The Alpha and EDF partnership will educate the fraternity’s student and alumni chapters about climate change, environmental justice, energy efficiency, clean energy and green jobs. Sustainability projects designed by students and alumni will help African American and other populations become more involved in public health and environmental issues caused by air and water pollution and social inequity.

Academic institutions are among the nation’s top energy consumers and often do not have the resources to implement energy efficiency measures. Universities that serve a large percentage of minority students and national environmental groups traditionally have not worked together on environmental and public health issues. The Alpha Phi Alpha Goes Green Initiative (http://green.apa1906.net) is a fraternity initiative that will fill that gap and create a corps of environmental leaders specially trained to work with college students and diverse communities.

EDF will provide online training materials to the partnership. EDF’s Climate Corps works to identify energy improvements that help companies cut costs and reduce emissions. A new focus for Climate Corps is helping campuses increase energy efficiency. “Colleges are the perfect place to spread the word about energy efficiency. Alpha Goes Green will be a pipeline for sustainability information,” said Michael Regan, director of the Southeast Energy Program for EDF. “EDF’s partnership with Alpha is an innovative way to help college students and communities of color better understand the direct connection between saving energy and money, and living in a healthy and prosperous community.”

“Alpha Phi Alpha is known for its strong student and alumni commitment to community service, and the Alpha Phi Alpha Goes Green Initiative provides the structure to launch sustainability projects across the country,” said Herman “Skip” Mason, Jr., (national) general president of Alpha. “Understanding how behaviors affect communities – on a small campus or in a major city – will create better stewards of the environment. That’s service to the planet we can all salute.”

“The Alpha Phi Alpha Goes Green Initiative is committed to helping underserved communities impacted by social inequities and environmental issues become healthier and more sustainable through education, capacity building and empowerment. The Alpha Phi Alpha Goes Green website will be an excellent portal and primary means by which members will learn about environmental issues important to the Fraternity and the communities we serve,” said Dr. Sacoby Wilson, chair of the initiative and co-chair of the Alpha partnership with EDF.

“The online educational materials will be a reliable resource for members and chapters who are committed to environmental leadership and positive social and environmental change.” The fraternity has 5,000 student members on more than 350 US campuses and 95,000 alumni members.

The Alpha Lambda Chapter, the local alumni chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated celebrated its 99th anniversary on Sunday, April 11 2010. The chapter has been a staple of the Louisville community since its 10 charter members met at the Western Branch Library to discuss contemporary issues of the day all those years ago. Today the chapter has grown into a strong servant of its community and a proud supporter of the pursuit of education by youth, especially those in urban neighborhoods with disparities in graduation rates and matriculation into college and beyond. The chapter supports such initiatives as its “Go To High School-Go To College” program (a national program of the fraternity) currently taking place at Zion Baptist Church on Muhammad Ali and its “A Voteless People is a Hopeless People” program (also a national program of the fraternity) aimed at increasing voter registration and education, among other service of interest to the community.

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated is the oldest intercollegiate fraternity founded by African American Men, founded at Cornell University in 1906. Louisville is home to many prominent Alpha men including Ed Hamilton the famed sculptor and artist and Ulysses “Junior” Bridgeman.

The Zeta Alpha Lambda Chapter (Fort Lauderdale) of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., was recently recognized as the fraternity’s top alumni chapter in the southern United States. Selected from a field of 119 eligible chapters across seven southern US states, the Fort Lauderdale chapter distinguished itself through its valuable service to the South Florida community.

Providing relief to Haiti

To provide support to the Haiti earthquake victims, the chapter and its “Men of Tomorrow Youth Program” partnered with the City of Lauderdale Lakes, Wal-Mart and American Intercontinental University to collect food, medicine and funds. The supplies, along with monetary donations collected by the Lauderdale Lakes Haitian Relief Fund, were provided to the Food for the Poor, Inc. for its Haiti emergency relief program.

The chapter would later join nine other South Florida chapters of Alpha Phi Alpha and the Food for the Poor, Inc. to become a Champion for the Poor, raising funds and collecting supplies in support of Haitian relief effort.

“South Florida Brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha understand that all have been affected by the recent tragedy in Haiti, even if not of Haitian decent. Our brothers and sisters of Haiti are dealing with devastation we could never imagine. We pray that all of us will continue to work together to assist in bringing aid to the nation of Haiti,” observed Matthew S. Bradford, a chapter member who serves as the fraternity’s South Florida Area Director.

