Sonja Stills Named Commissioner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference

After a comprehensive and competitive national search by Parker Executive Search Firm, the MEAC Council of Presidents and Chancellors announced Sonja Stills as the next MEAC Commissioner effective January 1, 2022.

With Stills’ selection, she becomes the first female commissioner in MEAC and HBCU Division I history.

“On behalf of MEAC institutions’ presidents and chancellors, I am thrilled to welcome Ms. Stills as our next commissioner,” said Johnson O. Akinleye, Ph.D., chancellor of North Carolina Central University and chair of the MEAC Presidents and Chancellors Council. “Her extensive portfolio, experience and service with the MEAC make her uniquely prepared to elevate the conference in the coming years. As a proven leader who is making history for the MEAC, she is equally passionate about providing opportunities for our diverse student-athletes and building a portfolio of athletic and academic successes.”

“When we started the search process, my colleagues and I were clear-eyed,” Dr. Tony Allen, president of Delaware State University and chair of the MEAC Presidents and Chancellors Search Committee, said. We needed bold leadership for a new day in Division I sports and a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference that needed to take its rightful place in the NCAA. In Commissioner-Elect Stills, we hit the mark squarely – determined, durable, and able to lead a paradigmatic shift in our conference and across the collegiate athletic landscape. ‘Why Not Us…’”

“I’m honored to be named the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference’s next Commissioner,” Sonja Stills said. “I’ve learned a great deal in my tenure with the conference and look forward to continuing the MEAC’s history of excellence. Thank you to the MEAC Council of Presidents and Chancellors for this opportunity and thank you to Commissioner Dr. Dennis E. Thomas for your leadership and mentorship over the past 19 years.”

Stills currently serves as the Chief of Staff and Chief Operating Officer of the MEAC. With over 19 years of experience in assisting with articulating and developing a clear, strategic vision for the future of the conference, she brings an unmatched level of expertise to her new role as MEAC Commissioner. A 2021 MEAC 50th Anniversary Pioneers in Women’s Sports Award recipient, Stills embodies all that is the MEAC.

“Congratulations to Sonja Stills,” Dr. Dennis E. Thomas said. “I’m thrilled to see her hard work, determination, discipline and integrity being rewarded. Sonja has always demonstrated vision and a passion for student-athlete achievement, which is why I’m confident she will lead the MEAC to its next level of success.”

In addition to her roles as Chief of Staff and Chief Operating Officer, Stills also serves as the MEAC’s Director of Esports, a new, cutting-edge initiative that began in the summer of 2020. She took charge in this new position, serving as the key driver in developing regulations for the MEAC Esports Community and developing the MEAC’s esports strategy. Her goal is to enhance awareness of the MEAC’s esports initiative by working with industry business leaders to encourage growth.

Since arriving at the MEAC, Stills has elevated overall brand visibility for the conference. She has negotiated corporate partnership by working with major companies including iHeartRadio, US Marines, Home Depot, Hampton Roads Transit, Priority Automotive, ESI, TowneBank, and Harley Davidson. She assisted in negotiating a contract with Nike with member institutions. She also managed the conference budgets. Additionally, she was instrumental in developing the MEAC Strategic and Long-Range Plan in December 2008 and 2021-22, along with securing global creative agency 160over90 as the marketing company for the MEAC in 2020.

Before arriving at the MEAC, Stills served as Hampton University’s Coordinator of Athletic Academic Support for four years, and for three of those years, she was appointed Senior Woman Administrator. While at Hampton, she created the university’s first Athletic Academic Support Program and implemented the CHAMPS/LifeSkills Program. She provided academic advising and counseling to student-athletes.

A 1993 graduate of Old Dominion University, Stills earned her bachelor’s degree in Human Services Counseling. In 1996, she received a Master of Arts in Counseling (College Student Work Personnel) from Hampton University. She would later go on to graduate from the Sports Management Institute in 2002 and the NACWAA/HERS Institute for Administrative Advancement in 2008.

