Lawyer Walter B. Prince was born on August 15, 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts to Jane Geneva Prince and Julius Prince. He attended Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama, before receiving his B.S. degree in education from Boston State College in 1971. He then earned his J.D. degree from Boston College Law School in 1974.

After graduating from law school, Prince worked as a public defender for the Roxbury Defenders in Boston. From 1976 to 1980, he served as chief of the Major Drug Traffickers Prosecution Unit at the U.S. Attorney’s Office. In 1980, Prince became a founding partner of the law firm, Brown and Prince LLP. He joined the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority as general counsel in 1985, and later founded Prince Lobel Tye LLP, a Boston-area litigation practice, in 1988.

During his career, Prince has been active in the community, including his membership in the Massachusetts Judicial Nominating Council in 1981. He also served as the president of the Massachusetts Black Lawyer Association and vice president of the National Conference of Black Lawyers’ Massachusetts chapter. In 1990, Prince joined the Committee for Public Counsel Services as chairman and served as chairman of the Massachusetts Health & Education Tax Exempt Trust in 1993 and as vice president of the Ford Hall Forum in 2010. In 2014, he became chairman of the Federal Merit Selection Panel and in 2024, he participated in the First Circuit Court of Appeals Committee to select a federal defender for Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. Furthermore, Prince served on the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine, the Boston College Law School Board of Overseers, the Bridgewater State University Board of Trustees, the One United Bank board, the Boston Chamber of Commerce executive committee, and the Federal Advisory Committee on Judicial Nominations.

Prince has received numerous awards and honors, including the Paul Robeson Award from the Boston College Black Alumni Network in 1988, the Thurgood Marshall Award from the Committee for Public Counsel Services in 1997, the Boston College Alumni Association’s William J. Kenealy Award in 2010, the University of Massachusetts Distinguished Alumni Award in 2013, the Diversity Award from the Boston Business Journal in 2013, the BUILDer Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship from BUILD in 2015, the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association Trailblazer Award in 2017, the Robert Morris Trial Lawyer Award from the American Board of Trial Advocates in 2017, a Recognition of Outstanding Contributions from the Roxbury Defenders in 2023, an induction into the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Hall of Fame in 2023, and an Honorary Doctorate of Laws degree from New England Law School in 2023.

Prince and his wife, Dorothy Prince, reside in Pembroke, Massachusetts. They have three children: Marisa, Kamaya, and Kenneth.

Walter B. Prince was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 29, 2024.

Theologian M. Shawn Copeland was born on August 24, 1947, in Detroit, Michigan to Geraldine C. and Johnine L. Copeland. Copeland received her B.A. degree in English from Madonna University in Livonia, Michigan in 1969 and her Ph.D. degree in systematic theology from Boston College in Massachusetts in 1991.

In 1991, Copeland was hired as an assistant professor of theology and black studies at the Yale Divinity School and was promoted to associate professor in 1994. Between 1992 and 1994, she also served as an adjunct assistant professor of systematic theology at the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana, where she was promoted to associate professor in 1994. That same year, Marquette University hired Copeland as an associate professor of systematic theology, a position she held for eight years. From 2003 to 2006, she served as associate director of Xavier University’s Master of Theology degree program. She held the Joseph Visiting Professorship of Catholic Theology at Boston College from 2002 to 2003 before joining the faculty as an associate professor of systematic theology in 2003. In 2013, Copeland was promoted to professor of systematic theology at Boston College, and she retired from there in 2019 as professor emerita. She served as visiting distinguished professor and McDonald Chair at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology from 2020 to 2021. In 2021, she was named theologian-in-residence at St. Katharine Drexel Catholic Parish in Roxbury, Massachusetts. During the 2022-2023 academic year, Copeland served as the Vincentian Chair of Social Justice at St. John’s University in Jamaica, New York.

A Roman Catholic, Copeland has been a member of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium since 1978 and served as associate convenor from 1992 to 2001 and as convenor from 2001 to 2005. Since 1981, she has been a member of the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA) and served as its president from 2003 to 2004. Copeland was also elected to the Society for the Study of Black Religion in 1992 and holds membership in the American Academy of Religion (AAR) since 1989, serving as co-chair of the Women and Religion Program Section from 1993 to 1996 and as a steering committee member for the Black Theology Group from 2001 to 2008. The American Theological Society (ATS) selected Copeland as a member in 2014.