Developing “Men of Tomorrow”

The chapter provided a comprehensive and continuing series of activities for young men (and their parents and guardians) participating in its Go-To High School, Go-To College “Men of Tomorrow” program. The activities directly promoted academic growth and strengthened young high school men in key areas (spiritual, social, physical, financial, relationships, communications, etc.) which are “essential enablers” for academic progress. The program exposed these talented youth to colleges and universities, admission procedures, community leaders, and cultural, educational, and spiritual events for their personal growth. The chapter will present scholarships and awards to high school seniors for their academic and civic achievements on April 17, 2010 at the 33rd Annual Men of Tomorrow Banquet at the Westin Cypress Creek Hotel.

Investing in neighborhoods

The chapter donated $7,000 toward the modernization and upgrade of the computer lab at the Boys & Girls Club of Broward County, Dr. Reitman Unit, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Richard M. Lane, vice president of the unit’s Advisory Board commented that what the chapter did “ … for the kids is amazing – beyond the money, the fact of having so many good men there in one spot for them to see and connect with. Giving our youth the opportunity to not only see, but connect with strong, active and positive role models – real people who take time to care and let them know they ARE important – that’s what we need to turn things around, in their lives and in our communities.”

Strengthening communities

Throughout the county, the chapter’s compassion was evident as its members graciously delivered Thanksgiving meals to families in need. The chapter provided several financially stressed families in the Lauderdale Lakes area with a full Thanksgiving dinner. Meals were provided to families at Park Lake Elementary School and at The First Baptist Church Piney Grove.

The chapter also provided a financial gift to the City of Lauderdale Lakes Department of Social Services and Alzheimer’s Care to support the Angel Tree Program. This effort assisted financially-stressed Lauderdale Lakes families during the holiday season by providing gifts to children 12-years-old and younger.

When asked about the honor bestowed upon the chapter, its President, Kirkland Floyd, responded “… let us not forget the needs of those we serve. Let’s remain mindful of the work that needs to be done at the Boys and Girls Club, the continued training and nurturing of the ‘Men of Tomorrow’ and the needs of Haiti. Now, just for a little while, we reflect on where we came from over the past few years and know that this is reason to say thank you to almighty God … ”

]]> http://progressivegreek.com/news_events/awards_recognition/zeta-alpha-lambda-chapter-of-alpha-honored-as-tops-in-southern-region/feed/ 5 http://progressivegreek.com/organizations/alpha-phi-alpha-fraternity/alpha-frater-dr-john-l-williams-dentist-and-businessman-dies-at-72/ http://progressivegreek.com/organizations/alpha-phi-alpha-fraternity/alpha-frater-dr-john-l-williams-dentist-and-businessman-dies-at-72/#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:15:57 +0000 Charles1906 http://progressivegreek.com/?p=2437 Source

Whether providing for his family, caring for his patients or tending to his congregation, Dr. John L. Williams went out of his way to improve the lives of others, relatives said. The Houston dentist died of natural causes Jan. 26. He was 72.

“What made him tick was his love for his family and his love for the Lord,” said daughter, Nandilyn Ann Williams. “He had a passion to win souls for Christ.

That involved visiting nursing homes after a long day at work, taking food to the homeless or giving away his own clothes to those who needed it.

“He would give money to pay people’s bills, whatever people asked,” she said. “If he had the means, he would give it to them.”

Native of Lubbock

Williams was born Dec. 31, 1937, in Lubbock, to Nathaniel and Mary Williams. He played football at Dunbar High School in Lubbock and was valedictorian in 1956.

He moved to Houston in the mid-1960s, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in chemistry from Texas Southern University. After earning his D.D.S. degree from Howard Medical School in Washington, D.C., he returned to Houston and married the woman who became his wife of 41 years, Annie Louise.

The couple had eight children, seven of whom are college graduates and one who is about to graduate, Nandilyn Williams said.

“My father used to pick cotton in the fields of Lubbock, and he said that he wanted to do more in life and wanted to be successful,” said another daughter, Stephanie Williams, a principal in Atlanta’s public schools.

“He was big on education and he wanted all of his kids to graduate from college so they could be successful. He always told us to dream big and to think big.”

