Corporate executive Willie A. Deese was born on September 7, 1955 in Davidson, North Carolina to Fred and Janie Deese. He received his B.A. degree in business administration from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in 1977. Then, in 1983, he earned his M.B.A. degree from Western New England College in Springfield, Massachusetts.

In 1975, Deese joined Digital Equipment Corporation’s manufacturing plant in Springfield, Massachusetts. He became a buyer for the company in 1977, advancing to senior buyer in 1980 and to purchasing manager in 1981. He was named business materials manager in 1983 and site purchasing manager in 1985. Then, in 1987, he was promoted to site materials manager before transitioning to disk operations manager in 1989 and to plant manager in 1990. In 1992, Deese accepted the director of purchasing position at SmithKline Beecham’s Clinical Laboratory Sector, rising to vice president and director of purchasing in 1995. The following year, Deese moved to Kaiser Permanente, where he was appointed vice president of purchasing. He returned to SmithKline Beecham as senior vice president and director of purchasing in 1997. In 2004, Deese was hired as senior vice president of global procurement at Merck & Co., where he was later named executive vice president for manufacturing in 2008, a position he held until retiring from the company in 2016.

Deese served on several corporate boards, including Dentsply International Inc.; CDK Global Inc.; Public Service Enterprise Group Inc.; Dentsply Sirona Inc.; and G1 Therapeutics Inc. He also served on the board of trustees of North Carolina A&T State University, where he served as chair from 2011 to 2013. In 2022, he joined the board of trustees of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina in 2022. That same year, Deese was nominated by President Joe Biden to serve on the President’s Board of Advisors for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

In 2010, Deese was named one of Black Enterprise’s 100 Most Powerful Executives in Corporate America. In 2011, he was awarded the Beta Gamma Sigma National Business Achievement Award and an honorary doctorate degree from North Carolina A&T State University. The university further honored Deese’s contributions by naming the Deese Ballroom, the Willie A. Deese College of Business and Economics, and the Willie A. & Carrol C. Deese Tower after him.

Willie Deese lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with his wife, Carol Chalmers Deese, a retired teacher. They have a son named Brandon.

Willie Deese was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on April 20, 2024.

Architect Phillip Craig Johnson was born on October 15, 1947 in Gary, Indiana to Josephine Baptiste Johnson and Richard Johnson. He graduated from Roosevelt High School in Gary, Indiana in 1965 and attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. He received his B.Arch. degree from Kent State University in Kent, Ohio in 1970.

In 1983, Johnson co-founded the Chicago-based architectural firm Johnson & Lee, Ltd. with Frank Christopher Lee where he led the planning and development of numerous projects, including the Komed Health Center in Chicago’s Oakland neighborhood; the North Kostner Health Center in Humboldt Park, which became the first LEED-Gold Federally Qualified Health Center in Illinois; and the St. Edmund’s Oasis townhouse complex in Chicago.

Johnson served on the boards of the American Institute of Architects Chicago (AIA), Archeworks, the Chicago Architecture Club, the City Club of Chicago, the Columbia College Art & Design Department MFA Program Advisory Board, Near South Planning, the Illinois Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects (INOMA), and the Newhouse Architecture Committee. He was also a member of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Leadership Advisory Committee, the Business Leadership Council, the Chicago Historical Society Architectural Alliance, the Metropolitan Planning Council for the Chicago Housing Authority Rehabilitation and Reinvestment Study, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Trinity United Church of Christ, and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., where he founded the Psi Gamma Chapter.

During his career, Johnson received numerous awards and honors throughout his career. In 1997, Johnson was honored with the Distinguished Building Award from the American Institute of Architects Chicago Chapter. In 2000, he received the Driehaus Neighborhood Design Award in 2000 for his work on the Komed Health Center; and, in 2005, Johnson was inducted into the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows. Johnson was featured in the inaugural “50 Men of Excellence” list published by the Chicago Defender in 2007. In 2017, he received another Distinguished Building Award from the American Institute of Architects Chicago Chapter for the North Kostner Health Center. Johnson was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Institute of Architects’ Chicago Chapter in 2020.

