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Public Relations
http://w2.uky.edu/UKPR
CONTACT: Gail Hairston, (859) 257-3302
FOR RELEASE
UK Recognizes Contributions of African-American Women
LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 5, 2007) − In March, the University of Kentucky Center
for Research on Violence Against Women, the UK African American Studies and
Research Program, Kentucky State University, and the Urban League of LexingtonFayette County hosted a benefit dinner to unveil the new Endowment on the Multicultural
Study of Violence Against Women.
At the event, African-American women who have contributed to the rich heritage
and success of UK over the years were recognized.
“The contributions that African-American women have made to UK over the years
are praiseworthy, varied and significant to our past, present and future. I am delighted to
take the opportunity when we are unveiling an innovative women’s research program to
also celebrate the beauty of what a group of women have gifted to this institution,” said
UK President Lee T. Todd Jr.
The organizations recognized Mary Henderson Adams, Florence G. Anderson of
Clark County, Lula Coleman of Daviess County, Julia Melton of Christian County, Mollie
Poston of Christian County, Ella B. Taylor of Fayette County, Heidi Milia Anderson,
Juanita Fleming, Helen Frye, Lucy Taylor Hammond, Cordelia "Dee Dee" Harbut, Edythe
J. Hayes, Mary Levi Smith, Valerie Still, Doris Y. Wilkinson, and Lynda Brown Wright.
Mary Henderson Adams
Mary Henderson Adams holds the distinction of being the first African American to
earn a degree from the University of Kentucky. Adams enrolled at UK in the fall of 1949
after receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree from Kentucky State University and earned
her master's degree from the College of Education in 1950. She had returned to
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Lexington, her hometown, when the opportunity to attend UK presented itself following
the Supreme Court ruling that segregated education was unconstitutional.
After graduating from UK, Adams started her teaching career in Cynthiana. She
eventually moved back to Lexington where she taught third and fourth grade classes at
Constitution and Maxwell elementary schools until she retired in 1989.
Florence G. Anderson, Clark County
Lula Coleman, Daviess County
Julia Melton, Christian County
Mollie Poston, Christian County
Ella B. Taylor, Fayette County
With the passage of the Smith-Lever Act in 1914 that created the Cooperative
Extension Service, UK employed Home Demonstration Agents to work with women and
youth and to improve life for rural families. The first class of Home Demonstration Agents
that year was comprised of 15, five of whom were African-American women. They were
employed in a new job and in a new role for women with no previous agents or role
models to follow. They traveled throughout the country, frequently on horseback and
most often alone. They conducted gardening programs, food safety, sanitation lessons
and canning demonstrations, usually outside over open fires, in remote and isolated
areas. Their goal was always to improve the lives of women in their assigned counties.
They paved the way for all who have followed and set the standards for a profession that
continues 93 years later.
Heidi Milia Anderson
Heidi Anderson currently serves as associate provost for faculty affairs at UK,
making her the highest ranking African-American female presently employed in the
administrative ranks of the university. Before becoming associate provost, Anderson
served in the College of Pharmacy in 2002 as director of the Office of Education
Innovation where she spearheaded an assessment and planning effort. She was the
lead faculty member in the reorganization of the college from a division structure to a
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departmental structure and successfully revamped the College Governance Document.
Anderson’s work in assessment and faculty development has gained her a national
reputation and she is consistently called upon to serve as a consultant to national
organizations and other colleges of pharmacy. Two years ago, she was appointed as
one of three representatives to serve on the 10-member board of the Accreditation
Council for Pharmaceutical Education (ACPE), the sole accrediting body for pharmacy.
Anderson has made, and continues to make, outstanding contributions to pharmacy and
to the university.
Juanita Fleming
Juanita Fleming began her career at UK in 1969 when she was appointed an
assistant professor in the College of Nursing. She quickly progressed through the
academic ranks to professor in the college and served as the assistant dean for graduate
education from 1975 until 1981 and associate dean and director of graduate education
from 1982 until 1985.
