Jesse Eugene Russell

Jesse Eugene Russell is an African-American inventor and one of the visionaries’ whose innovative perspectives profoundly influenced the wireless communications industry, the driver of growth in 21st century. Trained as an electrical engineer at Tennessee State University and Stanford University, and recognized globally as a thought-leader, technology expert and inventor in the field of wireless communication for over 20 years, Russell has played a major role in shaping the wireless communications industry direction through his visionary leadership and innovative perspectives for standards, technologies as well as innovative new wireless service concepts.

He holds numerous patents and continues to invent and innovate in the emerging area of next generation broadband wireless networks, technologies and services, which is frequently referred to as 4G. Russell was inducted into the United States’ National Academy of Engineering during the Clinton Administration for his innovative contribution to the field of Wireless Communication. He pioneered the field of digital cellular communication in the 80s through the use of high power linear amplification and low bit rate voice encoding technologies and received a patent in 1992 (US patent # 5,084,869) for his work in the area of digital cellular base station design.

Russell is currently Chairman and CEO of incNETWORKS,Inc. a New Jersey, USA based Broadband Wireless Communications Company focused on 4th Generation (4G) Broadband Wireless Communications Technologies, Networks and Services.

Early Life

Jesse Eugene Russell was born April 26, 1948 in Hickville, Tennessee in the United States of America into a large African-American family with eight brothers and two sisters. He is the son of Charles Albert Russell and Mary Louise Russell. His early childhood was spent in economically and socially challenged neighborhoods within the inner-city of Nashville. During his early years, he focused on athletics and not academics.

Education

A key turning point in Russell’s life was the opportunity to attend a summer educational program at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. Russell participated in this educational opportunity and began his academic and intellectual pursuits. Russell continued his education at Tennessee State University Tennessee State University where he focused on electrical engineering. A Bachelor of Science Degree (BSEE) in Electrical Engineering was conferred in 1972 from Tennessee State University. As a top honor student in the School of Engineering, Russell became the first African American to be hired directly from a Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) by AT&T Bell Laboratories and subsequently became the first African-American in the United States to be selected as the Eta Kappa Nu Outstanding Young Electrical Engineer of the Year in 1980. Russell continued his academic pursuits and obtained his Master of Electrical Engineering (MSEE) degree from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, in 1973.

Inventions & Patents

Russell’s innovations in wireless communication systems, architectures and technology related to radio access networks, end user devices and in-building wireless communication systems has fundamentally changed the wireless communication industry. Known for his patented invention of the digital cellular base station, that enabled new digital services for cellular mobile users, Russell continues to innovate in the emerging next generation broadband wireless communication technologies, products, networks, and services as well as “Mobile Cloud Computing” which are shaping the forefront of the 4G Communication Industry.

Over 100 patents granted or in process, thirty years of experience in Research and Development at prominent institutions, and pioneering technologies such as the invention of the first digital cellular base station and fiber optic microcell utilizing high power linear amplifier technology and digital modulation techniques, which laid the foundation for the digital cellular evolution, digital cellular standards, personal communications networks as well as the emergence of “Mobile Cloud Computing” within 4G broadband wireless networks. These are only some of the inventions that have forged new directions for the wireless communication industry. Listed below are a few significant patents.

Other Professional Accomplishments

Jesse is currently building the first Broadband Wireless Communications Network focused on 4th Generation Hybrid Fiber-Wireless Communications Networks and Technologies that is fully compliant with International Telecommunications Union (ITU) standards. Russell continues to innovate and invent new wireless communications technology solutions as the Chief Executive Officer of incNETWORKS which designs, sells, and manages privately owned broadband wireless communications’ equipment and networks for emerging broadband cellular applications based on Software Defined Radio and Cognitive Radio techniques. Offering broadband wireless communications solutions to small and mid-size business customers, incNETWORKS is one of the emerging technology leaders in the development of MicroLTE product platforms for 4G.