Johnson resides in Chicago, Illinois, and is married to Bernice Grier Johnson. They have a son, Larry, and a granddaughter, Elle.

Phillip Craig Johnson was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on April 4, 2023.

Entrepreneur James J. Hutchinson, Jr. was born on September 22, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois to Dorothy and James Hutchinson. He received his B.A. degree in sociology from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire in 1969 and his M.B.A. degree in accounting and finance from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in 1971.

Hutchinson began his career in 1971 as a commercial loan officer at the First National Bank of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. In 1977, he became executive vice president and part owner of InterUrban Broadcasting, a chain of Southeastern and Midwestern Black-owned radio stations. At the same time, Hutchinson also served as executive vice president and part owner of the rental car service InterUrban Rental Systems, from 1985 to 1991, and as secretary and part owner of a minor league baseball team, the Savannah Cardinals, from 1985 to 1988 in Savannah, Georgia. He started his own business consultancy in 1996. That year, Hutchinson was hired by the New Orleans, Louisiana-based nonprofit Family Advocacy & Neighborhood Services as executive director. He served in that capacity until 2015.

Apart from his business career, Hutchinson held leadership roles at the National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters, serving as chairman from 1986 to 1988, and the Urban League of Greater New Orleans, which he chaired from 1987 to 1988. Hutchinson also worked as a commissioner for the New Orleans Convention Center from 1985 until 1987. He served as a board member of the United Way of Greater New Orleans (1986–1991) and the National Rainbow PUSH Coalition (1993–2002).

During his career, Hutchinson received numerous awards and honors, including the Broadcaster of the Year Award from the National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters in 1985, the Trail Blazer Award from New Orleans Data News Weekly in 2002, a Distinguished Service Award from the New Orleans Regional Business Park in 2002, a Distinguished Service Award from the Urban League of Greater New Orleans, the Business Advisory Council Service Award from Xavier University in 2009, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Asanti Foundation in 2015.

Hutchinson resides in Chicago, Illinois. He has two children and three grandchildren.

James J. Hutchinson, Jr. was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on April 7, 2023.

Producer and writer Jesse Collins was born Jesse Freeman Walker on September 28, 1970 in Washington, D.C. to Cheryl Walker and Jay Sutton. He graduated from J.E.B. Stuart High School in Falls Church, Virginia in 1988, and took courses at Northern Virginia Community College.

In 1990, Collins was hired at WKHI in Ocean City, Maryland and he worked there for three years before joining WPGC in Washington, D.C. in 1993. He then moved to Los Angeles, California and worked as a radio DJ on KKBT 92.3 The Beat and co-hosted Ruthless Radio, a program featuring rapper Eazy-E. In 1997, he was hired at Power 106 LA. That year, he was given the opportunity to television writer on the show on The Parent ‘Hood. In 2000, he co-produced the BET 20th Anniversary Celebration and then went on to produce programs for Black Entertainment Television, including the First through Fourth Annual BET Awards, the 2004 BET Comedy Awards, the BET Awards 2005, the 2005 BET Comedy Awards, the BET Awards 2010 and 2012, the 25 Strong: The BET Silver Anniversary Special, and the 2020 BET Awards. Collins also produced the 47th Annual Grammy Awards, the 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2022 Soul Train Awards, the 2023 Golden Globe Awards, and the 75th and 76th Emmy Awards.

In 2012, Collins founded Jesse Collins Entertainment where he served as executive producer for The Real Husbands of Hollywood from 2013 to 2016, The New Edition Story in 2017, The Bobby Brown Story in 2018, and American Soul from 2019 to 2020. He also produced comedy specials like I Be Knowing with Amanda Seales in 2019 and Time Machine with Leslie Jones in 2020.

In 2022, Collins produced the Super Bowl Halftime Show starring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent, and Eminem. In 2023, he produced the halftime performance featuring Rihanna.

Collins received numerous awards for his work, including the Outstanding Variety Special Emmy Award in 2022 and a NAACP Image Award in 2017.

Collins lives in Burbank, California, and has three sons: James, Jarett, and Jamie Walker.

Jesse Collins was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on March 22, 2023.

