Alpha Rho Chapter Alumni Association's Spring 2022 Digest
Liberty B&T's Brother Todd O. McDonald (Spring 2001) Succeeds Father As President At Nation's Largest Black-owned Bank
NEW ORLEANS — The board of directors of Liberty Bank and Trust Company have announced that Todd O. McDonald has been named the bank’s president effective May 2. Current Liberty President and CEO Alden J. McDonald Jr., Todd’s father, will continue to lead the Liberty Financial Holding Company.
The younger McDonald, who is 41 years old, takes the reins of an iconic financial institution with more than $1 billion in assets. He joined Liberty in 2003 after earning an undergraduate degree from Morehouse College. He received an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in 2013.
📸 Pictured at left: The Legacy Continues! On April 26, 2022 the Board of Directors of Liberty Bank and Trust Company and CEO Alden J. McDonald, Jr. announced that Todd O. McDonald has been named the Bank’s President effective May 1, 2022.
McDonald has held numerous executive positions at Liberty Bank and was selected to serve on the bank’s board of directors in 2017. Most recently, he served as executive vice president of corporate strategy. The board said his accomplishments include forging national partnerships that have produced several new revenue streams, helping raise $30 million in “tier 1” capital, and refining existing initiatives around the bank and within the Liberty Financial Holding Company.
“I am excited about the opportunity to continue to serve Liberty’s community focused mission and the legacy of helping people build generational wealth,” Todd McDonald said in a press release. “I’ve been singularly driven to build solid stakeholder partnerships and evolve financial products which meet the financial needs of an ever-changing world. This next 50 years will be extraordinary as we reshape our culture, talent and organizational capabilities which will make us more agile, more competitive, and more effective in our efforts to close the wealth gap in underserved communities across the country.”
📸 Pictured above: Alden McDonald, (left) outgoing President and CEO of Liberty Bank, walks the perimeter of a branch under construction in New Orleans' Gentilly neighborhood, with his son Todd McDonald.
“Todd has the leadership skills, vision, and drive that the Bank needs in these unprecedented times,” said Alden McDonald. “I’m excited to see him continue to build a culture and team committed to pushing the bank to new levels. I know that our amazing staff, friends, and family will allow him to enjoy the same levels of support and dedication to which I have been privileged for the last fifty years.”
Shook's Houston Office Starts 2022 With New Leader,
Texas Lawyer Reports (John Lewis, Jr. — Spring 1985)
www.law.com
Savoy magazine has selected Shook Houston Managing Partner John Lewis, Jr. in its bi-annual list of “Most Influential Black Lawyers.”Savoy’s list features African-American partners from top law firms and general counsel from Fortune 1000 companies who have demonstrated exceptional achievement, legal skills and community outreach. He told the Texas Lawyer one of his goals is to “grow the business litigationmuscle in Houston.”
Texas Lawyer and Law.com reported on Shook’s selection of John Lewis, Jr to lead its Houston office, “Shook Hardy’s Houston Office Starts 2022 With New Leader.” Lewis joined the firm in 2019. He told the Texas Lawyer his number one goal is to expand the firm’s business litigation practice in Houston. “The first thing is to market it internally within the firm, to grow that litigation muscle in the city,” said Lewis. Lewis also chairs Shook’s Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Initiatives. He told Texas Lawyer he wants to “position the Houston office as a laboratory for initiatives at the firm.”
John has more than 25 years of broad-based experience as a trial lawyer in private practice and as in-house litigation and compliance counsel. He focuses his practice on internal and government investigations, including Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) investigations, corporate compliance, business litigation, class action and complex litigation, bankruptcy and creditors’ rights, receiverships, workplace fairness and inclusion consulting. He has practiced as chief litigation counsel, global anti-bribery counsel and global head of diversity and workplace fairness.
Before returning to private practice, John held roles of increasing responsibility for 14 years with The Coca-Cola Company at its global headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. For five years, he was head of global litigation. As chief litigation counsel, he defended company directors and officers in shareholder derivative cases and advised senior management on all aspects of legal-risk management strategy. He led interviews, defended depositions and managed alternative dispute resolution in class actions, multidistrict litigation and related proceedings. In addition, he led the single largest potential litigation exposure in the history of the company: a putative securities class action lawsuit that touched four continents resolved on terms favorable to the company.
📸 Pictured above: Brother Lewis delivers keynote address at the 2015 Black Tech Week event in Miami, Florida.
John led internal and governmental investigations into some of the earliest Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower claims. He was tapped to serve as Coca-Cola’s first global anti-bribery counsel responsible for the company’s compliance with FCPA, the UK Bribery Act and similar anti-corruption laws worldwide. He led in-person training, audits and investigations in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, including compliance-related due diligence in international M&A transactions. He also personally advised and updated the board audit committee on such matters.
Following a decade in Coca-Cola’s legal function, John joined the company's global human resources team as the company’s global chief diversity officer, where he had board-level accountability for all aspects of workplace fairness, including responses to EEOC charges and OFCCP inquiries, as well as related media and reputational concerns. John served as the voice and face of diversity and inclusion at Coca-Cola, interacting with external constituents, community leaders, insurance carriers, institutional investors and the landscape of workplace, marketplace, customers and partners. Because of the breadth and depth of his experience, John brings a unique perspective to confidential litigation assessments, corporate diversity compliance reviews, internal legal vulnerability assessments, and helping clients develop best-practice benchmarking.
John currently serves as a Panel Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Trustee for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, and also served as a Panel Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Trustee in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Missouri for eight years. He has also served as a court-appointed receiver in complex business disputes.
John’s background enables him to bring solutions-based perspectives to his clients, drawing on a range of legal disciplines and a proven track record of success working not just with lawyers but with business leaders in public affairs, communications, government relations, regulatory affairs and community stakeholders.
Ralph Lauren’s Revised American Dream:
His New Collaboration with Morehouse and Spelman Recognizes How Black Students Have Always Been a Part of Fashion History (Bro. James M. Jeter — Fall 2011)
By Robin Givhan, Senior critic-at-large www.washingtonpost.com
It’s not a new story. It’s a more complicated, more nuanced version of an old one. So ultimately, it’s a better story.
