HU TO HONOR AREA POLITICAL LEADERS
at 111th Annual Founder’s Day Ceremony

Hampton, VA - Hampton University Acting President and Provost JoAnn Haysbert will present the Presidential Citizenship Awards to State Senator Mamie E. Locke, Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf and Williamsburg Mayor Jeanne Zeidler at the 111th Annual Founder’s Day Ceremony on Sunday, Jan. 25, 2004 at the HU Convocation Center at 11:30 a.m.

Dr. Blenda J. Wilson, president and CEO, Nellie Mae Education Foundation, will serve as the honorary speaker for the ceremony.

Founder’s Day activities will also include the commemorative wreath placing ceremony at the gravesite of the University’s founder, Gen. Samuel Chapman Armstrong, in the Hampton University Cemetery at 9:30 a.m. Both the Founder’s Day ceremony and the wreath-placing ceremony are free and open to the public.

In addition, Drs. Charles Bump and Wing Leung, both of the Department of Chemistry, Mr. Samuel Fowlkes, Custodial Services, Ms. Lessie Hollomond, Department of Political Science/History and Mr. George Jackson, Residential Halls, will be inducted into the Quarter Century Club during Founder’s Day activities. Each has served the University for 25 years.

Wilson, formerly the president of California State University, Northridge, began her career with Nellie Mae in 1999. While at CSU - Northridge, Wilson initiated a major strategic planning effort to revitalize the university and to redefine its mission in response to the many challenges that face higher education in California and the nation. She successfully led the university’s recovery from the Northridge earthquake of Jan. 1994, which caused over $400 million in damages to the campus. Wilson’s leadership during the crisis and subsequent rebuilding process earned her national recognition.

Prior to her tenure at CSU - Northridge, Wilson was chancellor of the University of Michigan, Dearborn, from 1992 to 1998. From 1984 to 1988 she was the executive director of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education, where she served as an officer in the governor’s cabinet.

Wilson is a past chair of the American Association of Higher Education. A nationally known speaker on higher education policy issues, she also serves on the Board of Trustees of the J. Paul Getty Trust and The College Board. She is a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and Federated Dorchester Neighborhood Houses.

Wilson earned a bachelor’s degree in English and secondary education at Cedar Crest College, a master’s in education at Seton Hall University and a Ph.D. in higher education administration at Boston College.