Copeland has received numerous recognitions for her professional achievements. These include eight honorary doctorates, the Civitas Dei Medal from Villanova University, and two book awards in theology from the Catholic Media Association for her books Desire, Darkness, and Hope: Theology in a Time of Impasse: Engaging the Thought of Constance FitzGerald, OCD and Knowing Christ Crucified: The Witness of African American Religious Experience.

Copeland and her partner, Barbara Louise Pietrzak Bzura, reside in Watertown, Massachusetts.

M. Shawn Copeland was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 29, 2024.

Academic administrator Donald Julian Reaves was born on October 28, 1946 in Cleveland, Ohio to Nellie Glass and Thomas Jackson. He graduated from Glenville High School in 1965. Reaves went to work for a local supermarket company, Pick-n-Play, a job that he held for twelve years, working first in its warehouse and subsequently, for nine years, as an 18-wheel truck driver. In 1970, Reaves met Deborah Ross who encouraged him to pursue his education. He went on to earn his B.A. degree in political science from Cleveland State University in 1976 and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in political science and public administration from Kent State University in Kent, Ohio in 1978 and 1981, respectively.

Between 1977 and 1980, Reaves served as the assistant director of Kent State University’s Washington Program in National Issues and as a teaching fellow in the Department of Political Science. In 1980, Reaves was hired as assistant professor of political science at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. From 1985 to 1993, he served as an adjunct professor of public administration. In 1984, Reaves worked as the deputy budget director at the Department of Public Welfare in Massachusetts before joining Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he worked as assistant vice president and university budget director from 1988 to 1991, vice president of finance from 1991 to 1993, and executive vice president for finance and administration and CFO from 1993 to 2002. In 2002, Reaves was hired by the University of Chicago as its vice president for administration and chief financial officer and he worked there until 2007 when he was hired as the as chancellor of Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

During his career, Reaves served as director and chair of the American Student Assistance Corporation in Boston from 1994 to 2019 and director of Bank Rhode Island and Delta Dental of Rhode Island from 1997 to 2002. Reaves became lead director of the board of Amica Mutual Insurance Company in Lincoln, Rhode Island in 2004, and from 2004 to 2019, he served as independent trustee and lead trustee of the William Blair Mutual Funds in Chicago. He also served, from 2013 to 2014, on the Wells Fargo Advisory Board in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Reaves holds emeritus status in the Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity (the Boule’), having held various leadership positions, including that of Sire Archon.

In 2013, Winston-Salem State University opened the Donald Julian Reaves Student Activities Center in his honor, and the Winston-Salem Chronicle named Reaves Man of the Year. In 2014, Reaves received a Doctor of Humane Letters from Winston-Salem State University.

Reaves and his wife, Deborah Ross Reaves have two children: a son, Marc Creach, and a daughter, Katherine Reaves. They reside in Edgartown, Massachusetts and Lakewood Ranch, Florida.

Donald Julian Reaves was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 28, 2024.

Pharmaceutical executive Colin Hill was born on September 13, 1972 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to Foster and Joan Hill. He earned his B.S. degree in physics from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia in 1996 and went on to earn his M.S. degree in physics from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1998. He then attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York from 1997 to 2000, where he pursued a Ph.D. degree in theoretical physics.

In 1997, Hill was hired as a teaching assistant in the Cornell Department of Physics in Ithaca, New York, and then he served as a solid-state physics fellow and systems biology graduate research assistant at Cornell University in 1997 and 1999, respectively. Hill then joined Gene Network Science Inc. as its chairman in 2000 and then, in 2008, he co-founded and worked as chief executive officer of Aitia, an AI biotech pharmaceutical company for neurodegenerative disorders and oncology. That same year, Hill co-founded Fina Technologies, a developer of financial software, where he serves as chairman.

Active in the biopharmaceutical community, in 2009, Hill became a founding board member of AesRx, a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to finding a treatment for sickle cell anemia. From 2012 to 2013, Hill also served as founding chairman of the first O’Reilly Media's Strata Rx Conference, a healthcare big data conference in San Francisco, California; in 2016 as a member of the board of directors for Biotelemetry; and in 2017 as a member of the board of directors for PPD, a clinical research organization. He joined Centrexion’s board of directors in 2022 and Fulcrum Therapeutics’ board of directors in 2024.