The clothes debuting Tuesday in a Polo Ralph Lauren advertising campaign — the tweed soft-shoulder blazers, the Fair Isle sweaters, the pretty white eyelet dresses and one perfectly aged cotton canvas stadium coat — are familiar to anyone who has been schooled in the narrative of the American Dream, which is to say, most everyone. They aren’t the sort of clothes that nudge fashion trends into uncharted territory and they aren’t flashy exemplars of financial success. Like all garments, they’re an expression of identity. But these are, most importantly, an enduring declaration of belonging.
This country doesn’t have anything that might be called a national costume, but certain garments help folks visualize what it means to be that self-invented notion: an American. It’s a challenging persona to fathom. Despite popular culture equating it with blond and blue-eyed, Americans aren’t defined by race or ethnicity. They aren’t defined by their family tree. But still, we stubbornly try to cast an American ideal in human form — an embodiment of all our conceptions about our national character, which include the glories of bootstrap advancement, the power of clear-eyed optimism and a soft-focus romanticization of our rebellious past.
No other designer has been more central to helping us paint a picture of those yearnings and aspirations than Ralph Lauren. Since he founded his company in 1967 based on a single product that encompassed both tradition and possibility — a tie that was slightly wider than the norm — he has been creating clothes that are deeply rooted in the idea of heritage even as they aim to put a bright, shiny polish on contemporary times. He has been inspired by the beautifully dilapidated country cottages of the Atlantic Coast and the wide-open spaces of the West, as well as Wall Street gods, country club scions and big men on campus.
📸 Pictured above: Brother Dimone G. Long II (Spring 2019) shown on bottom row, at far left, is featured prominently throughout the new campaign and in the accompanying "yearbook."
For more than 50 years, Lauren has been writing a tale about what it means to be American. And now he’s made a significant edit. It isn’t so much a correction as it is a clarification.
His new advertising campaign, which includes photographs, picture books and a 30-minute film, announces a partnership with Morehouse College and Spelman College, two institutions rich in both tradition and prestige. They are two of the historically Black colleges and universities that educated Black students during segregation and continue to do so today as predominantly White institutions typically treat Black history as a niche subject to be discussed in the safety of a singular department rather than a discipline intrinsic to the American story. The story of Blackness is a part of our collective history that can cause discomfort and because of that is especially under assault these days.
The clothes in this licensing agreement with the two schools were mostly photographed on students, graduates and faculty — against the backdrop of the two campuses, which neighbor each other in Atlanta. The collection was inspired by images from the schools’ archives of students dating back to the 1920s as they gathered on the yard, in a classroom or on the playing field. Composed of some 100 items, the collection includes the crested jackets favored by Morehouse men, the signature Spelman white cotton attire — which remains a tradition, along with pearls — and the varsity jackets and crew neck sweaters that are staples of the broad college vernacular.
It would be tempting to call these looks Ivy League style. But that’s only because those who had the power to codify elements of American achievement didn’t account for Black students. Princeton and Harvard preceded Morehouse in existence, but what was worn on the campuses up North in the 1950s, when they became defined by sack suits, Oxford shirts and rep-stripe ties, was also worn on the campus of Morehouse, which was founded in 1867.
Lauren has shifted his gaze to take in a new vista that has been there all along but one that he simply didn’t see. Until, one day in 2020, he suddenly did. In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, in the midst of racial justice protests sweeping across the country, at a time when the populace was profoundly divided, the company’s 23,000 employees gathered in groups virtually for conversations that were intended to be open and honest about the tumult around them and the questions that it raised. In one, the founder asked James Jeter a simple question: “How are you doing?”
“He said, ‘Great. But you know, I’m not sure that this is going to be my future,’ ” Lauren recalled during an interview last week. “I said, ‘What do you mean by that?’ And he said, ‘Well, you know, I just don’t know if this is the path. Is this a company that’s going to be all White? … What’s the story with this company?’ ”
Essentially, Jeter wanted to know: “Who are we?”
“When he said that to me, I was sort of surprised and I said, ‘James, there is a future here for you,’ ” Lauren said. This collaboration with Morehouse and Spelman may well be proof of that.
Jeter is one of the New York-based company’s design directors and he’s spent the entirety of his professional career at the brand, starting when he was a stylish, Black teenager obsessed with the company’s aesthetic and working on the sales floor at a Rugby Ralph Lauren shop in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington. Jeter climbed the corporate ladder from intern to design associate to a lead designer. He is also a Morehouse man from the Class of 2013. And he educated his boss on what that meant.
📸 Pictured above: Morehouse College students in Sale Hall in 1925. (Morehouse College).
“I knew nothing about it,” said Lauren, including the aesthetics of HBCUs, the “Divine Nine” Black fraternities and sororities, and the Black collegiate experience. “James told me,” Lauren said. “He brought in these books, because he went to Morehouse, and said, ‘This exists.’ He felt that the world has always thought Ivy League [style] was only White people. This exists; the college exists; the taste levels existed. And we looked through some books and he showed me the school and I said, ‘This is beautiful. I love it.’ ”
“There was something missing” from the company’s point of view, Lauren said. “We’re catching up. We’re catching up with [the country’s] changes. And I want to be part of that change. I believe in it, and I believe in it for our company.” “I’m not a pioneer. I’m not trying to take something I don’t [own], but I’ve always been very honest about what I believe,” Lauren said, “and I always try to do the right thing.”
Personal presentation has always been part of the story at Morehouse and Spelman, which has focused on classic liberal arts education rather than vocational training. The students dressed to express personal dignity, as a statement of academic intent and as an ode to respectability before that word implied a certain political surrender. The collaboration with Ralph Lauren “centers Morehouse in the American story. You look at those pictures and you can see the connection to the same fashion sensibilities that have defined Ralph Lauren.
The photographs most certainly are advertising and marketing, but they’re also selling consumers on an idea — and Americans on their shared history. “We didn’t sort of design this collection through the lens of HBCUs to say this is sort of the Black way of dressing,” said Jeter, who oversaw the collaboration. “It’s really American style. We only changed the context and not really the clothing.”
Like a lot of companies, the Ralph Lauren Corp. has wrestled with diversity and inclusivity. In the 1990s, the company first addressed the issue head on after Black and Hispanic store employees raised the alarm about discrimination, about being sent to the stockroom when important executives visited the store. The brand also has a substantial history of diversity in its advertising dating back to that same time, when Black models Tyson Beckford and Karen Alexander served as de facto faces of the brand while many other fashion houses were nonchalantly showcasing all-White catwalk casts.
