Hoskie is an American real estate broker, writer, and media personality based in New Haven, Connecticut. She is the author of the book Poverty Curse Broken, president and CEO of Outreach Realty Servicing, Outreach School of Real Estate, and the 1000 Black Families National Homeownership Program. She is also the founder and Chieftain of the International Millionaire Mindset Sisterhood.
Black Excellence: Kimberley Rudd and David C. Rudd
https://ruddresources.net/our-team
Kimberley has 35 years of writing, strategic marketing and communications, and coaching experience. A skilled project manager, she is trusted to provide counsel, support and ideas to clients.
David is a writer and senior counselor. A communications professional with journalism, corporate communications and PR agency experience.
Black Excellence: Jehana Ray
https://www.packlesstravel.com/about
Welcome to
PackLess Travel!
Headquartered in Boston, a city known for its casual vibe and inclusive atmosphere, we’re building a community that values a more relaxed, efficient, and eco-friendly approach to travel. We’re proud to serve a diverse group of explorers who share our vision for a simpler and more sustainable way to travel. From our Boston beginnings, we’re on a mission to revolutionize how the world travels, one bag at a time.
An avid and experienced traveler, Jehana Ray ’03 first felt the freedom of traveling light on a 2022 trip to Cuba. Exhausted from lugging multiple bags around the country, she suddenly felt compelled to donate her belongings to a local resident. “I didn’t keep much other than a swimsuit and the dress I had on,” Ray says.
It might seem impulsive — but Ray felt relieved and unburdened for the rest of her travels. And it gave her an idea.
After breezing through U.S. customs on her way home to Boston, she scrawled a business idea on an airplane napkin, tucked it away and promised to come back to it. When the small health care company she worked for was purchased in 2021, Ray seized the opportunity to leave the corporate world, and in 2024 she created PackLess Travel, a clothing rental service for travelers.
Black Excellence: Sharon Y. Bowen
https://www.cftc.gov/About/Commissioners/SharonY.Bowen/index.htm
Sharon Y. Bowen was sworn in as a Commissioner of the U. S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on June 9, 2014 for a five year term. She serves as Sponsor of the CFTC Market Risk Advisory Committee.