Centennial Honorary Members
Four exemplary women inducted into Sorority
On Tuesday, July 15, during the Centennial Celebration, four exemplary women—Dr. Zoanne Clack, Deborah Stewart-Parker, C. Vivian Stringer and Carol H. Williams—were inducted into the Sorority as Honorary Members .
International president Barbara A. McKinzie noted that each inductee brings her own impressive record of excellence to the Sorority. While each represents varying industries and disciplines, she noted, they are bound by a commitment to service. This, along with sisterhood, stressed McKinzie, represents the core foundation upon which Alpha Kappa Alpha was built and what makes the Sorority so enduring.
"We are filled with pride to have these outstanding women of such great stature join our great Sorority," said McKinzie. "They represent the best in their fields and the best in character. On the occasion of our Centennial Celebration, we embrace them as members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority."
Millions of Americans unknowingly serve witness to the incredible work of Dr. Zoanne Clack. As a writer, producer and medical advisor on ABC Television’s critically acclaimed and Emmy award-winning drama, Grey's Anatomy, Dr. Clack shares her medical brilliance and expertise in every episode. She assists in the production of all medical aspects of the show. No stranger to Hollywood, she previously served as a medical advisor on the long-running Emmy award-winning medical series ER, and as a staff writer on Presidio Med.
Dr. Clack grew up in the Houston, TX suburb of Missouri City. She attended Northwestern University as a radio/TV/film major, but ultimately graduated with a degree in communication studies with a concentration in neurobiology. She attended medical school at UT Southwestern and completed her residency in emergency medicine at Emory University. Dr. Clack also holds a master’s of public health in behavioral sciences.
Her professional credits also include working in international emergency medicine at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There, she helped develop emergency medicine programs in Tanzania and the South Pacific islands. Despite her busy studio schedule, Dr. Clack continues to work shifts in the emergency department of a small community hospital outside of Los Angeles. She has participated in multiple panels and global discussions on the entertainment industry’s role in getting out public health messages to the masses and also serves on the board of the Student National Medical Association—an organization with the goal of ensuring culturally sensitive medical education and increasing the number of students of color that enter and complete medical school.
Deborah Stewart-Parker is a woman of firsts. The multi-degreed (MA, psychology; MBA, industrial engineering studies) President-CEO of International Business Solutions, Inc. is the first woman to lead a major automotive assembly plant in the U.S. (Ford Motor Company). She is also the first woman appointed as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the National Urban League.
She began her automotive career in 1977 with General Motors before joining the Ford Motor Company in its assembly division ten years later. Under her leadership at Ford, Stewart-Parker's production team garnered a number of Best in Ford awards in quality and cost savings, as a result of key process capability improvements she introduced. She would later become Corporate Officer-Vice President, Global Quality. In this position, she oversaw the design and implementation of global manufacturing product quality and process improvement strategies in North America, Europe, Australia, Taiwan and South America. Stewart-Parker was appointed President and CEO/COO of Auto Alliance International, where she succeeded in developing and executing a 5-year strategy that saved the business by producing a lean manufacturing footprint and making dramatic improvements in operating efficiencies, quality and safety.
Stewart-Parker became CEO and Group Managing Director of Ford Southern Africa in 2001. She led a major turnaround of that region’s business by revitalizing employees and dealers, developing a new marketing and sales product strategy, growing revenue threefold and increasing profit margins by as much as 13%. Following her assignment in Southern Africa, Stewart-Parker was promoted to the position of Vice President, Global Quality—becoming one of two African American women to achieve the level of Corporate Vice President in the company’s history.
Coach C. Vivian Stringer made sports history in 1995, when she signed a multi-year contract to coach women's basketball at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. The deal she inked with Rutgers made her the best-paid women's coach in the country. The Edenborn, PA native is a three-time National Coach of the Year and the only women's coach in the country to guide two different schools to National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Final Four appearances.
The Slippery Rock University (Pennsylvania) graduate also made headlines in 2007 when she eloquently spoke out against the racially insensitive comments made against her players by former WFAN talk radio host Don Imus.
Stringer's success is particularly admirable because she has faced professional and personal hurdles. In a quarter century of coaching, she has taken 11 teams to the NCAA tournament—most of these appearances coming with the University of Iowa in the competitive Big Ten Conference. At home, she faces the daunting tasks of being a single mother with three teenagers, David, Janine and Justin, one of whom is severely disabled. She was married to the late professor Bill Stringer, of Cheyney State University.
Despite the dual tragedies of her daughter's lengthy illness and her husband's sudden death in 1992, Stringer has compiled one of the best won-loss records of any women's basketball coach, currently ranking fourth-highest victory-getter in the women's coaching profession. In addition to her collegiate coaching, Stringer has served as an international coach for various American women's basketball teams. She helped establish the Women's Basketball Coaches Association and currently sits on the board of the U.S. Amateur Basketball Association.
Carol H. Williams is a legendary advertising executive and founder of Carol H. Williams Advertising (CHWA). Some of her most successful campaigns are part of advertising history and include the timeless Secret anti-perspirant campaign, “Strong Enough for a Man, But Made for a Woman,” and a highly successful campaign that brought new life to the Pillsbury Doughboy.
Williams is a native of Chicago's South Side and graduated from Northwestern University at a time when only a handful of African Americans were admitted to the school. She started her career at Leo Burnett Company in Chicago and quickly earned a position as the first female and first African American Creative Director and Vice-President. After 13 years at Leo Burnett, she served two years as Senior Vice President, Creative Director at Foote, Cone and Belding in San Francisco.
Williams founded CHWA after recognizing the need for advertising that speaks to the sophisticated and influential African American and urban markets in a respectful way. Started in her living room, CHWA now has corporate offices in Oakland, CA and Chicago, IL and satellite offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit and New York. A highly diverse and skilled staff of more than 155 employees produces award-winning advertising and marketing campaigns for Fortune 500 companies—including The Coca-Cola Company, General Motors, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, the U.S. Army and The Walt Disney Company, among others.
Williams loves providing strategic advertising to corporate clients that mirrors the best of African American life and culture, but she also takes joy from training new generations of advertising leaders and providing a unique company full of multi-ethnic, multi-generational and multi-talented people.
Williams is married to orthopedic surgeon Dr. Tipkins Hood Sr. and has two children, Tipkins Jr. and Carol Jr.