Inventor and entrepreneur Guy Primus was born on July 4, 1969 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Janet and Robert Primus. He earned his B.S. degree in industrial engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia in 1992, and his M.S.I.E. degree in decision support systems from Georgia Tech in 1995. In 2000, he received his M.B.A. degree in entrepreneurship and negotiations from Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts.

In 1996, Primus was hired by the software company CAPS Logistics. The following year, he worked as an associate for the global management consulting firm A.T. Kearney. In 1997, he developed a software model for National Public Radio, which led to the adoption of a new program pricing structure. That same year, Primus led a strategic sourcing project for Federal Express. In 1999, he became vice president of strategy and planning for Blue Flame Marketing and Advertising in New York City., a Bad Boy Entertainment entity, where he served for three years In 2003, Primus worked as a group product marketing consultant for Microsoft and then, in 2004, he was promoted to group product marketing manager while leading the creation of The Scenario for Sprite, winner of the 2005 Ad:Tech conference’s Best Branded Entertainment Campaign award. In 2005, Primus was hired as senior director of digital media at Starbucks and was elected as an executive advisor to Black Girls Rock! the following year. In 2007, he was hired as head of digital media and chief operating officer of Overbrook Entertainment, a production company founded by Will Smith and James Lassiter.

From 2015 to 2020, Primus served as chief executive officer of The Virtual Reality Company, a market leader in the production and distribution of cinematic virtual reality and augmented reality content. In 2018, invention, Emotion-based experience feedback was awarded a federal patent. Then, in 2021, he was hired as chief executive officer of Valence Community in 2021, serving until 2023.

Primus was named one of the Most Influential Blacks in Technology by Black Enterprise and was an Ebony Power 100 honoree in 2017. He was recognized as a Captain of Industry by the Institute of Industrial Engineers in 2013. In 2012, Primus was elected to the president’s advisory board at Georgia Tech, where he served for four years. He was named to the board of governors of the VR Society in 2016, and in 2017, was appointed as a voting member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Primus has two children, Grant and Clarke Primus, with his wife, Heather Thompson. He resides in Los Angeles, California.

Guy Primus was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on March 20, 2023.

Poet and professor Tracy K. Smith was born on April 16, 1972 in Falmouth, Massachusetts to Floyd and Kathryn Smith. In 1994, she received her A.B. degree in English and American literature and in African American Studies from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She earned her M.F.A. degree from the Columbia University School of the Arts in New York City, New York in 1997.

After graduating from Columbia University, Smith joined Stanford University in Palo Alto, California as a Stegner Fellow. In 2002, she joined Medgar Evers College, City University of New York as an instructor before being hired as a visiting assistant professor in 2005 at Princeton University in New Jersey, where she was promoted to assistant professor in 2006 and to full professor in 2013. Smith led Princeton’s creative writing program from 2015 to 2019 and chaired the Lewis Center for the Arts from 2019 to 2021. In 2017, Smith became the twenty-second poet laureate of the United States. After sixteen years at Princeton University, she returned to Harvard University as a professor of English and of African and African American Studies; and, in 2021, as the Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Smith published her first collection of poetry, The Body’s Question, in 2003 followed by Duende in 2007. In 2012, her collection Life on Mars (2011) was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She went on to release two additional collections: Wade in the Water (2018) and Such Color: New and Selected Poems (2021). During her tenure as poet laureate, in 2018, Smith edited the anthology American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time. Her daily poetry podcast, The Slowdown, was launched the same year. Smith also published a memoir, Ordinary Light, which was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2015.

In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Smith has received numerous awards and honors including the Cave Canem Prize in 2002, the Whiting Award from the Ms. Giles Whiting Foundation in 2005, the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American poets in 2006, the Essence Magazine Literary Award in 2007, the University Medal for Excellence from Columbia University in 2016, the Harvard Arts Medal in 2019, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Poetry in 2019. Since 2021, Smith has served as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

Smith and her husband, Raphael Allison, live in Newton, Massachusetts. They have three children.

Tracy K. Smith was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on February 28, 2023.

