March 18, 2023
Greetings Sorors,
For 115 years, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated® has been steadfast in serving communities And thanks to you, our Ingenious International Region sorors, that service is extended around the world I am thrilled that today we will be presenting a special Founders’ Day event to celebrate the legacy of service that continues today because of the foundation established by our founders
“Ingeniously Soaring to Greater Heights…Standing on the Shoulders of the Past” is our theme today and it is a testament to the role we each play as we continue to extend our sisterhood and service every day In addition, it is an honor to have Soror Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the former President of Liberia and the first female elected to an African nation to serve as our keynote speaker Soror Sirleaf is dynamic in all she does both within Alpha Kappa Alpha and outside of AKA. Thank you so much to Soror Sirleaf for being our guest speaker.
Thank you also to Soror Lisa Harris, Atlantic Cluster Coordinator, and Soror Clarine Simpson Vaughn, Pacific Cluster Coordinator, and the International Region Founders’ Day Committee members for all of their hard work and planning for today
Sorors, I hope today you will be inspired as you reflect on all that our founders accomplished to establish this great sisterhood!
In Sisterhood and Service, Carrie
Soror Carrie J Clark International Region Director
March 18, 2023
Greetings Sorors,
Welcome members of the Ingenious International Region to the Region-wide Founders’ Day Celebration. It is indeed a great day to be an AKA. As your Atlantic and Pacific Cluster Coordinators, we are pleased to welcome you to this celebration planned for you to gather around the world to reflect and honor our Founders These extraordinary ladies had a vision in 1908 to make society a better place for all of us to thrive Your participation at today’s Region-wide Founders’ Day Celebration demonstrates your devoted love for Alpha Kappa Alpha and your desire to soar in our sisterhood
This year’s theme “Ingeniously Soaring to Greater Heights…Standing on the Shoulders of the Past” exemplifies the strength of our sisterhood, reflects our admiration of the past, and affirms the best is yet to come when we build and soar collectively
We are blessed to celebrate today with the first democratically elected female Head of State of an African nation, twice elected President of the Republic of Liberia, a Golden Soror, and a Life Member of this illustrious organization, Soror Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. We thank you Soror Ellen for taking time out of your busy schedule to share with the members of the International Region your wisdom, knowledge, grace, and experiences in the sisterhood Your continued work to uplift women is also demonstrated in the work of this organization We are forever grateful
We challenge each of the members in the Ingenious International Region to forever live up to the ideals of “service to all mankind” and continue to encourage each other to serve in this sisterhood. Special thanks to our Ingenious Regional Director, Soror Carrie J. Clark, and the 2023 Region-wide Founders’ Day Planning Committee for your leadership and hard work!
It is an honor and privilege to celebrate this remarkable day with you. Thank you again for all that you do for the region and our beloved sorority.
Let’s Soar,
LISA ATLANTIC CLUSTER COORDINATOR
Musical Prelude & Photo Montage
Welcome .................................................... Soror Lisa Smith
Chairman, Regional Communications Committee
Cluster Coordinator Greetings ............... Sorors Lisa Harris & Clarine Simpson Vaughn Cluster Coordinators
Virtual Etiquette ....................................... ........................................................Soror Lisa Smith Mistress of Ceremonies
Meditation ................................................. Soror Yvonne Pearson
International Representative to the Spiritual Well-Being Committee
Introduction of Regional Director .......... .................................Soror Quianna E. E. Christian Basileus, Rho Omicron
International Region Greetings .............. .................................................Soror Carrie J. Clark
International Regional Director
Tribute to Our Founders - Video
Introduction of Keynote Speaker ........... .......................................................Soror Ellen Pratt Basileus, Eta Beta Omega
Keynote Address ...................................... Soror Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Former President of Liberia
Musical Selection ..................................... Soror Hope Sparks Alpha Omega
Founders Day Charge ............................... Soror Gizette Canegata Thomas 8th International Regional Director
Raffle .......................................................... Soror Lisa Smith
Chairman, Regional Communications Committee
Closing Remarks ....................................... .................................................Soror Carrie J. Clark
International Regional Director ngeniously
sOur founders were among the fewer than 1,000 Negroes enrolled in higher education institutions in 1908, and the 25 women who received bachelor of arts degrees from Howard University between 1908 and 1911. Nine juniors and seniors constituted the founding members.
