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Alumna or Alumnus of the Year
Celebrating our Alumni leaders
This award recognizes the alumna or alumnus who has contributed significantly to his or her profession, to his or her community, or to the College during the past year.
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2023 Alumna of the Year
Jennie Stephens ’89 (M.P.A. ’94)
Jennie Stephens ’89 (M.P.A. ’94) is CEO at the Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation, a non-profit that protects property either purchased or deeded to African Americans after emancipation. Much of this land has been passed down through generations without benefit of a will so the land is owned in common by all the heirs. This unstable form of ownership means any heir can force the sale of the entire property. The Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation provides the legal services necessary to resolve heirs’ property issues including title searches, document preparation, scheduling land surveys, requesting hearings and full representation in court.
Stephens, who received her B.S. in business administration and her M.P.A. from the College of Charleston, earned her Ph.D. in organizational leadership from Regent University. She has led the Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation since its inception in 2005.
Stephens was featured speaking about her work on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, the BET documentary series “Disrupt and Dismantle” with Soledad O’Brien and TedXCharleston. She is among 25 BALLE Fellows who are building healthy and equitable rural economies across the U.S. and Canada. In 2022 the U.S. Department of Agriculture named Stephens to its newly formed Subcommittee on Agriculture as part of its Equity Commission, which is charged with closing the racial wealth gap and addressing longstanding inequities in agriculture.
Alumna or Alumnus of the Year Past Recipients
| 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2022 |
George C. Rogers, Jr. ’43 * Julius Burges ’35 * Patricia Carter ’37 * Richard H. Gadsden ’50 * Louise Mosimann Smith ’41 * Robert C. Heffron, Jr. ’67 * H. Biemann Othersen, Jr. ’50 Glenn F. McConnell ’69 Troy Cook ’57 * Bette Smith Griffith ’56 * Linda Schwartz Lombard ’64 Charles V. Boykin ’37 * Benjamin H. Cheek ’46 * Jeanne Campbell Sink ’75 Helen Bradham Furnans ’63 Lu Parker ’90 Edgar V. McKnight ’53 Cheryll Novak Woods-Flowers ’81 Jody L. Stallings ’92 Dave J. Schlachter ’72 Margaret E. Bridges ’69 Laura Jenkins Thompson ’77 Mary Eileen Leonard ’45 * Paul A. Sandifer ’68 Stephanie Schwabe ’90 John C. Lovell, III ’90 Chandra Fripp Vick ’74 Jeffery E. Kinard ’77 Ron J. Menchaca ’98 Callie Shell ’83 Lucy Garrett Beckham ’70 * Kellie N. Bentz ‘04 John E. Alessi ’98 Padgett Powell ’74 Cary Ann Hearst ’01 Nafees Bin Zafar ’98 Joni Harvey McLeod ’82 Evan Linder ’04 Quentin E. Baxter ’98 Heidi VanDerveer ’86 Debra J. Gammons ’87 Ranky Tanky Margaret Mungin Patterson ’87 Tracey Swinton Bailey ’95 Scott Foxhall ’94 |
* Deceased