In 1984, she was appointed associate vice chancellor for academic affairs in the
Chandler Medical Center, a post she held until 1991 when she assumed a position of
special assistant to the president for academic affairs until her retirement from the
university. Her retirement was short-lived however; as she went on to serve in the
capacity of provost at Kentucky State University until her second retirement this past
year.
Fleming has received numerous awards, including the Great Teacher Award from
the UK Alumni Association and membership in the National Academy of Science's
Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Nursing.
Helen Frye
Helen Frye was born in 1919 in Danville, Ky. As a young woman, she and two
other students began attending a UK extension class but were forced to drop out
because they were African Americans. The incident was reported in the Louisville
Federal newspaper. When the opportunity to attend classes at UK finally became legally
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available to her, Frye came to Lexington. In 1963, she became the first African American
to receive a library science degree from an ALA-accredited library school in Kentucky. In
2006, she was nominated by Danville native Dr. Frank X. Walker for the UK Lyman T.
Johnson Award, and she was chosen to receive the award for her many years of service
as a librarian and civil rights activist.
Frye’s oral history is included in the "Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky" oral
history project at the Kentucky Historical Society, and she has an oral history interview in
Centre College Special Collections in Danville, KY., which highlights her accomplished
career and her role in organizing the first integrated theatre production on the Centre
College campus in 1951 featuring Danville native R. Todd Duncan.
Lucy Taylor Hammond
Lucy Taylor Hammond decided when she was 6 years old that she wanted to
become an Extension agent. Hammond graduated from Kentucky State College in 1950
and, since African Americans were not admitted to graduate programs in the state of
Kentucky, she went on to Indiana University for advanced study in food and nutrition and
later received master’s degrees from Florida A&M University and from the University of
Louisville.
In 1967 she returned to Kentucky as a State Extension Specialist and she became
the first coordinator for a food nutrition education program that continues today and
serves an average of 4,000 families each year. In the 1980s Hammond took leave from
UK and accepted a three-year assignment in Kenya, East Africa.In 1986, Hammond was
a U.S. delegate to the Women’s Decade Conference in Kenya and was honored by
Egerton College for her distinguished service. Hammond was beloved for her concern
for the well-being of rural women anywhere in the world.. She died in 2006.
Cordelia "Dee Dee" Harbut
Cordelia "Dee Dee" Harbut currently serves as director of special programs for the
Kentucky Small Business Development Center (KSBDC) in the UK Gatton College of
Business and Economics. She helped design and manages the Kentucky Minority and
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Women Construction Training Program, which provides disadvantaged businesses with
the tools and skills necessary to compete for government contracts. Under Harbut’s
leadership, the Small Business Development Center was recognized by the Women's
Business Enterprise National Council as their Non-profit Partner of the Year.
Two years ago, Harbut established a monthly Women's Peer to Peer Mentoring
Group for Lexington businesswomen which is the only known mentoring group in the city
specifically catering to businesswomen. Her dedication to assisting underserved
communities extends to the disabled. She has served on the Workforce Development's
Cabinet's Vocational Rehabilitation advisory group, which determines the feasibility of
business plans submitted by disabled individuals seeking grants to start a business.
Harbut was recognized by this group with an Employee Star Award.
Edythe J. Hayes
A native of Selma, Ala., Edythe J. Hayes received her bachelor's degree from
West Virginia State College at age 18 and her master's degree from the University of
Kentucky College of Education in 1953 at age 19. She began teaching in the Lexington
Carver Elementary School in 1953, becoming principal of the school and ultimately
Deputy Superintendent of Fayette County school system, the first African American to
hold that post. Hayes worked in the Fayette County school system for more than 40
years and in 1990 was named Administrator of the Year by the Fayette County School
Administrators Association.
Hayes received the 1988 Lexington Optimist Cup, one of the city's leading awards,
which recognizes outstanding service to the community through volunteer service. Not
only was Hayes an alumna of UK, she was the first African-American woman to serve on
the UK Board of Trustees. She served as secretary of the board until her term ended in
1992.
The Edith J. Hayes Middle School was opened in 2004 as a lasting tribute to her
commitment to education and community. Hayes died in 1999.