The Nine Founders were: Anna Easter Brown, Beulah Burke, Lillie Burke, Marjorie Hill, Margaret Flagg Holmes, Ethel Hedgemon Lyle, Lavinia Norman, Lucy Diggs Slowe, and Marie Woolfolk Taylor.
Seven sophomores who were extended an invitation for membership without initiation were endowed with founder status. Led by Ethel Hedgemon Lyle, the nine Howard University students who came together to form Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority were the scholastic leaders of their classes. Each also had a special talent or gift that further enhanced the potential of this dynamic group.
To ensure the continuity of the organization, seven honor students from the Class of 1910, who previously had expressed interest, were invited to join without initiation.
The seven “Sophomores,” included: Norma Boyd, Ethel Jones Mowbray, Alice Murray, Sarah Meriweather Nutter, Joanna Berry Shields, Carrie Snowden and Harriet Terry.
OAfter attending a sorority meeting in 1912, Nellie May Quander heard proposals from then-current members to change the group’s name, colors, symbols and motto. She quickly formed a committee, along with Norma E. Boyd, Minnie Beatrice Smith, Julia Evangeline Brooks, Ethel Jones and Nellie Pratt whose mission was to seek and acquire incorporation. These women, committed to Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, by expanding to solicit the support of other like-minded undergraduate and graduate members who held true to the vows they had taken upon their initiation. The effort culminated in the successful protection and subsequent perpetuity of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority through its incorporation on January 29, 1913, with Quander, Boyd and Smith as signers of the petition.
For 115 years the women of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated® have been standing on the shoulders of the ingenious women of our past.
At the dawn of a new century, Ethel Hedgemon had the insight to desire a Greek letter organization for African American women. This led to an initial gathering in 1908 of nine scholarly women in Miner Hall on the campus of Howard University. These women including, Anna Easter Brown, Beulah Elizabeth Burke, Lillie Essie Burke, Marjorie Arizona Hill, Margaret Flagg Holmes, Ethel Hedgemon Lyle, Lavinia Norman, Lucy Diggs Slowe, Marie Woolfolk Taylor had the ingenuity to establish an organization with the primary initiative of service Imagine the integrity and grit this took during a time of inequality due to their race and gender Despite this, just one generation past slavery, they met to draft documents, pick Greek letters, choose colors, select symbols, and script a motto supporting their purpose and high ideals of uplifting women and girls Intent on the fidelity of the new organization, the original nine extended invitations to seven sophomores who were permitted to join without initiation Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority soared on.
In 1913, when our immortality was threatened, Nellie Quander along with Norma Boyd, Julia Brooks, Ethel Jones Mowbray, Nellie Pratt Russell, and Minnie Smith incorporated Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated® to ensure her perpetuity. Indeed, our twenty pearls ingeniously laid the foundation as the premiere organization for college-educated Black women. Their foresight allowed Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated® as a whole and us as members to make significant contributions to America and the greater global society. From the beginning of the Suffrage Movement to the Second Abolitionist Movement, from the pavement of the modern civil rights movement, we were thereorchestrating, organizing, mobilizing, strategizing, executing, and leading.
Initially, there were nine ingenious founders We now span 10 regions across 11 nations Our depth is 1061 chapters We soar as 335,0000 individual members selected for service and guided by the initial light sparked 115 years ago by our illustrious founders Let us shine while we celebrate and honor the stories of our founders, incorporators, and powerful women among us as we continue to "Ingeniously Soar to Greater Heights Standing on the Shoulders of the Past"
Happy Founders’ Day to the sorors of the Ingenious International Region Soar on sorors, soar on!
For more than 114 years, thirty women have passionately and ably assumed the mantles of sisterhood, leadership and service as national (and later, international) president of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated®.
Under their stewardship, the sorority has evolved from a sisterhood on the campus of Howard University to a global organization laser-focused on issues involving economics, education, social action, the environment, human rights, political activism and equity.