In the wake of racial justice protests nearly two years ago, the company signed on to the Black in Fashion Council, which aims to increase diversity on Seventh Avenue, and it independently pledged to build a leadership team that was 10 percent Black and 20 percent people of color by 2023. Still, around that same time, the company was taken to task for using the Greek letters of a historically Black fraternity to adorn a pair of trousers without the organization’s permission. The road toward equality and cultural sensitivity has a multitude of switchbacks.
“The beauty of what Ralph Lauren did with us: They made us part of this project,” Morehouse’s Thomas said. “They didn’t come in and appropriate culturally inspiring images of Black people and then go off and do something with it.”
There are those who might look at this collection and see it as an anachronism at a time when track pants and leggings are as dressed up as many people want to be. There’s polish to these images that may feel stilted at a time when improvisation is valued. The entire project is a risk in an era when social media watchdogs are always on the prowl for missteps. Yet when Dara Douglas, who oversees the Ralph Lauren library and is a Spelman graduate, speaks about the collection, her voice shakes with emotion.
“I know how the other women who’ve graduated from Spelman, the other men who graduated
from Morehouse, all of the people who have attended an HBCU, there’s so much reverence and respect for the Ralph Lauren brand,” Douglas said. “For us to see this culture and see this community turn the gaze back to them and show them themselves — it’s going to be tremendous. It’s overwhelming.”
Spelman President Mary Schmidt Campbell agreed to this collaboration, in part, because the project drew on archival imagery from the school and was a kind of contemporary version of a series of photographs of Black men and women at home, at school and at work commissioned by W.E.B. Dubois at the beginning of the 20th century.
“I thought it evoked an aspect of our history and heritage that we don’t talk about and we don’t see very often on the public stage,” Campbell said. And it was no small thing in Campbell’s estimation that this was also a business deal that could benefit the school’s bottom line and that the project had a Black creative team that included Douglas, one of Spelman’s own.
Lauren, 82, noted that he was not keen to talk about this collection but was convinced to do so by his staff. Not because he isn’t proud of it and proud of the work that both Jeter and Douglas have done. But because these are treacherous times to stumble, to correct course, to try. Capitalism affords a man nearly everything but the benefit of the doubt.
📸 Pictured above: Brother Jeter (third from left) on the Morehouse College campus in 2013, seated (l-r) with his Line Brothers, Max Tyler, Scott Nearon and Jameson Miller -- all members of the Legendary 18 (Fall 2011).
“I’m not worried about my legacy. I have three children and grandchildren and I want them to be happy, do whatever they do and not worry about me,” he said. “I’m doing what I love to do. I have good days and bad days. On good days, you’re feeling good about yourself and on bad days you’re not feeling good about yourself.
“We all make mistakes and things,” he said. “But we correct it and learn about it and learn about what we didn’t know. That’s good.”
Black History Month Profile: Black Men in Law Leave a Legal Legacy (Bro. James A. Britton — Spring 2001)
By Megan Kirk, www.michiganchronicle.com
Black History Month is a time to reflect on the accomplishments, advancements, and struggles of African Americans. Though Black populations have made progress throughout history, there is still much work to be done across every sector, particularly law. Several Black attorneys have paved the way for not only new legislation but for Black students who aspire to practice law, leading to a push for equality from the courtroom to the boardroom.
At a time of heightened racial tension, the Black Lives Matter Movement, and social injustice, Black lawyers have become even more essential to African American communities and the legal progress of the country. Black legal trailblazers of the past have cleared the way for a new generation of Black lawyers, including newly-hired adjunct professor for Wayne State University Law School, James Britton.
📸 Pictured above: Chapter Brothers gather in Detroit to toast Brother Britton's 40th birthday (2022).
Thurgood Marshall was appointed by former President Lyndon B. Johnson to the Supreme Court in 1967. With an illustrious career, Marshall is one of history’s most notable Black attorneys and serves as a role model for many. James Britton has always chased a career in law thanks in part to Marshall.
“I’m one of those people who always wanted to be a lawyer. I don’t remember ever wanting to do anything else. At first, I wanted to be a Civil Rights lawyer like Johnnie Cochran or Thurgood Marshall. I consider that to be working in the public interest as a union side labor lawyer,” said Britton. “My belief is that labor rights are human rights.”
A legal career that spans several years, Britton’s passion for law and equality led him to a path of labor law. Now, in his new role as adjunct professor at Wayne State’s Law School, he intends to give students a tangible image of Black law professionals while guiding them through labor law. Combining his love for law and his knack for education, Britton will now lead the next class of Black attorneys.
“I’ve always wanted to teach just as a part of who I am and wanting to make a contribution,” said Britton.
Nationally, Black attorneys make up just five percent of all lawyers. Representing 13 percent of America’s population, African Americans account for 38 percent of prisoners and the number continues to grow. The presence of Black legal teams helps to shift the dynamics in court as well as the legal sector across the board. Through shared experiences, Black lawyers can help to navigate and defend other African Americans who fear they will not receive fair and equal treatment under the umbrella of law.
“Black lawyers bring a certain perspective depending on where you’re from and you can certainly help people with the perspective that you bring,” said Britton. “I think the same is true for prosecutors and defense attorneys.”
As the legacy continues, Black lawyers are hoping to spread the word to African American students on the importance of pursuing a career in law. The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) reports African American students accounted for close to eight percent of incoming law students across schools, up from 7.6 percent in 2020. Marking 2021 as the largest incoming class in 10 years, as well as the most racially diverse class ever as per the LSAC, African Americans are chasing careers in law now more than ever.
“I think it starts as early as grade school. Just sort of talking about [it], more people like me going into schools; high schools, colleges, talking about what we do, why we do it and why it’s important,” said Britton.
📸 Pictured above: Brother Britton, at left, joined Michigan legal colleagues at The Wolverine Bar Association's 2022 Barristers' Ball in mid-April.
Voting rights for Black communities have been under attack. As legislation is passed making it more difficult for African Americans to get to the polls, positions are in place to oversee the process and ensure empowerment for the voices of all voters.