Russell joined Bell Labs as a Member of the Technical Staff. He was one of the first designers to embrace the use of microprocessor in the design of equipment for use in the telecommunication network for monitoring and tracking calling patterns within the Bell System Network. The system was referred to as the traffic data collection systems, which using a microprocessor-based portable data terminals for interfacing to electro-mechanical switching systems.

Russell’s career, and knowledge in wireless technology and standards advanced, while he served in numerous positions; Director of the AT&T Cellular Telecommunication Laboratory (Bell Labs), Vice President of Advanced Wireless Technology Laboratory (Bell Labs), Chief Technical Officer for the Network Wireless Systems Business Unit (Bell Labs), Chief Wireless Architect of AT&T, and Vice President of Advanced Communications Technologies for AT&T Laboratories (formerly a part of Bell Labs).

As the Director of the AT&T Cellular Telecommunication Laboratory (Bell Labs), this Bell Labs Group formally managed by Russell is credited with the invention of cellular radio technology and received the United States’ Medal of Technology for the invention.

Russell continued to develop his expertise as he established and lead an Innovation Center focused on Applied Research in Advanced Communication Technologies that enabling AT&T to extend its existing portfolio of services and expand into new businesses and markets. As a key decision maker in the selection and development of emerging communications technologies, Russell’s efforts lead to the rapid realization of new access network platforms that enable AT&T to expand it’s broadband communication network options (i.e., Specialization: Cable Access Networks, DSL Access Networks, Power-line Carrier Access Networks, Fixed Wireless Access Networks, Satellite Access Networks and Broadband Wireless Communications Networks). The applications of these access technologies were one of the keys in expanding AT&T’s interest in re-building it local access services business.

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Information from Wikipedia

Video from Passing the Torch TV.

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“Chad’s promotion recognizes his outstanding research work, innovative teaching, and exemplary service,” said Department Chair Roberto Tamassia.

Education

Dr. Jenkins earned his B.S. in Computer Science and Mathematics at Alma College (1996), M.S. in Computer Science at Georgia Tech (1998), and Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Southern California (2003). Prof. Jenkins was selected as a Sloan Research Fellow in 2009.

Awards

Dr. Jenkins was selected as a Sloan Research Fellow in 2009. He is a recipient of a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) for his work in physics-based human tracking and of a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his work on robot learning from multivalued human demonstrations. He also received Young Investigator awards from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) for his research in learning dynamical primitives from human motion and from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) for his work in manifold learning and multi-robot coordination.

Research

Dr. Jenkin’s research addresses problems in robot learning and human-robot interaction, primarily focused on robot learning from demonstration, as well as topics in computer vision, machine learning, and computer animation. Videos of Chad’s current research work can be found on the YouTube channel of the Brown Robotics Group. Visit http://brown-robotics.org to learn more about Dr. Jenkin’s Robotics Lab at Brown University.

Prof. Jenkins’ work strives to address three basic questions. First, how can we capture data from the world that is representative of human performance? Second, how can machine learning and data analysis be used to extract dynamical structure from performance data? Lastly, how can we utilize learned dynamics for building autonomous robot controllers and perception mechanisms?

His previous efforts were mostly geared towards humanoid robotics with respect to learning primitive behaviors for robot control through imitation. More generally, he addresses perception, control, and learning issues at the intersection of robotics, computer vision, computer animation, machine learning and interactive systems.

Author

In 2009, Chad co-authored Creating Games: Mechanics, Content, and Technology with Brown CS alum Morgan McGuire. He has also authored chapters for several other books, including Data-Driven 3D Facial Animation, Human-Robot Interaction and From Motor to Interaction Learning in Robots.

“I consider myself very fortunate to be a part of the Computer Science Department at Brown,” said Chad. “My promotion is both a reflection of the supportive culture and community spirit of the department as well as the hard work of the students and post-docs who have been in my group. I look forward to continued success at Brown, especially with our new robotics lab space in the CIT building.”

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Education

Shelton holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Atlanta’s Morehouse College as well as master’s degrees in business administration and education from Stanford University.

Role of Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement

In this role, Shelton will help oversee the development and grant process for two new Education Department programs created as part of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: the $4.35 billion Race to the Top Fund and the $650 million “Invest in What Works and Innovation” Fund.