SF* Indicates Deceased **No longer a member pursuant to action at the 67th Boule – July 2016
Soror Carrie J Clark currently serves as the International Regional Director of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated® She was installed in the role during the 70th Boule in Orlando, Florida in July 2022 following the appointment of Supreme Basileus Soror Danette Anthony Reed She also served as the 29th Great Lakes Regional Director from 2018-2022
Soror Carrie was initiated into Xi Chapter at Eastern Michigan University in 1987 She is a proud Life Member and a Silver Star with 36 years of committed service in the sorority Soror Carrie transitioned from undergrad into Lambda Pi Omega Chapter, in Detroit, Michigan and has been a dedicated member ever since She has held many leadership positions within the sorority On the chapter level, Carrie has served as Basileus, AntiBasileus, Historian, Member Liaison, Ivy Leaf Reporter and Parliamentarian She also has served on numerous committees as either a chairman or member including the 2008 Metropolitan Chapters Centennial Founders’ Day celebration, Art in the Park and Lambda Pi Omega’s “Fabulous at Forty” Anniversary celebration in September 2017 In addition, she served as the President of the Pearls of Promise Foundation
Regionally, she served on the Centennial Committee and Programs Committee as the 2003 Michigan Cluster Chairman and the General Chairman of the 81st Great Lakes Regional Conference in 2012 On the International level, Soror Carrie served on the Heritage Committee, International Membership Committee, and Undergraduate Transition Taskforce During her previous term on the Directorate, Soror Carrie was Chairman of the Sorority’s Code of Ethics Committee, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee and was the Directorate liaison to the Sanctions and Investigations Committees and chaired Soror Eva L Evans, 24th Supreme Basileus virtual memorial tribute
Currently, Soror Carrie is the Director of the IT Operations Department which includes the following teams: Project Management Office (PMO), IT Service Management Applications, ITAM and IT Service Management Business Relationship at Henry Ford Health Systems in Detroit, Michigan In addition, since 1995 Soror Carrie has been an adjunct professor at Detroit area universities teaching in the areas of information technology and project management She has received numerous sorority and professional awards including the Chapter of the Year award, Basileus of the Year award, DRIVEN award, the PMO of the Year finalist award and she was named a 2015 Michigan Chronicle Woman of Excellence, Eastern Michigan University Distinguished Alumni Award, Women of the Word Excellence Award, and Black Alumni Eastern Elite Award Soror Carrie holds BA and MSA degrees and currently is working on her second Master of Science in Health Administration Soror Carrie possesses certifications as a PMP, SCRUM Master, ITIL, and CPM to name a few
She has many affiliations and memberships including the Project Management Institute (Great Lakes Chapter), American Heart Association – Go Red Passion Committee, an Associate of Jack and Jill of America, Incorporates, served as a former board member for the Youth Development Commission (YDC) and The Great Lakes (MI) Chapter of the Links, Incorporated Soror Carrie is a member of Second Ebenezer Church in Detroit and is very blessed and thankful to have the support of her beautiful family husband, Mark of over 27 years of marriage, and two handsome sons (Ian Marc Clark and Noah Stone Clark) Mark and Ian are active members of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Ian graduated in 2019 from Michigan State University, and Noah graduated from the University of Toledo in 2022
Soror Carrie is elated to serve the members of the International Region because our sisterly bond transcends space and time
Internationally known as “Africa’s Iron Lady,” Nobel La Africa’s first democratically-elected female head of sta reconciliation and recovery following the nation’s deca Ebola Crisis, winning international acclaim for achieving change.