To help further the commitment to fairness and equality for African Americans, Britton was recently sworn into the Wayne County Board of Canvassers for the Democratic Party. Responsible for certifying elections for all local, countywide and district offices, Britton will also have a hand in the inspection of the county’s ballot containers every four years and conducting recounts, as needed, for every aspect of government within the county in which he is appointed.
Alpha Phi Alpha Shines Light on the River Parishes Omicron Psi Lambda Chapter Charter Ceremony Jan 2022 (Bro. Rahn K. Bailey — Spring 1984)
Pictured above: Alpha Phi Alpha District Director Rodney Welch, Southwestern Regional Vice President Jermaine Netherly and past Southwestern Regional Vice President Tarrynce Robinson are the following Omicron Psi Lambda chapter brothers: President Jorandal M. Watson, Vice President Trebor S. Smith, Alton Preston, Brian Carter, Joseph K. Byrd, Lance McCormick, Reginald Starks, Brooks Wallace, Charles Tyson Brown, Clossie Chaisson Jr., Greg Cooks, Jabar Rodney, Jerome Washington, Kernell Jupiter, Michael Bradley, Rahn Bailey and Wilford Jones.
LAPLACE — Chartered in LaPlace on January 15, the newest chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. has a mission to develop leaders, promote brotherhood and academic excellence, and provide service and advocacy to River Parishes communities. “Bridging the gap” was the theme of the Omicron Psi Lambda chapter chartering this past weekend at Petra Restaurant.
Alpha Phi Alpha District Director Rodney Welch explained LaPlace and surrounding areas have received a spark of service from graduate chapters in New Orleans, Slidell, Baton Rouge and Lafayette. Now there is an opportunity for greater impact.
📸 Pictured above: Brothers of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity join hands for a hymn to close out the chartering ceremony for the Omicron Psi Lambda chapter held January 15 at Petra Restaurant in LaPlace.
“As of January 15, 2022, LaPlace will not need a glimmer from these chapters. From now on, LaPlace will have its own light of Alpha from the Omicron Psi Lambda Chapter,” Welch said.
The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity was started December 4, 1906 at Cornell University in New York by seven founders, known as The Seven Jewels: Henry Arthur Callis, Charles Henry Chapman, Eugene Kinckle Jones, George Biddle Kelley, Nathaniel Allison Murray, Robert Harold Ogle and Vertner Woodson Tandy.
More than 290,000 men proudly wear the Alpha letters across the globe, from London England to LaPlace, Louisiana. It was the first Black-led Greek letter organization and now stands as the largest predominantly African American intercollegiate fraternity in the nation.
The newly inducted members of the Omicron Psi Lambda chapter are President Jorandal M. Watson, Vice President Trebor S. Smith, Alton Preston, Brian Carter, Joseph K. Byrd, Lance McCormick, Reginald Starks, Brooks Wallace, Charles Tyson Brown, Clossie Chaisson Jr., David Sampson, Greg Cooks, Jabar Rodney, Jerome Washington, Kernell Jupiter, Michael Bradley, Mitchell Stevens, Rahn Bailey, Torrey Eubaire and Wilford Jones.
📸 Pictured above: Brother Jorandal M. Watson, president of Alpha Phi Alpha’s Omicron Psi Lambda chapter, speaks from the podium. Pictured at right are Tarrynce Robinson and Jermaine Netherly.
“There is a concentration of brothers who live in this area and commute to the city. They felt the need to do some type of service and advocacy for the community that they live in,” Watson said. “There is a void inside this whole area, from the River Parishes to Houma, Hammond, Metairie, all the way to Gonzales where there is no representation from Alpha Phi Alpha. We think by developing this chapter, there’s a lot of good we can do to uplift the community.”
Prior to the chartering, the Alphas assisted in clean-up efforts across St. John Parish. The chapter also expects to partner with community food drives and Christmas toy drives.
Alpha Phi Kappa supports a variety of national programs including March of Dimes, Boy Scouts of America, Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America, Peace Corps and Habitat for Humanity. Alphas are also at the forefront of education and social movements through the “Go to High School Go to College” and “A Voteless People is a Hopeless People” programs.
“The fraternity is bigger than one person. The one thing that has inspired me and motivated me is the brotherhood,” Watson said. “There’s a lot to live up to, being an Alpha.”
Saturday’s chartering ceremony saw participation from current Southwestern Regional Vice President Jermaine Netherly. Past Southwestern Regional Vice President Tarrynce Robinson served as the keynote speaker.
Netherly stated, “There’s definitely a need, and there’s opportunity to make the community better where brothers can be more involved in the community. We already have brothers living here and working here, so it only makes sense for us to have a formal chapter here instead of having them drive to other areas.”
H Twenty Capital Aims To Be 'Go-to Fund For Pre-seed Investments' In Latin America (Stevon D. Darling — Spring 2008)
📸 Image Credits: H Twenty Capital / H Twenty Capital's founding team, from left, Stevon Darling, Daniel Lloreda and Mauricio Porras.
Venture capital continues to flow into Latin America at a staggering rate. Just over $15 billion went into startups in 2021, according to LAVCA. That was three times more than the association recorded in fiscal year 2019. Brazil and Mexico continue to lead as regions where many startups are getting funding, but as LAVCA’s statistics show, some of that investor love is being spread around to other countries like Colombia, Argentina and Chile. Venture firms in those countries are also raising funds; for example, this month, Colombia-based Marathon Ventures announced its first fund of $26 million.
H Twenty Capital (H20) co-founders Daniel Lloreda and Mauricio Porras recall getting into the region in 2018, a time Lloreda considered pretty early to be the investment space.
“The market wasn’t so established and meal companies, such as Rappi, were just getting started and reaching their growth phase,” Lloreda added. “Mauricio and I had this bold vision of backing as many disruptive entrepreneurs as we could, and leveraging our previous backgrounds and experiences.”
In 2018, the pair set up a friends and family fund that had about $15 million that Lloreda referred to as “proof of concept fund” that enabled them to invest in the region and establish the thesis of backing pre-seed and seed entrepreneurs in Latin America and in the Hispanic U.S. market in the verticals of e-commerce, marketplaces, fintech and software.
Some of H20’s early investments from that fund went into companies like Tül, a construction material e-commerce marketplace that is now valued at $800 million after raising a $181 million Series B round in January. It also invested in Brazilian social grocery commerce company Favo, which raised a $26.5 million Series A last October.