These two programs will give the federal government leeway to reward districts and states that are deemed to be making substantial progress on student achievement.

Career

Previously, he served as a program director for the education division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, managing the foundation’s national programs and work in the northeast region of the United States. Shelton has also been a partner and the East Coast lead for New Schools Venture Fund and co-founded LearnNow, a school management company that later was acquired by Edison Schools. He spent over four years as a senior management consultant with McKinsey & Company in Atlanta, Ga., where he advised CEOs and other executives on issues related to corporate strategy, business development, organizational design, and operational effectiveness. Upon leaving McKinsey, he joined Knowledge Universe, Inc., where he launched, acquired and operated education-related businesses.

The Department of Education

The U.S. Department of Education was created in 1980 by combining offices from several federal agencies. Its mission is to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access. The department has 4,200 employees and a $68.6 billion budget.

Take a look at where James Shelton fits within this picture.

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Education

Mr. Phillips holds a BS in Computer Science from the United States Air Force Academy, a JD from New York Law School, and an MBA from Hampton University.

Career

Before joining Oracle, Mr. Phillips was with Morgan Stanley, a global investment bank. Prior to Wall Street, Mr. Phillips served as a Captain in the United States Marine Corps in the 2nd Battalion, 10th Marines.

Service

Mr. Phillips is on the boards of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, The American Museum of Natural History, New York Law School, and Viacom Inc. In February 2009, Mr. Phillips was appointed as a member to the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

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Education

She received her master’s and doctoral degree from Virginia Tech’s department of Industrial and System’s Engineering Human Factors Engineering and Ergonomics program with a certificate from the Center for Human-Computer Interaction.

Research / Career

Dr. Montague’s research explores the role of trust in technology in systems. She looks at why humans trust or distrust technology, the effects of trusting attitudes on system performance, and designing for appropriate trust. Dr. Montague has conducted research at Old Dominion University, the Virginia Modeling and Simulation Center, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Virginia Tech and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is currently the Director of the HCI Laboratory at th University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. Montague at the HCI Lab at University of Wisconsin-Madison

Dr. Enid Montague and the HCI lab hosted an interactive talk about human-centered computing and engineering. The students participated in a series of interactive activities to show why human capabilities and limitations are necessary for good designs. The students then used participatory design methods to work on teams to brainstorm about solutions to an important problem; texting while driving. Graduate students from the human factors and ergonomics society student chapter helped with the activities and spoke about what inspired them to become engineers and why they really love what they do. Dr. Barker a professor from Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Missouri joined in the activities and plans to give a similar presentation to junior high students at Missouri later this summer.

More information about Dr. Montague and her work can be found at http://www.enidmontague.com

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“Dean Monroe has shown exemplary leadership in our prestigious College of Engineering, the nation’s No. 1 producer of African American engineers,” Thompson said (North Carolina A&T State University Interim Provost & Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Alton Thompson). “As one of our 1962 engineering mathematics graduates, Monroe brought valuable high-tech contributions to his beloved alma mater following a celebrated military, higher education and international career.”

Education

Dr. Joseph Monroe earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Mathematics from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University (NCA&TSU) in 1962.
Dr. Monroe then achieved a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from Texas Agricultural & Mechanical University (TAMU) in 1967.

Leadership

Dr. Monroe was a founding member of the first Computer Science Honor Society, Upsilon Pi Epsilon (UPE), in this same year (1967). UPE is the only national and international honor society in Computer Science; its purpose is to promote outstanding scholarship and original investigation in the field of computer science.

Career

Dr. Monroe subsequently assumed a faculty position at the United States Air Force Academy, where he advanced through both the academic and the military ranks during twenty-one years of service. He rose from Instructor to full Professor and from Captain to full Colonel while at the Academy.