Psychology professor Edmund W. Gordon was born on June 13, 1921 in Goldsboro, North Carolina to Edmund Taylor Gordon Sr. and Mabel Ellison Gordon. He received his B.S. degree in zoology from Howard University in Washington, D.C. in 1942 and his B.D. degree in social ethics from the Howard University Graduate School of Religion in 1945. Gordon also earned his M.A. degree in social psychology from American University in Washington, D.C., in 1950 and his Ed.D. degree from Teachers College at Columbia University in New York City, New York, in 1957.

In 1952, Gordon and his wife, Susan G. Gordon, founded the Harriet Tubman Clinic for Children in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City and he served as clinic director until its closure in 1959. Gordon also worked as a psychologist for the Department of Pediatric Psychology at the Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn from 1952 to 1959. In 1954, Gordon also worked alongside psychologists Kenneth B. Clark and Mamie Clark on the U.S. Supreme Court for Brown v. Board of Education case. Gordon was then hired in 1965 as the Project Head Start director of the Division of Research and Evaluation n Washington, D.C. In 1968, he became the chair of the Department of Guidance at Columbia University’s Teachers College, making him the first African American person to be offered a tenured position at Columbia University. Gordon also taught at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, the City College of New York, and other higher education institutions. In 1970, Gordon founded the Institute for Urban and Minority Education. His publications include Compensatory Education for the Disadvantaged: Programs and Practices (1966) and Education and Justice: A View from the Back of the Bus (1999).

During his career, Gordon received numerous awards and honors, including the Teachers College Medal for Distinguished Service to Education from Columbia University in 1993, the Relating Research to Practice Award from the American Educational Research Association in 2010, and the John Hope Franklin Award from the American Studies Association in 2011. Gordon also received honorary degrees from Yale University in 1979, Brown University in 1989, and Howard University in 1998. Gordon and his wife were inducted into the Rockland County Civil Rights Hall of Fame in 2006. Columbia University named its Harlem campus the Edmund W. Gordon Campus of Teachers College in 2005. In 2021, Gordon became the first Honorary President of the American Educational Research Association.

Edmund W. Gordon was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on February 13, 2023, July 20, 2023, September 11, 2023, and November 30, 2023.

Civic leader and historian Adele Logan Alexander was born on January 26, 1938 in New York City, New York to Wenonah Bond Logan and Dr. Arthur Courtney Logan. She attended the Ethical Culture-Fieldston School in New York City, graduating from high school in 1955. She received her B.A. degree in architectural sciences in 1959 from Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts and her Ph.D. degree in history in 1994 from Howard University in Washington D.C.

Alexander worked for several years in landscape architecture and graphic design following her undergraduate studies, through 1963. In 1970, she was hired as a legislative aide to U.S. Senator Adlai Stevenson III; and, in 1974, she managed the Washington D.C. mayoral campaign of her husband, Clifford Alexander, Jr. Then, in 1977, she worked in fundraising and development for the Capital Children’s Museum in Washington D.C. Four years later, she and her husband co-founded the corporate consulting firm Alexander and Associates.

While Alexander was earning her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history at Howard University, she taught classes at the University of Maryland, at Howard University, and at Trinity College. In 1994, she was hired to teach African American and women’s history at George Washington University and was promoted to professor in 2000. Alexander’s first book, Ambiguous Lives: Free Women of Color in Rural Georgia, 1978–1878, was published in 1991. Her other publications include Homelands and Waterways: The American Journey of the Bond Family, 1846–1926 and Parallel Worlds: The Remarkable Gibbs-Hunts and the Enduring (In)significance of Melanin. In 2019, Yale University Press published Princess of the Hither Isles: A Black Suffragist's Story from the Jim Crow South, a scholarly reconstruction of the life of Alexander’s suffragist grandmother, Adella Hunt Logan.

Alexander served as a member of the Washington D.C. Board of Higher Education and the National Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities, starting in 2010, as an appointee of President Barack Obama. She received the Black Caucus Literary Award from the American Library Association in 2000 and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the African American Historical and Genealogical Society in 2003. Alexander retired from teaching in 2015.

Alexander was married to Clifford Alexander, Jr. until his death in 2022. They have two children, Elizabeth Alexander and Mark Clifford Alexander, and seven grandchildren.