For Tül in particular, Lloreda said he and Porras were instrumental in helping the company expand regionally, secure its first country manager in Ecuador and make key strategic partnership introductions to suppliers and investors.
The firm strategically went after a seed and pre-seed market that Lloreda said is going downstream. As a result, the firm is positioned to provide what the entrepreneurs need, and with SoftBank and other growth equity funds coming into the region, it has opened up an opportunity to start investing at the Series A level.
“When we first started doing pre-seed and seed, it was out of necessity,” Porras added. “We were not the biggest or the most seasoned fund, but were emerging managers. We understood that if we wanted to get into the best deals, we needed to come in early and be super aggressive with the value-added support. We honestly had to earn our pricing table.”
H20 is now armed with its second fund, of which they say is poised to reach $65 million. The firm already closed on $50 million toward that goal.
The fund is supported by G Squared Management Co.; Scott Shleifer, co-founder and partner of Tiger Global Management; Sebastián Mejía, co-founder and president of Rappi; Fabián Gómez, co-founder and CEO of Frubana; Roger Laughlin, co-founder of Kavak; and founders of iFood and Mercê do Bairro.
H20 is also backed by board or advisor members, including Laughlin; Stevon Darling, who led the VC team in LatAm for the IFC and is the chief investment officer of H20; Javier Villamizar, operating partner of SoftBank Vision Fund; and Ricardo Martínez Finger, co-founder of Jüsto supermarket.
Eight investments have already been made from the second fund, including into hiring and payments startup OnTop, which raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Tiger and SoftBank.
“We work very closely with Tiger so we’ve become the go-to fund for pre-seed investments in Latin America,” Lloreda said. “The reason why Tiger invested in H20 is because we have identified these early talents in companies, and we’re now working very closely to co-invest with them in the region. We have been very good at not only investing, but bringing the best access to investors and advisors and establishing an operating framework around how H20 adds value — from talent acquisition to go-to-market planning to fundraising connections to strategic partnerships.”
Brother Edward T. Brice (Spring 2001) Joins the Illinois Advisory Board of America Needs You
New Illinois Advisory Board Member Edward Brice is the Director of Education Strategy and Operations at Allstate Insurance Company. He oversees the onboarding and continuing education for all producer models as well as employees within the Agency Sales Organization. His team is not only responsible for the strategic design of content and curriculums, but also the centralized delivery to a population of over forty thousand learners.
America Needs You fights for economic mobility for ambitious, first-generation college students. They do this by providing transformative mentorship and intensive career development.
Since 2009, ANY has been improving college completion and employment rates for first-generation college students. The agency was founded on the belief that socio-economic status should not be a barrier to college persistence and career success. Robert Reffkin, a former appointee to the NYC Workforce Investment Board and two-time appointee to the NYC Board of Education Panel for Educational Policy, recognized the incredible unmet need for mentorship and career preparation for low-income students, particularly those who are the first in their families to go to college.
Compelled to action, Robert founded ANY (formerly New York Needs You) in 2009 to mobilize a movement of young, professional volunteers to assist these students in rising above their circumstances. After successful and sustained results in New York, ANY expanded to New Jersey in 2012, Illinois in 2015, and California in 2016.
Brother Brice began his career as a high school math teacher with Teach For America in Chicago. Next, he joined Sears Holdings Corporation (SHC), where he spent ten years in various roles- including Marketing Operations, Procurement and Integrated Learning and Performance. Prior to joining Allstate, Edward led the centralized learning function at SHC.
He holds a Bachelor of Science from Morehouse College with a dual concentration in Mathematics and Economics, a Master of Arts in Teaching in Secondary Education from Dominican University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago- Booth School of Business.
📸 Pictured above: Chicagoland Alpha Rho Alumni at Founder's Day, 2016.
Edward resides in Chicago, IL with his wife and two daughters. His personal interests include investing, reading and sports.
Will Packer Productions Taps Leon Chills (Spring 2008) to Adapt Stan Parish’s ‘Love And Theft’ for Universal
📸 Pictured above: Will Packer and Leon Chills (aka Brother Leon Chitman).
Will Packer Productions has tapped screenwriter Leon Chills (Spinning Out, The Wilds) to adapt Stan Parish’s novel Love and Theft for Universal Pictures. Published by Penguin Random House through their Knopf Doubleday imprint in 2020, Love and Theft is billed as a global romantic heist film set in Las Vegas, Mexico and Spain.
It centers, per the publisher, on Alex Cassidy and Diane Alison, who develop an instant and undeniable chemistry when they meet at a party in Princeton, New Jersey. She’s a single mother, local fixture and owner of a successful catering company. He’s a single father and weekend homeowner—and leader of an armed-robbery crew that just pulled off a record-breaking, precision jewel heist in Las Vegas.
Neither one realizes that their lives have overlapped before, and that the shared history they uncover will threaten everyone they love.Will Packer and Johanna Byer will produce the film adaptation for Will Packer Productions. Universal Pictures’ Vice President of Production Development, Lexi Barta, is overseeing the project for the studio, with Alvie Hurtado overseeing it for WPP.
Chills has previously written episodes of the Netflix sports drama Spinning Outand Amazon Prime’s YA drama The Wilds, having served as a story editor on the latter. He came upon his
first spec sale a couple of years back with Shadow Force, an action drama set up at Lionsgate, with Kerry Washington and Sterling K. Brown attached to star.
Packer founded Will Packer Productions in 2013. Films made by his production company have earned more than $1 billion in total, with 10 opening at No. 1 at the domestic box office, including Girls Trip and Night School, the respective top-grossing comedies of 2018 and 2017.
It’s also been behind such titles as The Photograph, Little, What Men Want, No Good Deed, the Ride Along films, Think Like a Man and its sequel Think Like a Man Too, Takers, Obsessed, Breaking Inand Stomp the Yard, among others.
Chills is represented by UTA, Heroes and Villains Entertainment, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman; Packer by CAA; Parish by CAA, The Book Group and Heroes and Villains.
Illinois Society of Anesthesiologists Recognizes Brother Phillip R. Traylor (Spring 2005) In Black History Month Spotlight
In celebration of Black History Month, the ISA honors our physicians who have made or are setting out to make outstanding contributions to the field of anesthesiology.