United States Air Force Academy

In 1978, Dr. Monroe became the first African-American Permanent Professor at the United States Air Force Academy. This type of appointment is an honor of great distinction. There are no appointments at civilian institutions of higher learning that are equivalent to this appointment. Permanent Professors at the United States Air Force Academy are selected from the entire Air Force and they must have both outstanding academic qualifications and documented achievements of extraordinary significance. The President of the United States, with the advice and consent of the United States Senate, has the exclusive privilege to appoint Permanent Professors at the Academy. Dr. Monroe joined a very elite group of only twenty-two Permanent Professors out of a faculty of six hundred members when he received this appointment.

Other Positions

Dr. Monroe succeeded in numerous positions during his tenure at the Air Force Academy. He was the Assistant Dean of Faculty (1978-1981), the Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering (1981-1982) and the Head of the Department of Computer Science (1982-1987). In 1985, he hosted a successful accreditation visit by the Computer Science Accrediting Board (CSAB). The computer science program at the Academy was not only accredited during this visit; it joined the very first group of programs to be accredited by CSAB. Since this visit, Dr. Monroe continues to serve as an annual Visitor for CSAB and he has developed, delivered, and implemented accredited computer science programs for the Egyptian Air Force Academy, the Royal Thai Air Force Academy, Fayetteville State University, and North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University.

Leadership at North Carolina A&T

A strong proponent of professionalism in the engineering curricula with concern for undergraduate students, Monroe led an intense focus for all students in the college to obtain their professional licensure as engineers. A&T students are now more likely to take the exam required for this licensure, and are now passing the exam at a rate that is equal to or above the national average.

Monroe led the development of new programs in computer engineering, geomatics, computational science and engineering, and biomedical engineering (fall 2009 deployment). Geomatics leads A&T in the establishment of on-line courses, which will result in increasing professionalism in the surveying profession. In addition, all programs recently reviewed by ABET, the professional accrediting agency for colleges/schools of engineering, were successfully accredited.

Under Monroe’s leadership, A&T now has the most tenured or tenure track African American engineering professors in the nation. This is vital for A&T’s status as a national leader in the production of African American engineers at the bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. levels. During Monroe’s tenure, A&T graduated 21 Ph.D. engineers in 2004 and consequently achieved reclassification by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a “high research activity” doctoral university. He has vigorously supported research efforts and was instrumental in A&T’s No. 3 rank in the UNC System for research funding (over $11,400,000 awarded to COE in 2007-2008). A&T was awarded an Engineering Research Center (ERC) by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2008. A&T is the first HBCU to obtain this award.
A native of North Carolina, Monroe is a strong proponent of collaborations that fosters A&T’s mission in the region and the state. In March 2009, he hosted a conference with two-year colleges across the state and the geomatics program at A&T to ensure a seamless transition for North Carolina students who wish to continue their geomatics training beyond the two-year level. He has vigorously supported many initiatives to ensure a seamless transition for two-year college students into all the engineering programs at A&T.

Other Accomplishments at NC A&T

Since joining the University of North Carolina System, Dr. Monroe has also succeeded in many different capacities. He was the Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs for the General Administration of this system from 1987 to 1988. Dr. Monroe then assumed the position of Vice Chancellor for Advancement at Fayetteville State University (1988-1989). He was Vice- Chancellor for Academic Affairs at Fayetteville State University from 1989 to 1991. In 1991, Dr. Monroe was awarded the distinguished Ronald E. McNair Endowed Chair Professorship in Computer Science at NCA&TSU, an appointment that he still vigorously holds today. He was also appointed Chair of the Department of Computer Science in 1991 and he chaired this department until the end of the 2000 academic year. Dr. Monroe is currently the Dean of the College of Engineering at NCA&TSU. In addition, he is a board member of the Board of Directors for the Industries of the Blind (since 1995), a board member of the Board of Directors for Computing at NASA (since 1995), and a Member the Board that governs the practice of Engineering and Surveying in North Carolina (since 1998).

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Information obtained from NC A&T’s website – http://www.ncat.edu.

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Education

Erich received a Ph.D. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from M.I.T. and a B.S., Phi Beta Kappa, in Physics and Mathematics from Morehouse College.