Success in business

Dr. Williams also was successful in business as the owner and operator of Williams and Sons Funeral Home, A&M Money Mortgage, A&M Trucking, A&M Wrecker Service, A&M Auto & Tire Sales, A&M Bail Bonding. He also had a number of rental properties throughout the city.

He served as assistant pastor and ordained elder at of Williams Temple Church of God in Christ.

Williams also was active in the community as a member of the American Dental Association, the Texas Funeral Home Commission and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc.

He also worked with former Houston Mayor Kathy Whitmire on various projects in a volunteer capacity.

“A lot of people pray, but Daddy was a true praying man,” said son John J. Williams, a human resource consultant.

“He spent hours a day praying in his personal prayer room and the chapel in his house. He would also go to the church every morning and pray before he went to the office. He believed that through prayer he could talk to God about anything, and that God would answer.”

15 survivors

Williams is survived by his wife, Annie; children, LeCretia Ann, Stephanie Ann, John John, Nandilyn Ann, John Mark, Lashunda Ann, Samuel John, and John Louther Jr.; and six grandchildren.

When Mill Etienne’s family fled Haiti in 1981, he was just 5 years old, not much bigger than the broken little body now stretched before him on a gurney aboard the USNS Comfort. Growing up in suburban New York, Etienne had wanted to sever any connection to that violent, impoverished Caribbean nation. He sought a comfortable American life and cringed at the sound of his family’s tropical lilt. He acted as if every book he devoured and every test he aced could help him forget the squalor. But when he turned on the TV the first night after Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake, he knew almost instantly that, as a neurologist and one of the few in the Navy who speaks Creole, he not only had to be there, he wanted nothing more.

Late last week, when Etienne bent over the seriously injured boy, with a foot wrapped in bandages to the knee and an intravenous line running from his little hand, he spoke softly to him in his native tongue. And he knew, with certainty, that he was doing his life’s work.

“The two countries that I’ve grown to know and love all my life, now I [am] on a mission to serve them both,” he said.

Lt. Cmdr. Etienne, 34, is one of the 1,100 doctors, nurses and support staff aboard the Comfort, a hospital ship that sailed from Baltimore to help some of Haiti’s most seriously injured quake victims.

On board, he is equal parts doctor and diplomat, in demand to treat patients and to help the medical staff and Haitians understand one another. As the ship sailed south, Etienne led its staff through a crash course in Creole.

As the only doctor and only officer aboard who speaks the French-based dialect, he worked with 15 others during the trip to arrange cultural awareness seminars and write a manual describing Haiti’s history and people.

“When they see a doctor that speaks their language, they feel like they’re at home, like this guy is looking out for them,” he said. “They’re going to trust me.”

Etienne and his seven brothers and sisters grew up in a town called Spring Valley, in suburban New York. His father drove a cab; his mother cleaned houses. Though their English was poor, his parents made sure their kids understood the value of education.

The message clearly got through to the young Mill.

Vinci Etienne remembers his little brother being so excited about school that he would be up and dressed earlier than anyone else, standing at the front door with his lunch box.

Mill Etienne knew in high school that he wanted to be a doctor. He won admission to Yale. His sister, Murille, suspects that some of his drive to excel stems from watching his parents struggle to make a living.

“It frustrated him to see how hard my parents worked, wanting us to have everything they didn’t have,” she said. “He tried very hard to be the best.”

It was in high school that Etienne, on a path to success himself, became almost obsessed with helping underprivileged children join him.

While in 10th grade, he was the creator and host of a local cable television show that spotlighted role models, and he tutored the neighbor’s kids. After he started at Yale, he’d make the nearly two-hour trip home once a month to tape new episodes.

He won a prestigious Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans in 1998 that largely paid for his medical degree at New York Medical College. More than a decade later, fellowship director Warren Illchman remembers him as a standout in his pool of achievers.

“When I got his e-mail saying he was going to Haiti, I was not surprised. He was never looking just to be a doctor. He wanted to be a doctor to do something.”

In medical school, Etienne volunteered to be a mentor to young people in the Bronx, tutoring them in physics and helping them to prepare for college interviews.