Phillip R. Traylor, MD is an anesthesiologist who practices at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, IL. He attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA and obtained his medical degree from Ross University School of Medicine. He completed his residency training at Rush University Medical Center and fellowship training in regional anesthesia at Northwestern University Medical Center.
He is currently on the diversity and inclusion committee at RUMC and enjoys mentoring students interested in pursuing a career in medicine. It is his goal to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in healthcare so that they may reflect the communities they serve.
Midwest BankCentre Recognizes Brother Kelvin J. Taylor, Sr. (Spring 1985) In Black History Month Spotlight
www.mb.com
During Black History Month, we recognize and honor the achievements of Black Americans throughout U.S. history. In this tradition, Midwest BankCentre celebrates our Black team members and their accomplishments.
Chief Information Officer Kelvin Taylor leads our Rising Analytics team, which he launched as Taylored Analytics in 2006. An entrepreneur, marketer and data scientist, Kelvin and his team help customers use their data to make well-informed business decisions.
Kelvin made the move to MBC for “the opportunity to leverage data in a profound way in the community banking space.” In addition to his impactful work, he loves “the passion that all of our employees have around supporting MBC’s mission of Rising Together.”
Kelvin credits many people for inspiring him and helping him get to where he is today, including “Rick Barlow as an entrepreneur, Michael Beltz as a corporate leader, my wife Tammy from an emotional quotient perspective,” as well as Michael Faraday, Martin Luther King, Jr. and others who have overcome adversity.
Amplify Louisville Recognizes Brother Wayne H. Davis (Fall 1998) with Board Member Spotlight
The work that Amplify does would not be possible without the strong leadership and support of our board members. While often behind the scenes, we want our community to get to know each of the individuals who serve in this capacity.
Wayne Davis, Senior Brand Director, Café, at GE Appliances, a Haier company
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗟𝗼𝘂𝗶𝘀𝘃𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲?
Louisville is great because it has most of the things people look for in a major city without most of the hassles that come along with major cities. We have great food, arts and sports. And if you ever want to complain about Louisville traffic, I could point you to many cities that are much worse!
𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗳𝘆?
My time at GEA’s FirstBuild exposed me to much of the Louisville entrepreneurial and start-up scene. I believe that there are many ways that larger organizations in the city can help build businesses of all sizes.
𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿𝘀 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗳
Every successful entrepreneur that I have spoken to speaks to mentors or connectors that broke down a barrier or gave them guidance at the right time. Amplify is the perfect venue to make those types of connections.
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗼𝗿 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂?
I am inspired by people who use their own success to help others. I am a firm believer in the concept of lift while you climb.
𝗗𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗵𝗶𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀?
I have an odd capacity for storing useless factoids. You probably want me on your trivia team!
Community involvement has always been an important aspect of Wayne’s life. He currently sits on the board for Amplify Louisville, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kentuckiana, and Fund for the Arts. In 2018, Wayne was named one of the Louisville Business First Forty Under 40. He was a member of the 2020 Class of Leadership Louisville’s Bingham Fellows. Wayne and his wife, Sierra, live in Louisville and have two wonderful children.
How Grant Bennett (Spring 2018) Builds Inclusivity in and Outside of Work
Welcome to the latest edition of “My Path to Google,” where we talk to Googlers, interns and alumni about how they got to Google, what they do in their roles and how they prepared for their interviews. Today’s post is all about Grant Bennett, a Human Resource Associate working remotely from North Carolina, and his passion for driving equity and inclusivity both in and outside of Google.
What do you do at Google?
I’m in Google’s Human Resources Associate program, a two-year rotational program for recent college graduates. Now in my second and final rotation, I work as an Operations and Analytics Specialist on the Retention and Progression team. I help analyze and share insights to improve Googlers’ experiences.
What’s your typical workday like?
I’ve been working remotely from North Carolina since I started at Google in 2020. My day usually begins with a morning workout and some dedicated reading time. Once I log in to work, I check emails, create my to-do list and take data science skills training. The rest of my day is spent jumping in and out of meetings with teammates and consultants, working through data and generating reports for my team.
📸 Pictured above: Grant at Google’s Mountain View headquarters.
Can you tell us a bit more about your background?
I grew up in Fayetteville, North Carolina. My father served in the military and my mother is an educator at our local community college. Baseball was my favorite activity as a kid. One time when I was practicing in downtown Fayetteville, a director asked me to make a cameo in a music video for the rapper J.Cole (which I eagerly accepted). I met J.Cole again years later, and we talked about the importance of branching out and having new experiences. That conversation inspired me to attend a Historically Black College or University (HBCU). I enrolled at Morehouse College, the only all-male HBCU in the United States, on a baseball and academic scholarship. I studied psychology and got really involved in campus life. Through these experiences, I found my passion for social impact and research.
What’s your daily source of inspiration?
I’m inspired that Google continues to work towards creating a more equitable and inclusive workplace, and I’m excited to take on projects connected to our HBCU commitments. I’m passionate about this work, because I understand the value of investing in communities that have been historically under-resourced and excluded.
Are you working on any projects outside of work?
I’m the Founder and Executive Director of The Two-Six Project, a nonprofit organization helping to develop leaders from marginalized communities. We provide funding, leadership development training and scholarships to youth athletic organizations in the Fayetteville area. Thanks in part to the generous support of individual Googlers during our holiday giving campaign, The Two-Six Project recently hosted its second annual “Christmas Giveback” event and provided food, toys and winter clothing to over 2,000 people. The success of this event led to a feature in Forbes Magazine and my participation on a panel about equity, moderated by Former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
📸 Pictured above: The Bennett family on the campus of Morehouse College in 2020.
How did you prepare for your Google interviews?
I really studied my resumé to help me tell my career story and quantify my impact. I also researched behavioral-based questions — “tell me about a time you…” — and asked close friends to conduct mock interviews.
What advice would you give to your past self?
I would remind myself that my perspective is valuable. Coming from an HBCU, you may feel a sense of imposter syndrome or self-doubt when going through the hiring process. But it’s important to remember that your unique experience helps you impact the world in your own way. I would tell myself to trust the path that got me here, and to focus on showing why I would be a good fit for the role.
Any tips for aspiring Googlers?