Mary Levi Smith
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Mary Levi Smith is a graduate of Jackson State University and received her
doctorate in education from UK in 1980. After graduating, Smith worked at Tuskegee
University and taught in public schools in Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky. In 1974,
she became an assistant professor of education at Kentucky State University, moving up
through the ranks until she became dean of the College of Applied Sciences and
professor of education in 1983. In 1991, she became the 11th – and first female –
president of Kentucky State University, serving in that post until 1998.
Smith served on numerous national higher education boards and received many
awards including being named an outstanding faculty member at Kentucky State and
receiving the Professional Achievement Award from the Louisville Defender newspaper.
UK honored Smith in 1995 by inducting her into its Hall of Distinguished Alumni.
Valerie Still
Born in 1961, Still grew up in Camden, N.J., the ninth of 10 children. Her
extraordinary sports career began at UK when she received a basketball scholarship.
This 6' 1" forward is the leading basketball scorer among both male and female student
athletes at UK and the leading rebounder with 2,763 points and 1,525 rebounds. Still
was second in the nation in both categories. In the summer of 1981, she competed for
the U.S. in the World University Games in Romania where she helped lead the team to a
silver medal. Her jersey was retired in January 2003.
Still played professional basketball in Italy for 12 years and upon returning to the
U.S., became a charter member of the Inaugural American Basketball League for
Women and was a member of the All-ABL Team which was comprised of the top 10
players in the ABL League. She later joined the Women National Basketball Association
where she played for the Washington Mystics and was named two-time Most Valuable
Player for the 1997-1998 ABL Championship Series. She also served as assistant coach
for the Washington Mystics. Still was inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in
1996 and has since established the Valerie Still Foundation.
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Her career since athletics has turned toward academics. She is presently
pursuing a master’s degree in African American Studies and has plans to seek her
doctorate in education.
Doris Y. Wilkinson
Doris Y. Wilkinson was one of the first African Americans to enroll at the University
of Kentucky after the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education declared
public school segregation illegal. She received an undergraduate degree in social work
from UK and went on to earn master’s and doctorate degrees from Case Western
Reserve University in medical sociology and a master's in public health from Johns
Hopkins University.
In 1967, Wilkinson became the first African American appointed to a full-time
faculty position at UK. Wilkinson’s tenure at UK is marked with creation of numerous
programs contributing to the academic excellence and cultural fabric of the institution. In
1992, she founded UK's African American Studies and Research Program and served as
its first director. In 1994, she established the Black Women's Conference at UK.
Wilkinson also established the Carter G. Woodson Lecture Series to enrich the
community's intellectual understanding of issues relating to race and culture. In 2002 the
Doris Wilkinson Distinguished Lecture was established in her honor and is an
integral part of the Black Women’s Conference. Wilkinson has a long and stellar record
of professional and scholarly research achievements as well as awards including the
American Sociological Associations’ Dubois-Johnson Frazier award, a Ford Fellowship to
Harvard, and UK’s Hall of Distinguished Alumni.
Lynda Brown Wright
Lynda Brown Wright currently serves as associate professor and chair of the
Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology at the UK College of Education.
She received an undergraduate degree in psychology from Grambling State University
and her doctorate in counseling psychology from Texas A & M University in 1991. She
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currently teaches courses in assessment and multicultural development and has received
an NIH Career Development Award.
Brown Wright’s contribution to the university is evidenced not just in her academic
excellence but by service. She has served on numerous committees, including the
search committee for the vice president for Institutional Diversity, the search committee
for the director of African American Studies, and the Committee for Research and
Analysis on the Success of African American Students. She is a faculty affiliate to the
African American Studies and Research Program and serves as a member of the
Diversity Caucus to the UK Center for Research on Violence Against Women.
In 2005 she received a Diversity Award from the President’s Commission on
Diversity. In 2006, Brown Wright was named to Grambling State University's Hall of
Fame Gallery of Distinction.
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In striving to become a Top 20 public research institution, the University of Kentucky is a catalyst for a new
Commonwealth – a Kentucky that is healthier, better educated, and positioned to compete in a global and changing
economy. For more information about UK’s efforts to become a Top 20 university, please go to
www.uky.edu/OPBPA/Top20.html.
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