Career

He also leads the development of Newark’s implementation plan for First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” childhood obesity campaign. Prior to government service, Erich worked as an Associate at McKinsey & Company, focusing on public sector projects. There, he led the design and implementation of an improved textbook delivery system for a 50,000-student urban school district, and established and supervised a project management office that coordinated 36 initiatives designed to improve customer satisfaction for a multi-billion dollar company.

Service

Caufield delivers 2004 Commencement at MIT

He has served as an elected member of the Board of Trustees for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), where, as an international award-winning student researcher and Graduate Student Body President, he became the only person in the University’s history to receive all three of its highest distinctions for leadership and student life contributions.

Caulfield delivered MIT’s 2004 Commencement.

He’s certainly one to watch…

—

Information obtained from 2010 White House Fellow Announcement.

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It’s March 2007, and there’s Jacob Melvin, a senior computer science major at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He’s got a two-point-something grade point average, and he’s barely hanging on in a required class. He’s not worried about trying to land his dream job. He’s worried about graduating.

Flash forward a few years. Melvin is now a technical director for DreamWorks Animation SKG in Glendale, Calif. He worked on Kung Fu Panda and is finishing up How to Train Your Dragon, due to hit theaters next month. He spends his days on the spectacular DreamWorks Animation campus, where fountains and streams wander through olive groves, palm trees shelter a beach volleyball court, and movie stars and famous directors drop by for screenings at the 148-seat theater. Emmys and Oscars glitter above cool tile floors, and the stunningly good food in the cafeteria is free.

Some guys have all the luck, huh?

Jacob Melvin

Actually, it wasn’t luck that landed Melvin the job. It was obsession. His grades in college were marginal not because he wasn’t interested in studying computers but rather because he was too interested in computer applications that weren’t in the curriculum. He liked video games—particularly the animation sequences between levels—and wanted to create them. These days, some 250 U.S. colleges offer majors in video-game design. Not so then.

As a computer science major, Melvin quickly found out that his professors expected him to study computer security or networking systems, because that’s where local jobs were.

That ”made me want to get a new major,” he says, but instead he stuck with it, adding classes in media arts (targeted more toward film majors) and graphic design.

Finally, in the last of his four years, the university offered a single class in game design, focused on educational simulations.

He took the course and developed a strategy game based on the U.S. Revolutionary War. It was the first time he’d ever built a game end to end. Previously, he’d spent his spare time on small projects related to game design—he made a 3-D rain simulator, for example.

The experience was disillusioning. ”I liked the graphics part but not all the minute details,” Melvin says. ”You have to think of everything a player could do and make sure that you have that case covered. That can get really tedious.”

Meanwhile, for his senior project he was working with a local company designing a Web-based tool to convert still photographs into comic-strip art. Melvin wrote software to segment the photographic image, grouping pixels together to form objects. He found the task fascinating but had no idea where it might lead.

In March 2007, Melvin flew to Columbus, Ohio, for the National Society of Black Engineers’ career fair. He planned to hand out résumés and then not think about the job hunt again until he was sure he would be graduating.

Passing a booth, he picked up a brochure and started reading an article about the making of the movie Shrek. A man stepped forward to chat, asking him questions about his interests and education.

”I kept answering his questions, but I didn’t look up, because I was interested in the article,” Melvin says. Finally, he finished reading and only then noticed that the man was wearing a polo shirt with the Shrek logo. The lightbulb went on. ”This guy’s from DreamWorks and is interviewing me,” he thought.

He gave the DreamWorks rep his résumé. The next day, he met with several more managers. By the end of the weekend, the DreamWorks folks told Melvin to expect a job offer in the mail.

”I would say my senior project helped to get them to take me seriously,” Melvin says. ”And I told them that ever since high school the only option for me was graphics”—that he’d always intended to use everything he learned studying computers to do something with graphics.

Today, as a technical director, Melvin works with a team of animators. On a big movie—with 50 or more animators—he’ll be one of two or three technical directors. The animators are often trying to do things that have never been done before, and that causes problems. Melvin’s job is to fix those problems so the movie can get made, on time and within budget. He might rewrite old code, build a new software tool, or create a graphical user interface to let an animator work faster.