No matter what, be authentic. Google is a melting pot of diverse people, so know that you will add just as much value to the company as it will add to your professional growth. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, be intentional with your energy and build healthy habits around networking.
Greenberg Traurig Expands Corporate Practice, Adds Shareholder Sherman W. Smith III (Spring 1987)
The Philadelphia office of global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP announces the addition of Shareholder Sherman W. Smith III to its Corporate Practice. Smith has built a portfolio practice, advising and representing clients ranging from some of the nation’s largest financial institutions to privately-held businesses and investors to commercial real estate developers of all sizes.
“Sherman helps further fill out the corporate services this office offers local clients as well as globally-situated ones,” said Curtis B. Toll, managing shareholder of Greenberg Traurig’s Philadelphia office. “He is a well-experienced middle market practitioner whose finance knowledge is as comprehensive about private equity issues as it is about real estate matters.
“We value his local and national relationships with long-standing clients and businesses as well as his commitment to community uplift, and know he will play a strong role in further serving the wide range of sectors we continue to cultivate,” Toll added.
Smith built much of his three-decades-long career at Buchanan Ingersoll as a corporate attorney with a diverse portfolio of clients and transactional matters, sans time spent as associate general counsel for Don King Productions, Inc., from 1999-2002. In private practice, Smith has routinely handled complex matters involving mergers and acquisitions, formation, and capital raises of private equity funds, including capital deployment, among others.
“The broad experiences and insights Sherman possesses and deploys enhances our offerings in Philadelphia, advances our strategic growth, and furthers our commitment to providing high-level, sophisticated services,” Greenberg Traurig Global Corporate Practice Co-Chair Bruce I. March said. “He has the acumen to leverage our platform to benefit and elevate our clients and, by extension, our firm.”
Smith, who grew up bicoastally between Philadelphia and Los Angeles, graduated from Central High School, Morehouse College, and the Howard University School of Law with honors – the third generation of his family to do such. Both his father and grandfather served as judges on the Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Since 2016, Smith has served on the board of directors for Philadelphia Opportunities Industrialization Center, the workforce and education development nonprofit founded by pioneering civil rights activist and corporate tactician the Rev. Dr. Leon H. Sullivan. Sullivan, who believed in and preached “economic emancipation,” developed the first Black-owned and managed commercial shopping plaza in the United States, served as a Fortune 500 corporate board member, and was an early proponent of corporate social responsibility doctrines.
In Sullivan’s mold, Smith focuses a considerable segment of his practice to real estate finance work centered on creating opportunities for visionary commercial developers of color nationwide. Those range from affordable housing to commercial corridor creation and expansion efforts led by nontraditional real estate development and investment teams.
“In Sherman we have a seasoned lawyer who does not see client service and project profitability as mutually exclusive to creative solutions for civic challenges,” said Joshua D. Cohen, co-chair of the Philadelphia Real Estate Practice.
“His deep knowledge of the development community in this region – its players, trends, and possibilities – will serve this firm and our clients well. We’re excited to have him on the team.”
Brother Uzee Brown, Jr. (Fall 1969) Shares his Perspectives on the Invaluable Role of HBCUs and the Future of Music Education with Teaching Music Magazine
A native of Cowpens, South Carolina, Brown is chair of the Division of Creative and Performing Arts at Morehouse College in Atlanta and is editor of the Morehouse College Choral Series at GIA Publications in Chicago. He formerly served as chair of music at Clark Atlanta University, and as director of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church Choir in Atlanta. His diverse career as educator, singer/performer, composer/arranger, and choir director has taken him to more than 26 countries. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Morehouse College, a master’s degree in composition from Bowling Green State University, and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan. In 2011, he was voted Vulcan Teacher of the Year at Morehouse College.
TM: When did you know you wanted to devote your career to music and music education?BROWN: I did not come to it until my sophomore year at Morehouse. I enrolled as a pre-med student but was also involved with the glee club and band. I became fascinated by music and started spending more time in the practice room than in the labs. I had to make a decision. Once I got into music, I was totally immersed. Morehouse provided a very supportive smaller-college environment.
TM: What are some of the most important influences on your career?
BROWN: Benjamin E. Mays, who was an important mentor to Martin Luther King Jr., and a past president of Morehouse College, was an early influence who meant a lot to me. He was from South Carolina, as I was. I went to Benjamin E. Mays High School and was able to meet him. I related to his journey. In his 1981 book Lord, The People Have Driven Me On, he talked about going places and achieving things that he never knew he would, but he also never doubted that he could do it.
Morehouse was an educational mecca like nothing else for me. It was at the center of civil and human rights. I was able to work with teachers and mentors who had national and international careers, such as Wendall Phillips Whalum, a major figure as a choral director and a close friend of conductor Robert Shaw.
During my freshman year, I was in the glee club. We participated in a choral festival with 16 countries, sang at the Lincoln Center and National Cathedral, and performed with Robert Shaw as conductor. Then, in my senior year, we worked with Dr. T.J. Anderson, a distinguished composer and professor who was the first African American resident composer with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He is well known for his orchestration of Scott Joplin's opera Treemonisha, which premiered in Atlanta in 1972, and in which I sang one of the leading roles as Parson Alltalk.
TM: What do you see as some of the most important contributions HBCUs have made to music education?
BROWN: There are many. They have made an extraordinary contribution to people of color. They have provided rich learning environments for students with very limited opportunities where they could hone their skills to the point of being competitive with any university or conservatory. I know for sure that without HBCUs, many students would have had no chance to competitively audition in a predominantly white institution as freshmen.
HBCUs provide personal support and individual attention, which is extremely important. It is an enabling environment that keeps students from falling through the cracks. HBCUs provide networking opportunities for students, and those relationships last throughout their careers.
I serve as a member of the Faculty Council and as an evaluation team chair on accreditation for the National Association of Schools of Music, but I am equally as proud to be a past president of the National Association of Negro Musicians, an important nurturing ground for African American music education, composers, and performers. It is the oldest such organization, and it was founded in Chicago in 1919 against the backdrop of race riots in the city. Their first scholarship went to the famous singer Marian Anderson.
I went on to do graduate work at Bowling Green and Michigan, and have worked in other countries, but nothing was more impactful for me than my beginning at Morehouse. I do that type of mentoring for my students now. I have the ability to understand students of color. Though often having fewer resources, we put in a greater effort to hold onto these students and see them through graduation and assist them in identifying next steps in their careers, including finding jobs.