In 2009, Hill was named one of the “25 Most Influential African Americans” by Powerful Media in association with J.P. Morgan. In 2010, he was awarded the Walter Cove Award by the Accelerated Cures Project for his contributions towards curing multiple sclerosis disease. In 2014, Hill’s co-authored article, “Transforming Medicine: A Manifesto” about using precision medicine to find a cure for cancer, was published by Scientific American Worldview. Hill was named to the “Top 50 Healthcare Technology CEOs of 2019” list by the Healthcare Technology Report.

Hill resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Colin Hill was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 28, 2024.

Film festival founder Floyd A. B. Rance, III was born on February 9, 1967 in New York, New York to E. Jean Rance and Floyd Rance, Jr. In 1985, he graduated from Essex Catholic High School in East Orange, New Jersey and went on to earn his B.A. degree in communications and broadcast production from Howard University in Washington D.C. in 1989.

In 1990, Rance was hired as a freelance camera operator. He also interned as a camera trainee on Spike Lee’s film Mo’ Better Blues before being hired as second camera assistant, from 1991 to 1995, on Spike Lee’s films Jungle Fever and Malcolm X as well as first camera assistant on Crooklyn and Clockers Juice; the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Stadium Arcadium documentary; A Way Back Home; Who’s Your Caddy; Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby; and Taking Chances. His cinematography credits also include rapper Guru’s music video for “Loungin’” and “Beating Heart” by State of Art.

In 2002, Rance and his wife, Stephanie Tavares-Rance, founded Run & Shoot Filmworks and established the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival. He has served as chief executive officer and senior video producer of the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival since 2003. Run & Shoot Filmworks’ clients have included Family Dollar, Martell Cognac, Reebok, and Foot Locker. In 2014, the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival previewed HBO series The Knick and ABCs, Black-ish. In 2018, the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival was accepted as an Oscar qualifying festival in the short film category. That same year, Rance and his wife launched The Color of Conversation Film Festival through Run & Shoot Filmworks.

From 1990 to 2024, Rance was a member of the International Association of Theatrical and Stage Employees. In 2013, Rance and the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival won the AdColor MVP Award. He received a NAN Triumph Award in 2023.

Rance resides in Aurora, Colorado with his wife, Stephanie and they have two children, Ziare Rance and Zoey Rance.

Floyd A.B. Rance, III was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 28, 2024 and August 4, 2024.

Cinematographer Jomo Fray was born on September 18, 1988 in Worcester, Massachusetts to Jean King and John Fray. Fray received his B.A. degree in political theory and Africana studies from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island in 2010 and his M.F.A. degree in cinematography from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts in 2016.

Fray first worked on a feature-length film as director of photography for Amazon’s Selah and the Spades, directed by Tayarisha Poe, in 2019. Fray worked as director of photography for Arp Sélection’s film Port Authority, directed by Danielle Lessovitz, which was released in 2019. The film was also an official selection at the Cannes Film Festival. Fray joined Ten Acre Films as director of photography for the film No Future, released in 2021, which was directed by Mark Smooth and Andy Irvine. Fray then collaborated with director Marian Mathias on Easy Rider Films’ 2022 production of Runner, which was an official selection for the Toronto Film Festival. In 2023, Fray served as director of photography for A24’s 2023 film, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, which was directed by Raven Jackson. Fray went on to collaborate with Tayarisha Poe again on Archer Gray Production’s The Young Wife, which was released in 2023. Fray then collaborated with director RaMell Ross to create The Nickel Boys, a film adaptation of Coleson Whitehead’s 2019 novel of the same name, which was released by MGM in 2024.

During his career, Fray served as director of photography for two television series: A24 and HBO’s Random Acts of Flyness, directed by Terrance Nance in 2018, and Amazon and Plan B Entertainment’s The Underground Railroad, directed by Barry Jenkins in 2021. Fray also worked as director of photography for numerous short films including Lilian Mehrel’s Haunt in 2016, Marian Mathias’s Give Up the Ghost in 2017, Haley Anderson’s Get Out Fast in 2018, Carey Williams’s Emergency in 2018, Raven Jackson’s Nettles in 2018, and Portia A. Buckley’s Clodagh in 2024.