Melvin cites a recent example from How to Train Your Dragon. The character Stoick has a complex beard that needs to move naturally. This movement had to be simulated to make sure that the beard didn’t bump into things in the scene, but simulating Stoick and his beard took up to six times as long as it did for a simpler character. To make things worse, the existing software ran the individual character simulations sequentially, so Stoick’s appearance in a scene slowed the whole process down dramatically. Melvin rebuilt the pipeline to run multiple character simulations in parallel, so by the time the computer completed running Stoick, all the other character simulations were complete as well. ”Future movies will be better off because we have tools in place for these kinds of setups,” he says.

Melvin intends to stay in the movie industry but may branch out from his current role; he’s intrigued by crowd programming and by character rigging, which basically involves writing the code that defines how an animated character moves.

For now, though, at age 26, he’s pretty pleased with his career.

”Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon, I think, are movies that will be classics. My kids will watch them. Which means that there are millions of other kids that are going to be watching those same movies over and over. And I was actually a part of them.”

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Most recently, he has built (designed, programmed, launched) a white label social networking platform called Connect Platform (www.connectplatform.com). The service targets Black entrepreneurs, organizations, and businesses to help them create their very own revenue-generating social networks.

In partnership with Diversity City Media, his company has already launched over 15 different sites. The big ones are BlackHistory.com – an online encyclopedia and social network for Black history and culture, BlackWomenConnect.com – the first ever social network for professional Black women, BlackInAmerica.com – the first ever social network for socially-conscious African Americans, and BlackCEOs.com – a social network for Black Business owners. All of the sites are growing exponentially with thousands of active members signing up daily.

Early Life

William R. Moss III was born in Columbus, Ohio. From an early age he loved computers, going online, and learning new things. At the age of 10, Moss wrote his very first computer program in Basic for the Commodore 64 computer. The program Moss wrote allowed him to use his computer and a modem to go “online” and connect to other computer “BBS” or Bulletin Board Systems over the family phone lines. Moss was fascinated with the computer to computer communications and how easy it was to write and download software for fun.

Education

William went on to obtain a B.S. degree in Computer Science degree from Hampton University in 1995 and graduate as the top Computer Scholar in his class. He also studied towards an MBA in Marketing from Keller School of Business Management.

Career

After college Mr. Moss was recruited by AT&T/ Bell Labs to work as a lead software developer for complex network management systems. He developed software for proprietary network communications for customers such as Nippon Telephone in Japan. Wrote software in Java, C, C++, Perl and several unix scripting languages.

In 1999 he left AT&T to become a software development consultant for a small company in central Ohio. At that time, he created a website for the students and graduates of Historically Black Colleges and Universities called HBCUConnect.com.

HBCUConnect.com grew quickly by allowing students and graduates from Historically Black Colleges and Universities to connect online. HBCUConnect.com also boasted the first complete directory of HBCUs online, inventing the HBCU sub category on Yahoo.com. The website started serving the needs of advertisers and employers looking to reach the HBCU audience in 2002, at which time the website became his major focus. Don’t forget to check out the site’s Facebook Fan Page with over 25,000 fans.

Now serving many organizations in their needs to advertise, and recruit from this growing audience of over 900,000 HBCU students, graduates and recruits Mr. Moss has taken more of a consulting role for the corporations and organizations he serves. He is considered a ‘subject matter expert’ on black colleges, their students, and graduates and how to reach them.

Moss gives presentations to college students on entrepreneurship, career preparation, and the relevancy of technology to African Americans. Moss’ experience in corporate America as an intern, employee, and consultant lead to the development of HBCU Connect as an answer to the lack of an existing platform for HBCU students and graduates to communicate, network and take advantage of related opportunities.

More information about his services can be found on the following websites:

www.HBCUconnect.com
www.LeeMossMedia.com
www.WillMoss.com

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However, recently, we learned that the Atlanta Hawks paid tribute to them as Trailblazers during Black History Month.

Check out the video by clicking the link above.

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As a 13-year-old, Lithonia resident Stephen Stafford II can usually be found sitting in front of the television playing video games or playing his drum set. But Stafford is no typical 13-year old – he’s a college student. The triple-major child prodigy is becoming a sensation at Morehouse College.