We also help them determine their strengths and weaknesses. Not everyone is destined for the concert stage or the classroom. We try to find that niche where the student shines and can find gainful employment. I believe we should pay it forward. It is important to step up to the plate and see things in our students that they may not see in themselves at first. There are urgencies in life —things we have to do if we are going to make a difference. We are called to fill a vacuum. Driving other people on to be the best they can be is not self-serving; it is a responsibility that we have to the next generation.
TM: What do you see as some of the key opportunities or challenges for HBCUs?
BROWN: We do have some challenges. We are not a utopia. HBCUs have limited endowments. Many are not public universities, so they have a harder time with funding and staying competitive. There is also much work to be done to upgrade facilities, including making them more viable with technology.
We have to take advantage of things that are historically strengths of HBCUs. There is much to celebrate. We have to do a better job of selling HBCUs, especially at the administrative level. I have really appreciated the tremendous dedication and innovation of our faculty to make things work in spite of the challenges we have faced.
TM: What is your vision for the future?
BROWN: For higher education in general, we have to get out of the one size-fits-all paradigms. We have to prepare students for the present age, not just what we know now, but for creative new disciplines and possibilities. In the music industry, we need people in control who have a feel for the profession. We also need more students to graduate who have a background in music industry, management, music software engineering, teaching, and instructional software development.
I have been involved with the Atlanta Opera. I appreciate that they are doing innovative things such as “The 96-Hour Opera Project” [a composition competition in which teams of composers and librettists have four days to write, cast, direct, and stage completely new 10-minute operas]. If we want to revitalize interest, we need to find composers and stories that are relevant to new generations. We need to find new ways to do things in fields that are old.
We also have to look at assessment and evaluation with fresh eyes. Quantitative assessment is important in music, but there must also be measurable qualitative assessments. Also, we need administrators who understand what it takes to teach music. Some only look at cost, or they look at costs in the arts compared to STEM fields (for example, the cost of a new grand piano can be a head- turner).
The thing I am proudest of in my career is what all my students do. They are the product. Some graduate with a music degree and stay in music, others become doctors, judges, lawyers, or work in industry. Some work in music therapy, or music and psychology, or different interdisciplinary studies. Martin Luther King Jr. talked about sources by which we make a living and what makes life worth living. The arts are very important for the human element. I have lost students from my programs who left totally frustrated due to parents who wanted their child to go into well-paying professions such as law, business, or medicine. I am proud that I am the chair of the Creative and Performing Arts Department. The world needs people who are committed to the field and who are expressive in creative, positive ways.
📸 Pictured above: The Atlanta Opera welcomed Bernice King and Dr. UzeeBrown to speak about the legacy of her mother and the importance of music to the Freedom Movement at the January 2021 opening night of PORGY AND BESS.
Muskegon Family Care Hires New CEO to Lead Health Clinic (Brother Tracy G. McDaniel — Fall 1982)
Muskegon Family Care (MFC) named a new CEO after a nationwide search. MFC’s board hired Tracy G. McDaniel as CEO of the organization.
McDaniel brings more than 20 years of executive leadership experience in large and small health care organizations. Prior to joining MFC, McDaniel was CEO of Long Island Select Healthcare (LISH) in Suffolk County, New York, a community health center providing clinical and rehabilitation services. Under his leadership, the health center consolidated multiple business units to create an $18 million Federally Qualified Health Center.
McDaniel also held the position of COO of Baltimore Medical System and director of operations at Brooklyn Plaza Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York.
“The search for a new CEO was a rigorous, national process, and Tracy quickly became a top candidate,” said Kathy Covington, chair of the MFC board of directors. “His professional experience in health care spans both people and policies, making him an ideal match for Muskegon Family Care. The board of directors is confident that under Tracy’s leadership, wisdom and guidance, MFC will help more people, save more lives and achieve even more during our next phase of growth and opportunity.”
Through his experience, McDaniel developed systems that positively impacted the teams with which he has worked. He also brings knowledge of creating and leading organizational vision and direction.
“I was drawn to Muskegon Family Care because of its mission and the community it serves,”
McDaniel said. “Promoting and serving the physical, emotional and spiritual health of people is the foundation of a community, and Muskegon Family Care does it exceptionally well.
“This is an incredible time of opportunity for Muskegon Family Care to build new, healthier behaviors in our neighborhoods, deliver a higher quality of care and guide patients on a path to a healthy life. I look forward to working alongside the employees and the board of directors to strengthen our health center and all of the families we serve.”
Founded in 1972, Muskegon Family Care is a community health care provider for Muskegon Heights and the surrounding areas.
Magnificent 16 -- Fall 1962 Celebrates 60th Anniversary
📸 Pictured above: The Fall 1962 initiates and other Chapter Brothers from Texas convened in Morales, Texas.
Unpredictable 13 -- Fall 1976 Celebrates 40th Anniversary
📸 Pictured above: The Fall 1976 initiates gathered to celebrate their milestone in Atlanta, Georgia.
Enigmatic 17 -- Spring 1986 Celebrates 35 Anniversary
📸 Pictured above: All 17 of he SPRING 1986 initiates connected via Zoom to mark their anniversary.
Meritorious 16 -- Spring 1987 Celebrates 36th Anniversary
📸 Pictured above: Not to be outdone by their big brothers from the previous line, the Spring 1987 initiates delivered a full house to celebrate their anniversary.
Synergistic 22 -- Spring 2002 Celebrates 20th Anniversary
📸 Pictured above: The members of the Spring 2002 pledge group took their anniversary on the road -- landing in Cartagena, Columbia.
Novellus 18 -- Spring 2019 Celebrates 3rd Anniversary
📸 Pictured above: The good Brothers from the Spring 2019 pledge group zoom, zoom, zoomed to mark the beginning of their lifelong bond.
APCAA Editor's Note: The AP Quarterly Digests are researched and distributed to the Brotherhood in an effort to celebrate the professional accomplishments of our members, and to encourage the upward mobility of the association in total. Your support of this crucial administrative program is welcomed — please contact us at alpharhochapteralumni@gmail.com for directions on how to deliver your contributions to ensure that this effort is sustained. Thank you for allowing us to serve Alpha, and Alpha Rho Chapter.