Alexander resides in New York, New York.

Adele Logan Alexander was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on February 17, 2023.

Clinical psychologist Deborah Ross Reaves was born on March 5, 1948 in Cleveland, Ohio to Katie Price and John Ross. She received her A.B. degree in sociology from Ohio University in Athens in 1970, her M.A. degree in sociology from Cleveland State University in 1976, and her Ph.D. degree in counseling and clinical psychology from Kent State University in Ohio in 1981.

From 1970 to 1971, Reaves worked as an assistant city planner for the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA). In 1974, she joined the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court in Cleveland as referee, serving for four years and holding the positions of court liaison and probation officer before serving as a counselor at the Comprehensive Psychiatric and Comprehensive Learning Institute in 1976. Then, Reaves worked as a counselor for the Cuyahoga Valley Community Mental Health Center from 1978 to 1980 and that same year, was hired by the Tufts New England Medical Clinic as a clinical psychologist. She joined Tufts University in 1981 as a clinical instructor for the School of Medicine and as a lecturer for the department of psychology where she worked until 2003. During this time, Reaves also served as a psychologist for Newton Public Schools in 1984 and opened her own private practice in psychology in 1994. From 2004 to 2006, she worked as a psychologist for the Skokie School District in Illinois. Reaves then joined the Cooperative Association of Special Education (C.A.S.E.) Marquardt District 15 in Glendale Heights, Illinois, as a psychologist for one year before retiring in 2007.

Reaves has been active in the community including in leadership positions with The Links, Inc. in 1984, where she served for thirty years and held the positions of committee chair, treasurer, secretary, vice president, and president. She also served on the Reynolda Museum of American Art’s Board of Trustees, the Women’s Council of Novant Health at the Forsyth Medical Center Foundation, the YWCA of Winston-Salem Forsyth County’s Board of Trustees, the Winston-Salem Symphony Association’s Board of Trustees, the American Psychological Association, and the Council on Aging in Sharon, Massachusetts.

Reaves and her husband, Donald Julian Reaves, have two children. They reside in Edgartown, Massachusetts and Lakewood Ranch, Florida.

Deborah Ross Reaves was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 30, 2024.

University president Jackie Jenkins-Scott was born on August 18, 1949 in Damascus, Arkansas to Verdie Byers and Raymond Jenkins. She graduated from Flint Northwestern High School in Michigan in 1967 and went on to earn her B.A. degree in sociology and psychology from Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan in 1971. In 1973, Jenkins-Scott graduated from Boston University in Massachusetts with her M.S.W degree.

In 1971, Jenkins-Scott worked as a social worker for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health before being hired as director of the Roxbury Court Clinic, a mental health diagnostic and treatment facility, from 1977 to 1983. Jenkins-Scott then joined Dimock Center, a community-based health and human service agency in Boston, Massachusetts, and served as its CEO from 1983 to 2004. She then became the first African American president of Wheelock College in Boston, where she served from 2004 to 2016. In 2016, she founded JJS Advising, an organizational and corporate consulting agency. Jenkins-Scott was appointed interim president of Roxbury Community College in 2022, a position she held until 2024.

During her career, Jenkins-Scott also served on the board of directors of the Boston Foundation from 2005 to 2015, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum from 2002 to 2017, and the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy in 2017. In 2007, she was selected by former Boston Mayor Thomas Menino to co-chair the School Readiness Action Planning Team. Jenkins-Scott was appointed president of the International Women’s Forum Massachusetts in 2019, serving until 2021.

Jenkins-Scott has also received honorary doctorates from Northeastern University in 2006 and Wheelock College in 2003, as well as an honorary Doctor of Law degree from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2012. Her other accolades include the Distinguished Alumni Award from Boston University and the Pinnacle Lifetime Achievement Award from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce in 2004 and the Change Agent Award from Color Magazine in 2010. She received a Harvard Club of Boston Recognition in 2015.

Jenkins-Scott resides in Boston, Massachusetts. She has two adult children and one grandchild.

Jackie Jenkins-Scott was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on August 3, 2024.