Congressional Black Caucus makes sure Black families are prioritized in Build Back Better Agenda

Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said Tuesday that she has made a vigorous push in recent weeks to make sure that Black communities are prioritized in the final version of President Biden's Build Back Better package.

The Congressional Black Caucus released the following statement to announce the inclusion of critical Black policy priorities in the Build Back Better Agenda and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill:

Readout of White House Meeting with Black Leaders of Civil Rights Organizations on Police Reform

On October 21, 2021 senior officials from the White House and the Department of Justice met with Black leaders of Civil Rights organizations to discuss police reform.  The meeting is part of broader outreach and engagement by the Biden-Harris Administration with members of the civil rights and law enforcement communities, members of Congress, and victims’ families to define a path forward on meaningful police reform, including through executive actions.

Officials from the Biden-Harris Administration taking part in the meeting included Domestic Policy Advisor Susan Rice, Senior Advisor Cedric Richmond, White House Counsel Dana Remus, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. The administration officials stressed the President’s belief that this moment demands action to hold accountable law enforcement officers who violate their oaths, and that we cannot be deterred by individuals who are trying to block progress.

The civil rights leaders underscored the urgency for action given the lack of progress in Congress, and proposed a number of ideas for advancing meaningful reforms through executive actions, including to advance accountability for police misconduct, and to improve data collection about interactions between police and individuals. The leaders stressed to Administration officials that federal law enforcement should serve as a model and that steps should be taken to encourage reforms at the state and local levels.

The meeting participants included:

• Melanie Campbell, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation
• Joi Chaney, National Urban League
• Alicia Garza, Black Futures Lab
• Wade Henderson, Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights
• Damon Hewitt, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
• Sherrilyn Ifill, NAACP Legal Defense Fund
• Derrick Johnson, NAACP
• Janice Mathis, National Council of Negro Women
• Jesselyn McCurdy, Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights
• Rashad Robinson, Color of Change
• Rev. Al Sharpton, National Action Network

Minnesota delegation looks to honor Prince with Congressional Gold Medal

Minnesota’s Congressional delegation on Monday is introducing a resolution to award the Congressional Gold Medal to Prince, citing his “indelible mark on Minnesota and American culture.”

The resolution for Prince is led by Amy Klobuchar and U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat who represents Minneapolis in the House. The full Minnesota delegation serves as original cosponsors, including Sen. Tina Smith and Reps. Jim Hagedorn, Angie Craig, Dean Phillips, Betty McCollum, Tom Emmer, Michelle Fischbach, Pete Stauber and Omar.

“Prince is a Minnesota icon,” said Omar in a statement. “He showed that it was OK to be a short, Black kid from Minneapolis and still change the world. He not only changed the arc of music history; he put Minneapolis on the map.”

The bill also puts into the Congressional record the glyph he used instead of his name for a time that Prince called “The Love Symbol.”

Under the rules, Congressional Gold Medals require the support of at least two-thirds of the members of both the Senate and House of Representatives before they can be signed into law by the president. The Prince legislation will be introduced in the House and Senate.

If the gold medal is approved and made, the bill asks that it be given to the Smithsonian Institution, which should make it available for display at the National Museum of African American History and Culture or on loan.

HBCU Harris-Stowe University using pandemic funds to cancel student debt

Harris-Stowe University in St. Louis is using federal pandemic relief funds to eliminate student debt owed to the university from the previous academic school year, school officials said.

Harris-Stowe, one of Missouri’s two historically Black universities, announced in September it is using the funds to cancel about $330,000 in debt, an average of about $1,076 per student.

Dr. LaTonia Collins Smith, Harris-Stowe’s interim president, last week told KCUR, the public radio station serving Kansas City, the burden of student debt caused by the pandemic led to low enrollment at the school this fall.

“Many of our students were saying they couldn’t work — because of COVID-19, they lost their jobs,” Smith said. “As a result they could not make payments towards their balances for the previous semester or the semesters which were impacted by COVID-19.”

Smith said the school officials spent most of the week after it made the announcement convincing students and their parents that it wasn’t a hoax. Eventually the school received numerous calls and letters of gratitude, she said.

[SOURCE: AP NEWS]