“Even after he graduated, he’d come back on Saturdays to help teach,” said Marva Richards, who coordinates the volunteer program and came to know Etienne as a person she could call when she needed anything. “I think it’s just his nature. I always say, ‘Some people are born to be healers,’ and he’s really that kind of person – a real doctor.”

After medical school, he signed on with the Navy, completed his residency in neurology at Columbia University Medical Center, and then simultaneously earned a master’s degree in public health while completing two more fellowships. Somehow, Etienne, who is single, also found time to tutor minority high school students through a chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha service fraternity based in Harlem.

His hospital colleagues were appalled that he was joining the military.

“They thought it was career suicide,” Etienne said.

He says they couldn’t have been more wrong. He liked taking care of patients in New York, but says taking care of the troops is even more fulfilling. He feels better helping those who have made deep sacrifices, those who have literally given themselves for their country.

It’s not that Etienne is so patriotic. His desire to become an American citizen only evolved after medical school when it occurred to him: “Wow, I’ve really gotten a lot from being in the United States. I’m really proud to be here, and I want to be an American. One day, it just struck me.”

Etienne has been on active duty in Bethesda, where a large Navy hospital is located, since August. He has offered to help the medical center start an epilepsy center, his specialty.

And he’s thrilled that his service is taking him to Haiti. Hours after the earthquake, he’d gone into his office to resolve all of his projects so that he would be free to take leave and head to the disaster site. But before Etienne could ask his supervisor for time off, he heard the Comfort crew needed a neurologist and promptly volunteered.

“I was like, ‘Oh, so you’re going to pay me to go do what I’d be doing anyway?’ ” he said, laughing. “This is what I’d be doing right now, regardless.”

Etienne’s mother wept when she heard that her son was on his way to Haiti – not out of fear but out of joy.

With her son aboard the Comfort this week, Marie Etienne was in the Dominican Republic, trying to get to Haiti. The family still has many relatives and friends there.

Etienne last visited Haiti on vacation in 2004. He was not treated like a native. They knew somehow that he was an American. Perhaps it was his clothes, his accent, maybe his conspicuous lack of poverty.

This time, he’s hoping to be one of them. In essence, anyway. He’s pretty sure it’s why God told him to join the Navy.

He’s met dozens of Haitians already, the patients quickly filling the ship’s 1,000 beds. He’s listened to their terrible stories – about houses falling on top of them, how in a matter of seconds, they became homeless with five children in tow. He’s seen the paralyzed and those who have lost limbs.

But he has also seen a lot of people smiling. And he’d like to think he’s had a hand in that.

“You can’t save everyone,” Etienne said. “But we can help as many as we can.”

Charles Green was committed to ensuring the best educational tools for Detroit’s students.

Working for more than 20 years as a research associate for Detroit Public Schools’ Office of Research, Evaluation, Assessment & Accountability, Mr. Green examined various projects and programs at schools throughout the district to determine if each met performance standards.

“That’s what we believed in,” said Linda Leddick, the office’s former executive director. “He believed in trying to make things as good as they could be.”

Mr. Green died Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010, after an illness. He was 82.

Born Oct. 17, 1927, he grew up on the city’s west side and graduated from Northwestern High School.

After serving in the Army Air Forces during World War II, he earned a bachelor’s degree in educational and clinical psychology from the University of Michigan in 1952, and a doctorate in research evaluation and psychology from Wayne State University.

For years, he taught special education in DPS. He also was a clinical psychologist who practiced privately for more than 15 years and worked as an adjunct instructor for Wayne County Community College District, relatives said.

A former special education director at Northville State Hospital, Mr. Green also was a human relations consultant for the Detroit and Milwaukee education boards and co-authored several publications, associates said.

For years, he was a stress management consultant for the Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency and volunteered as a city mediator, said his wife, Marilyn.

Mr. Green also was involved with numerous groups, including the Association of Black Psychologists; Boy Scouts of America; Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Detroit; and Alpha Phi Alpha.

Another love was the WestSiders, a group chronicling the history of the area where he grew up. Serving as its president, Mr. Green also researched and compiled several portions of a book by the group, said Suesetta McCree, a longtime member. “He spent a lot of time and energy. He was quite a scholar.”

Mr. Green loved boating on the Detroit River and traveling. In March, he and his wife trekked to Israel. “He just wanted to walk in the steps of pharaohs and kings,” Marilyn Green said.