In terms of professional organizations, Fray has served on the International Cinematographers Guild (Local 600) since 2020 and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 2023. Fray also worked as a fellow for Film Independent in 2017 and for the Sundance Film Festival in 2019.

Throughout his career, Fray received numerous awards and honors including the Kodak Vision Award in 2016, the Volker Bahnemann Award in Outstanding Cinematography from the ARRI Group in 2017, American Cinematography magazine’s Rising Star of Cinematography Award in 2022, and an Independent Spirit Award Nomination for Best Cinematography for All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt in 2023. Fray was included on the “25 New Faces of Independent Film” list in Filmmaker magazine in 2018.

Fray and his wife, Rosa Gilmore, reside in Brooklyn, New York.

Jomo Fray was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 19, 2024.

Sports executive Stephen “Steve” Mills was born on October 6, 1959 in Rockville Centre, New York to Doris and Oliver Mills. In 1977, he graduated from Friends Academy in Glen Cove, New York. In 1981, he earned his A.B. degree in sociology from Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, where he was a member of the basketball team, the Princeton Tigers.

After graduating, Mills played professional basketball in Ecuador before working as a manager at the Chemical Bank in New York City from 1981 to 1984. That same year, Mills was hired as a national program manager and account executive for the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was promoted to vice president of special events in 1987 and vice president of basketball development in 1993. Mills then served as the executive vice president of the New York Knicks for two years before being hired as the president and chief operating officer of Madison Square Garden Sports from 2002 to 2009. In 2010, Mills co-founded and served as CEO of Athletes and Entertainers Wealth Management, LLC. Mills returned to the NBA in 2013 and served as president and general manager of the New York Knicks until 2020.

Active in the sports community, he served on the U.S.A. Basketball Board of Trustees and the NBA Collective Bargaining Task Force, the Labor Relations Committee for the NBA and WNBA, and on the board of governors and Global Inclusion Council for the New York Knicks. Mills also served on the board of trustees of Ariel Investments and as director and chair of the finance and tournaments committee for the Ladies Professional Golf Association in 2023.

Mills’ numerous honors include being named Black Enterprise magazine’s “Business Executive of the Year,” ranked at number sixteen on Sports Illustrated’s “101 Most Influential Minorities in Sports,” and Rainbow Push Coalition’s “Sports Executive of the Year.”

Mills and his wife, Beverly B. Mills, reside in Boca Raton, Florida. They have two adult daughters.

Stephen “Steve” Mills was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 18, 2024.

Advertising executive Aaron M. Walton was born on July 17, 1961 in Boston, Massachusetts to Homer Walton, Jr. and Patricia Walton. He graduated from Mt. St. Charles Academy in Woonsocket, Rhode Island in 1979 and earned his B.S. degree in business administration from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts in 1983.

That same year, Walton joined the Pepsi-Cola Company as a marketing analyst and held several positions, ultimately serving as the music marketing manager for Pepsi-Cola. Then, in 1991, he went on to found Aaron Walton Entertainment (AWE), an entertainment marketing company whose clients included, Pepsi-Cola, Pizza Hut, KFC, Frito Lay, Taco Bell and AT&T. In 2001, Walton sold Aaron Walton Entertainment after ten years as its founder. In 2005, Walton co-founded Walton Isaacson, an advertising agency, with Cory Isaacson and former NBA player Earvin “Magic” Johnson, which rose to No. 1 on Black Enterprise’s “BE 100” list for advertising agencies. Its clients included Lexus, American Airlines, The Home Depot, Unilever, Constellation Brands, Duckhorn Portfolio, McDonald’s, Pepsi, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Amazon. Walton has served as its CEO for over twenty years

Walton joined the board of ThinkLA in 2016 and served as co-president from 2020 to 2022. He also served as a board member for GLAAD; the Tectonics Theater Project; Young Audiences New York; the San Francisco Symphony Advisory Council; the Alonzo King LINES Ballet; the Human Rights Campaign; the National Advertising Review Board; the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) as a Western regional representative; the Ad Council; the IRTS Foundation; and the American Advertising Federation.

