Honoring Our Own

ive alumni were celebrated for their achievements and service during UM’s Black Alumni and Family Reunion. The honorees included Dorothye (Dottie) Quaye Chapman Reed, Robert M. Walker, Nate Wayne, Tina Mabry and Edith H. Kelly-Green.

They were honored at a dinner hosted by the Ole Miss Alumni Association during the Black Alumni and Family Reunion and during halftime of the Ole Miss-Mississippi State basketball game that weekend.

“What I enjoyed most about this reunion was the sharing of the history of those who traveled the road before us,” Ole Miss Alumni Association President Rose Flenorl said of the awards. “We honored the trailblazers who made our journey easier. We paid our respects and said, ‘Thank you.’”

Dorothye “Dottie” Quaye Chapman Reed

Dorothye “Dottie” Quaye Chapman Reed (BA 74) of Atlanta received the Dr. Jeanette Jennings Trailblazer Award, which recognizes Ole Miss alumni or former students who served vital roles in the progress of black faculty, staff, alumni and/or students on campus. The award is named for Jeanette Jennings, who was hired at UM in 1970 as the first black faculty member. She taught social work and was co-adviser of the Black Studies Program.

Reed spent three years as the first black admissions counselor at UM and four years as assistant director of the Student Center at East Tennessee State University. She has more than 20 years of corporate experience with two Fortune 500 companies. She is the associate editorial manager for the southeast region in the Construction Information Division of The McGraw-Hill Companies. She is an active member of the National Association of Women in Construction and a certified NXLevel entrepreneurial trainer and construction industry technician. She and her husband, Donald L. Reed Sr., reside in Atlanta. They are the parents of three sons.

Robert M. Walker

Robert M. Walker (BA 68) of Jackson received the Reverend Wayne Johnson Community and Civic Award, which recognizes exceptional service by Ole Miss alumni or former students through commitments to their communities in civic, ministerial or volunteer capacities. A native of Oxford, Wayne Johnson was instrumental in founding the Oxford Development Association and its many programs: a cafe, day-care center, co-op grocery and credit union.
Walker, chief administrative officer for the city of Jackson, was the first black person to receive a graduate degree from the university and received UM’s Distinguished Service Award in 1989. A former instructor and history professor at UM, Rust College, Tougaloo College and Jackson State University, he also served as a guest lecturer at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. A member of the Mississippi Civil War Battlefields Commission, he was a founding member of the Foundation for the Mid-South, served as chairman of the board of commissioners of the Mississippi Library Commission and has received a number of gubernatorial appointments. Walker was elected to the Warren County Board of Supervisors twice, and mayor of the city of Vicksburg three times. During his first term as mayor, he formed the Mississippi African American Monument Committee, which led to the creation of a monument commemorating the service of infantry regiments of African descent in the Vicksburg National Military Park in 2004. He was recognized as Mississippi’s Public Administrator of the Year in 1993. He and his wife, Sylvia, have three daughters and three grandsons.

Nate Wayne

Nate Wayne (BA 98) of Duluth, Ga., received the Celebrated Athletic Award, which recognizes former Ole Miss student athletes or coaches for success in the field of athletics after their tenure at the university. Wayne played for the Ole Miss Rebels football team and is a past recipient of the Chucky Mullins Courage Award. With an undergraduate degree in criminal justice, he worked briefly for the Oxford Police Department before being drafted by the Denver Broncos in 1998. During his two-year tenure, the Broncos won Super Bowl XXXIII. He later played for the Green Bay Packers, where he became known as “Mr. Monday Night” due to his tendency to make big plays. Wayne signed a four-year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2003 and played with the team in Super Bowl XXXIX. Wayne and his wife, Tamiko, own and operate Knight Sports, Inc., a sports agency firm, and a Cold Stone Creamery in Atlantic Station in Duluth. They have three children.

Tina Mabry

A native of Tupelo, Tina Mabry (BA 00) of Los Angeles earned her bachelor’s degree in political science and psychology from UM in 2000. She later attended the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television, where she received an MFA in film production in 2005. More than 50 film festivals worldwide have accepted her short film “Brooklyn Bridge to Jordan,” and it has won multiple jury and audience awards, including best director. The film has aired on Showtime and BET J, and it was voted No. 1 on the season finale of Logo’s “The Chick List: Best in Short Film.” Mabry’s directorial debut project was “Mississippi Damned,” an independent feature film based on her personal experiences growing up in rural Mississippi. She is writing a supernatural thriller for director Pratibha Parmar, who directed the documentary “Warrior Marks.” Mabry was honored with the Alumni Achievement Award for exceptional achievement in her professional field.

Edith H. Kelly-Green

Edith H. Kelly-Green (BBA 73) of Memphis was inducted into the Ole Miss Hall of Fame in 1999. She is the founding chair of the Ole Miss Women’s Council for Philanthropy and funded a $100,000 endowed scholarship through that group. She has served as a board member of The University of Mississippi Foundation and MomentUM Campaign. She is on the executive board of the Ole Miss Alumni Association and sponsored a room at The Inn at Ole Miss. After earning her bachelor’s degree in 1973, Kelly-Green became the first black professional employee at Deloitte & Touche, LLP, in Memphis. She passed the Certified Public Accountant exam and rose to senior accountant there. She then worked for FedEx for almost 30 years, becoming the first black woman there to attain officer status. As vice president of internal audit and quality, she received three Five Star Awards, the highest performance award from the company. Before retiring in 2003, Kelly-Green served as interim chief executive officer of Aeroxchange, a multiairline global e-commerce marketplace formed by FedEx and 11 other major airlines. She owns Kelly-Green Enterprises, LLC, which invests in real estate and food and beverage franchises, such as Lenny’s Sub Shop. Green also received the Alumni Achievement Award for exceptional achievement in her professional field.