Other survivors include a daughter, Iris Diop; a son, Robin Green; a stepdaughter, Monique Harper; three grandchildren; one great-grandchild; five step-grandchildren; one step-great-grandchild; and a sister, Betty Harris.

Grammy-award winner Brother Lionel Richie added another high honor to his mantle of awards. The UNCF has honored Richie with its “Award of Excellence.”

Bro. Richie’s honor was given at the “Night of Stars” event. Since his early days studying music in high school and college, Richie has been a mainstay in music since the 1970s when the group The Commodores signed with Motown.

As a solo act he went on to achieve many accolades and awards as a singer, songwriter and record producer. UNCF chose Bro. Richie for his undying and heralded efforts for advancing the cause of accessibility to education for minority students.

“Bro. Richie, has not left behind his fellow man; he has truly demonstrated the fundamental belief that everyone has a chance to succeed through education,” said Herman “Skip” Mason, Jr., general president of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. “Lionel through his efforts has provided for the forgotten and neglected so they can succeed in college and life.”

Bro. Richie joined an elite group of individuals who have won the high honor including Lou Rawls, Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson and Patti LaBelle.

Richie, matriculated at Tuskegee University, and was later initiated into the fraternity at Alpha Nu Lambda (Alumni) Chapter in 1996.

The UNCF, United Negro College Fund, An Evening of Stars event is scheduled to air January 2010 nationwide.

The group’s national president, Barbara McKinzie, has come under fire for a long list of alleged financial misdeeds. The most interesting of those allegations: The plaintiffs claim McKinzie used the organization’s money to commission a $900,000 “living legacy wax figure” of herself.

McKinzie could not be reached for comment.

Eight members of Alpha Kappa Alpha filed the complaint in D.C. Superior Court on June 20 “to restore their beloved sorority to its former high standards of governance, corporate transparency and active member communication,” according to the complaint itself.

Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) was founded at Howard University in 1908 and now boasts more than 950 chapters in cities and colleges around the world, claiming more than 200,000 members that include some of the most prominent and successful black female business leaders in the country.

The membership rolls include at least one retired D.C. Superior Court judge, Mary Terrell, and former D.C. Mayor Sharon Pratt.

Most Washingtonians recall the organization’s centennial celebration last summer — downtown D.C. was swarmed by thousands of AKA members decked head to toe in pink and green. The event drew nearly 20,000 guests to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, setting a Guinness world record for the largest sit-down dinner in the history of conventions worldwide.

The event itself, though, is part of the controversy. The massive attendance — and a registration fee that was twice as high as it had been in prior years, $500 per person — generated significant surplus funds for the organization, the plaintiffs allege. The plaintiffs claim that McKinzie, with the approval of the group’s directors but without the approval of the overall membership, spent the surplus funds on McKinzie’s “pet projects,” including the wax figure, projects to help Liberian women, the Ford Museum and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History.

In addition, the plaintiffs took issue with McKinzie’s alleged misuse of a corporate credit card for personal expenses, a $375,000 lump sum payment McKinzie received, and a $4,000 monthly stipend McKinzie is to be paid for four years after she leaves office.

According to the complaint, McKinzie’s position is typically an unpaid one, and the payments allegedly should have been included in a budget to be discussed at the group’s 2008 annual meeting, called the Boulé. McKinzie first delayed that budget discussion and then canceled it, the complaint alleges.

The group’s directors have asserted in the past that the payments were to compensate McKinzie for a significant amount of accounting and consulting work she did on behalf of the organization.

The group’s accounting and investment strategies are also under fire. According to the complaint, several of the deductions on the sorority’s 2006 and 2007 tax returns are “unreasonably large and inappropriate” and may “expose[] the organization to potential IRS claims and obligations.” The sorority is a non-profit organization incorporated under D.C. law. It also has a non-profit foundation that is incorporated in Illinois.

Under McKinzie’s leadership, AKA also shifted several million dollars of the sorority’s and the foundation’s funds from cash and cash equivalents to stock and bond investments — those investments have since plummeted in value, according to the complaint.

The organization has also allegedly spent more than $500,000 in legal fees in 2008 and 2009 for “actions against whistleblowers.”

Members who have voiced concerns over the alleged financial improprieties have had their membership privileges “withdrawn, suspended and otherwise adversely affected,” according to the complaint.

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