“I’ve never taught a student as young as Stephen, and it’s been amazing,” said computer science professor Sonya Dennis. “He’s motivating other students to do better and makes them want to step up their game.”

“When I saw how much knowledge Stephen has at such a young age, I wondered what I had been doing with my life,” laughed third-year student, Eric Crawford. A psychology major and computer science minor, Crawford wanted to step up his game so much that he got Stephen to tutor him. “Even though I’m older, Stephen is like a mentor and my elder in computer science,” said Crawford.

“Eric’s a really fun person to be around, and we have a good time together,” said Stafford.

Crawford added, “Stephen has a lot of patience with me. I got a 95 in the class because of Stephen.”

Even at age 11 when Stafford started at Morehouse, he got the highest score in his pre-calculus class. “He breezes through whatever I throw at him. If it’s an hour lab, he can do it in 20 or 30 minutes,” said Dennis.

Stafford said he isn’t nervous about studying with students much older than himself. “I just do what I always did. I show up, I do the work, and I go home,” he said.

When talking to Stafford, it’s easy to forget his age. But his age shows when he’s playing video games or even at dinner, where he eats while also trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube. Still, Stafford finds it hard to relate to teens his age. “I relate better to Eric…most kids my age don’t know when to stop playing around and when to be serious,” he said.

Stafford’s mother, Michelle Brown-Stafford, home-schooled both her children (Stephen has an older sister also in college) and believes that parental involvement is essential for students to excel. But when she realized her son was starting to teach her instead of being taught, she knew he needed to be in a college environment.

“It was surreal because on one hand he’s talking about technical things I didn’t even understand, and on the other hand he was asking me to come watch Sponge Bob with him. So it was bittersweet to let him go.”

Brown-Stafford wondered if there were other parents who shared her experiences with a gifted child, so she helped found a support group: www.gifted-spirit.com.

And the Morehouse family has become a support group for Stafford, personifying the African proverb about it taking a village to raise a child. Stafford is too young to stay on campus, so his mother picks him up and drops him off each day. The students protect him and make a point not to curse or discuss certain mature issues around him, according to his mother and Stafford. Even the staff of Jazzman’s Café, where Stafford tutors Crawford, helps nurture Stephen into becoming a “Morehouse Renaissance Man”–well-spoken, well-dressed, well-read, well-traveled, and well-balanced. The cafe’s general Manager, Darren Page, added an unofficial principle: well-fed. “A Morehouse Man cannot study on an empty stomach,” said Page. So whenever Stafford comes to Jazzman’s, Page gives up his own employee meal for the 13-year-old.

It seems that everyone wants to be a part of helping Stafford graduate in 2012, and go on to Morehouse School of Medicine. And because of a Georgia law that requires a student to be 16 to graduate high school, he’ll be getting his high school diploma the same year he receives his college degrees in math, computer science and pre-med.

“Kids will live up to your expectations. But I ultimately want Stephen to be happy,” said Stephen Stafford Sr. Brown-Stafford added, “I want him to be well-rounded and still connect with kids his own age, so we put him in DeKalb County’s 4-H Club and other programs.” She added that she’s thankful to the Morehouse family for embracing her son.

“I want to see what Stephen becomes 10 years from now,” said Crawford. Page added, “I want to be at his graduation. And then I want to walk by and touch the [campus] statue of Dr. Martin Luther King and recognize I had a role in [Stephen] walking in Martin Luther King’s footsteps.” And how fitting, since Dr. King entered Morehouse at age 15.

So to put a spin on Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Stephen is being judged by the content of his character, not by his age.

===

Courtesy of Champion Newspaper, Dekalb County, Ga

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Ruth J. Simmons was sworn in as the 18th president of Brown University on July 3, 2001. She also holds an appointment as professor in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Department of Africana Studies. She was president of Smith College from 1995 until the time of her appointment at Brown.