Walton has received numerous awards and honors including the Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award from his alma mater, Babson College, in 2020, the A-List Executive of the Year Award from Ad Age magazine in 2023, and an induction into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Fame in 2023. The American Association of Advertising Agencies listed Walton on their “100 People Who Make Advertising Great” list in 2017 and Ebony magazine included Walton on their “Power 100” list in 2013 and 2020.

Walton resides in Los Angeles, California.

Aaron M. Walton was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 15, 2024.

Fashion consultant Brandice Henderson Daniel was born on March 18, 1977 in Memphis, Tennessee to Bethelyn Anderson and James Henderson. Daniel received her B.S. degree in fashion merchandising from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 2000. She then earned her second B.S. degree in international trade and marketing from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, New York in 2009.

Following her graduation from the University of Tennessee in 2003, Daniel worked as a senior assistant fashion buyer for Catherines Stores, a subsidiary of Charming Shoppes, in Memphis, Tennessee. Daniel was then hired by International Intimacies in New York in 2005, where she served as a pre-production manager and production manager for Victoria’s Secret. In 2007, Daniel founded and became CEO of Harlem’s Fashion Row, an agency that supports fashion designers of color by providing brand strategy, collaborations, marketing, and pipeline programs and has numerous partners as collaborators that include America Online, the Black Entertainment Network, Covergirl, Coca-Cola, Dark & Lovely, Essence magazine, Google, Macy’s, Marriott International, Nissan, Nordstrom, Pandora, Prudential, Target, and Verizon. In 2015, Daniel became co-host for The Great Girlfriend podcast. and then launched a Harlem’s Fashion Row podcast on the organization’s 10th anniversary in 2017. In 2020, Daniel founded ICON360, a nonprofit organization focused on funding fashion designers of color. Her book, Cliff Jump, was published with Mynd Matters Publishing in 2022.

During her career Danile has been active in numerous organizations including Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Social Justice Center Advisory Council. She also joined The Business of Fashion 500 in 2023.

Daniel has also received numerous awards and honors that include the Outstanding Fashion Institute of Technology Alumni Award in 2022, the Social Impact Award from the Footwear News Achievement Awards in 2022, and the Impact Award of the Year from Essence’s Best in Black Fashion Awards in 2023.

Daniel lives in the Brooklyn, New York with her husband, Rich Daniel. They have one daughter, Sky.

Brandice Henderson Daniel was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on May 8, 2023.

Interior designer Sheila Bridges was born on July 7, 1964 to Joyce and Sidney Bridges in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She graduated from the Philadelphia High School for Girls in 1982 and went on to earn her B.A. degree in sociology from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island in 1986. That year, Bridges studied decorative arts at Polimoda, a private fashion school in Florence, Italy. She earned her A.A.S. degree in interior design from Parsons School of Design at The New School in New York City in 1990.

In 1989, Bridges was hired by the Shelton Mindel Associates architectural firm, where her clients included music executive Andre Harrell Bridges. She founded her own interior design company, Sheila Bridges Design, Inc., in 1994, where she serves as president and CEO. In 1999, Bridges opened Sheila Bridges’ Home-Antique store in Hudson, New York and published her first book, Furnishing Forward: A Practical Guide to Furnishing for a Lifetime in 2003. That same year, Bridges began hosting Sheila Bridges Designer Living for the Fine Living Network. In 2007, she founded a collection of her home furnishing designs under the brand name Shelia Bridges Home, Inc. That year, her Harlem Toile de Jouy wallpaper designs were featured at The Studio Museum in Harlem. Bridges clients include novelist Tom Clancy, software magnate Peter Norton, and former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

In 2022, Bridges was hired to redecorate the residence of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.

During her career, Bridges received numerous awards including in 2001 when Time magazine and CNN named Bridges America’s Best Designer. In 2011, Bridges was named to Elle Décor’s A-List of Interior Designers for the first time, and was named to the list every subsequent year until 2022. In 2023, Bridges was included on Architectural Digest’s AD100 list for the third year in a row.

Bridges resides in New York City, New York.

Sheila Bridges was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on May 9, 2023.