BROTHERS ON THE MOVE RICHARD D. SMITH Longtime Louisiana physician, Brother Dr. Richard D. Smith was presented the Golden Stethoscope Award by the Saint Francis Medical Center in Monroe, La. The award recognizes physicians who have been identified as excelling in quality of care in the local region. Brother Smith, a board-certified internal medicine physician, is the first African-American doctor to receive the honor. Smith, a fall 1973 initiate of Alpha at Theta Chi Chapter at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, La., graduated with a degree in microbiology before earning a doctor of medicine degree at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn. Smith has served on the faculty of the Louisiana State University
(LSU) Medical School at the LSU Health Sciences Center/ EA Conway Medical Center in Monroe, La. He established the Smith Medical Clinic in 1989. A life member of Alpha, Smith was a charter member of Theta Chi and since 1986 has been active in Eta Delta Lambda Chapter in Monroe, where he serves as director of the chapter’s educational foundation. In 1989, he was named Southwestern Region Brother of the Year. He also served as Louisiana district director from 1996 to 2001. ARTHUR D. VAUGHN Once a candidate for city council in the northwest Atlanta
PIERRE THOMAS HONORED BY NABJ FOR OUTSTANDING JOURNALISM SKILLS A member of Alpha Phi Alpha is the 2012 Journalist of the Year winner from the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). Brother Pierre Thomas, initiated in 1982 at Theta Iota Chapter at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Va., was selected by the journalism organization for his work as senior justice correspondent at “ABC News.” Thomas and his team led ABC’s coverage of many of the top stories in 2011. Last January, when U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and several others were shot in Tucson, Ariz., Thomas was among the first to report details about what happened. Thomas was also the first reporter in the news division to tell his colleagues that U.S. President Barack Obama was holding a hastily arranged news conference on a Sunday night to tell the world that terrorist suspect Osama Bin Laden had been captured and killed. Thomas, a 1984 graduate of Virginia Tech, earned a George Foster Peabody Award from the University of Georgia; the Alfred I. duPont Award from Columbia
suburb of Marietta, Ga., Brother Arthur D. Vaughn was recently appointed chair of the City of Marietta Ethics Committee. The Ethics Committee receives and evaluates written complaints against elected officials. Vaughn is also treasurer of the Marietta City Schools Foundation, which holds more than $5 million in assets and promotes educational achievement and excellence among students, faculty, staff and administrators. A past president of Omicron Mu Lambda Chapter in Marietta, Cobb County, Ga., Vaughn is the former vice chairman of the Marietta Board of Lights and Water, the first and only African American to serve in the position.
Vaughn earned a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y., and holds a master of public administration degree from Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Ga. He also earned a master’s in accounting from Southern Polytechnic State University (SPSU) in Marietta, Ga., where he is the university controller. Initiated in 1990 at Delta Zeta Chapter at Syracuse University, Vaughn was named New York College Brother of the Year in 1992 and national Alumni Brother of the Year in 2002. He also serves as the fraternity’s chairman of the Special Committee on Political Action. H
University, and an Emmy for his contributions to ABC’s coverage of the 9/11 attacks in 2001. He also won another Emmy for his contributions to the network’s coverage of the Obama-Biden inauguration in 2009. Thomas was honored at NABJ’s 37th Annual Convention and Career Fair in New Orleans, La., June 2024. The honor was bestowed at the Salute to Excellence Awards Gala, which recognizes journalism that best covered the black experience or addressed issues affecting the worldwide black community. H
Brother Pierre Thomas on location for ABC News. Winter/Spring 2012 H THE SPHINX
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