Education
A native of Texas and a 1967 graduate of Dillard University in New Orleans, Simmons received her Ph.D. in Romance languages and literatures from Harvard University in 1973. She is fluent in French and has written on the works of David Diop and Aime Cesaire.

Career
In 1983, after serving as associate dean of the graduate school at the University of Southern California, Simmons joined the Princeton University administration. She remained at Princeton for seven years, leaving in 1990 for two years to serve as provost at Spelman College. Returning to Princeton in 1992 as vice provost, she remained at the university until June 30, 1995. As vice provost she was deputy to the provost and executive secretary of the Priorities Committee, the university’s budget committee. In 1993, invited by the president to review the state of race relations on the Princeton campus, Simmons wrote a report that resulted in a number of initiatives that received widespread attention. In 1995 she became president of Smith College, the largest women’s college in the United States, where she launched a number of strategic initiatives to strengthen the college’s academic programs and inaugurated the first engineering program at a U.S. women’s college.

Dr. Ruth Simmons

Simmons is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, and the Council on Foreign Relations. She is a current officer and past President of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, an Honorary Fellow at Selwyn College at Cambridge University, and she serves on a number of boards, including the Howard University Board of Trustees, Texas Instruments, and the Goldman Sachs Group. She was recently appointed by President Obama as a member of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships. Active in a wide range of educational, charitable, and civic endeavors, she holds honorary degrees from numerous colleges and universities, including Amherst College, Bard College, Howard University, Dillard University, Princeton University, Lake Forest College, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Dartmouth College, Boston University, Northeastern University, New York University, University of Pennsylvania, Mount Holyoke College, Washington University in St. Louis, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, The George Washington University, Columbia University, Harvard University, Ewha Womens College, University of Southern California, Tougaloo College, Jewish Theological Seminary, University of Toronto, Providence College, University of Vermont, Morehouse College, Spelman College, Union College, and The American College of Greece.

Awards
Simmons is the recipient of a number of prizes and fellowships, including the German DAAD and a Fulbright Fellowship to France. In 1997 she was awarded the Centennial Medal from Harvard University, in 1999 the Teachers College Medal for Distinguished Service from Columbia University, and in 2001 the President’s Award from the United Negro College Fund. She has been honored with the 2002 Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal and the 2002 “Drum Major for Justice” education award from Southern Christian Leadership Conference/WOMEN. In 2004 she received the ROBIE Humanitarian Award, given by the Jackie Robinson Foundation; the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal; and the chairman’s award of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. She was selected as a Newsweek “person to watch” and as a Ms. Woman of the Year in 2002. In 2001 Time magazine named her America’s best college president. In 2007, she was named one of U. S. News & World Report’s top U.S. leaders and — for the second time — a Glamour magazine Woman of the Year.

Recent Accomplishments
In recent years Simmons, an articulate spokesperson and writer, has written and delivered papers or presentations on a wide array of educational and public policy issues, including institutional governance, foreign language study, diversity, liberal arts, science education, leadership, and women in higher education. Among numerous educational institutions and national forums, she has been a featured speaker at the White House, the World Economic Forum, the National Press Club, the Association of American Universities, and the American Council on Education. In September 2001 ABC News tapped her to serve as a respondent during its live telecast following President Bush’s address to Congress.

During her tenure at Brown University, Simmons has created an ambitious set of initiatives designed to expand and strengthen the faculty; increase financial support and resources for undergraduate, graduate, and medical students; improve facilities; renew a broad commitment to shared governance; and ensure that diversity informs every dimension of the university. These initiatives have led to a major investment of new resources in Brown’s educational mission.

Dr. Ruth Simmons has been featured in Ebony Magazine’s POWER150 (December2009/January2010).

As an academic leader, Simmons believes in the power of education to transform lives. She champions the university as a haven of reasoned debate with the responsibility to challenge students intellectually and prepare them to become informed, conscientious citizens. She has spent her career advocating for a leadership role for higher education in the arena of national and global affairs.

===All information obtained from Dr. Simmons’ bio on Brown University’s website.

UPDATE February 2, 2010: Dr. Simmons is also a Honorary Member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. – the sorority’s highest honor.

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