KRecognized as a global leader for women’s empowerment, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize for Peace in 2011. She is the recipient of The Presidential Medal of Freedom the United States’ highest civilian award and the Grand Croix of the Légion d’Honneur, France’s highest public distinction for her personal courage and unwavering commitment to expanding freedom and improving the lives of Africans President Sirleaf has been named one of Forbes’s “100 Most Powerful Women in the World,” the most powerful woman in Africa (Forbes Africa, 2011), one of six “Women of the Year” (Glamour, 2010), among the 10 best leaders in the world (Newsweek, 2010) and top 10 female leaders (TIME, 2010) In 2010, The Economist called her “the best President the country has ever had ”
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected President of the Republic of Liberia in 2005, two years after the nation’s bloody civil war ended Her historic inauguration as Africa’s first democratically elected head of state took place on January 16, 2006 She was reelected in November 2011 During her two terms as President, she focused on rebuilding the country, mobilizing over $16 billion in foreign direct investment She also attracted more than $5 million in private resources to rebuild schools, clinics, and markets, and fund scholarships for capacity building She successfully negotiated relief from $4 6 billion in external debt and succeeded in lifting of UN trade sanctions, which allowed Liberia to once again access international markets She increased the national budget from $80 million in 2006 to over $672 million in 2012, with an average annual GDP growth rate of more than 7%
In June 2016, President Sirleaf was elected the first female Chairperson of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for a twelve-month term In May 2012, she was appointed co-chair of the United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, tasked with crafting a roadmap for global recovery and sustainable development - The Sustainable Development Goals
Prior to her Presidency, Johnson Sirleaf served as Assistant Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and as Director of its Regional Bureau of Africa, with the rank of Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, a post she resigned to contest the 1997 presidential elections She was the first African woman Vice President of Citibank assigned to the Nairobi Kenya office
President Sirleaf has been awarded honorary doctorates by more than 15 institutions, including Tilburg University (Netherlands), the Nigerian Defence Academy, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Harvard University, Rutgers University, Yale University, Georgetown University, the University of Abeokuta (Nigeria), the University of Minnesota, Furman University of South Carolina, Brown University, Indiana University, Dartmouth College, Concordia University, Langston University, Spelman College and Marquette University
Born Ellen Eugenia Johnson, President Sirleaf is the granddaughter of a traditional chief renowned in western Liberia and a market woman from the southeast She holds a Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government She also earned a degree in accounting at Madison Business College in Wisconsin and received a diploma from the University of Colorado’s Economics Institute
President Sirleaf has written widely on financial, development, and human rights issues, and in 2008 she published her critically acclaimed memoir, This Child Will Be Great.
An initiate of the Eta Beta Omega Chapter, Monrovia, Liberia, a Golden Soror and Life Member, she is the proud mother of four sons and grandmother of 12.
A native of St Croix, U S Virgin Islands, Soror Gizette Canegata Thomas, a/k/a Soror Gigi, is the 8th International Regional Director; holding the distinction of being the first member of the International Region to serve on the Directora
She began her service in Alpha Kappa Alpha in 1989 when h Gamma Theta Chapter at Hampton University A Life Member s a member of the St Croix, U S Virgin Islands graduate c a Chapter She has held the offices of Chapter Basileus, , Epistoleus, Tamiouchos, Membership Chairman, and Parliamentarian In 2014, Soror Gigi compiled the Chapter’s history book, A Legacy of Sisterhood, Service & Scholarship: A Timeless History – The Mu Gamma Omega Chapter Story Regionally, Soror Gigi was Chairman of the 21st International Regional Conference, Treasurer, and Cluster Coordinator She is the recipient of the International Region’s Outstanding Graduate Chapter Basileus, Outstanding Graduate Soror, and Soror Through the Years awards Soror Gigi has served as the Regional Representative to the following International Committees: Constitution, Connection, Standards, Program; and Sisterly Relations Committee 2018-2022
Soror Gigi holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Hampton University and a Juris Doctorate degree from Georgetown University Law Center She successfully passed the Pennsylvania, US Virgin Islands and Texas bar exams and maintains a license to practice law in Texas, United States Professionally, Gizette has served as Director of the Virgin Islands Bureau of Internal Revenue, Chairman of the Virgin Islands Casino Control Commission and currently does consulting work
Soror Gigi is a member of the Brazoria Chapter of the NAACP and St Monica Conference of the Society of St Vincent de Paul, an organization dedicated to serving the poor, most Friday mornings you can find her working at the Food Pantry distributing food in the Acres Home Community in Houston She is the Financial Secretary of the Knights of Peter Claver Ladies Auxiliary Court #151 and is also an active member of the Greater Pearland Area (TX) Chapter of the Links, Incorporated
She is married to Leighton Thomas and is the proud mother of three young men: Leon, Texas Tech University 2021 graduate - Harold, and retired Airman Shaquille (stepson)
Carrie J. Clark International Regional Director
Lasean M.G. Hardy, Psi Delta Omega International Region Chief of Staff
Lisa Mitchell-Harris Mu Gamma Omega Atlantic Cluster Coordinator
Clarine Simpson-Vaughn
Eta Beta Omega Pacific Cluster Coordinator
Athea R. Carter Psi Beta Omega
Liyah Davis - Forbes Pi Upsilon Omega
Katrina P. Ghazanfar Phi Omicron Omega
Stephanie Pelton-Miller Mu Psi Omega
Mitchea Smalls Sigma Theta Omega
Deyzha A.G. Todman Sigma Theta Omega
Angela Owens Omega Theta Omega
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STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF THE PAST
