Dr. Andrew Hugine, Jr., joined the Alabama A&M University family as its 11th President on Thursday, July 16, 2009, following an extensive career in higher education that highlighted both academia and administration.

Trustee Avery is serving his fifth term on the Gadsden (Ala.) City Council.  The Certified Municipal Official (CMO) and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company retiree chairs the Finance Committee.  The father of two boasts numerous affiliations, including Vision, Inc. (Chief Executive Officer), The Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta Advisory Committee, Etowah County Chapter of Alabama New South Coalition, Inc. (President), NAACP, SCLC, Alabama Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials, National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials (past board member) and numerous others.

The Reverend D. Thomason Bell Jr. was appointed Superintendent of the Northeast District of the North Alabama Conference in 2002. Prior to becoming a superintendent, he served as pastor of both Anniston First UMC and Pell City First UMC as well as serving in appointments to Pinson, Birmingham First Assocaiate, St. Luke-T, and Fairview.

Lucien B. Blankenship is a senior partner with the law offices of Blankenship and Associates in Birmingham, Ala. He is franchise majority owner and managing partner of Sports Strategies, the parent company of the Birmingham Power women's pro-basketball team. He is also president of Blankenship Sports Management and Marketing. The 1989 graduate of Alabama A&M University served as Student Government Association president.

Trustee Raymond Burse holds a law degree from Harvard University. He was also a Rhodes Scholar, and spent two years at England's Oxford University, where he majored in organic chemistry.  Vice president and general counsel for GE Consumer and Industrial in Louisville, Ky., Burse was president of Kentucky State from 1982 to 1989.  He spent 10 years as an associate and a partner in the law firm of Wyatt, Tarrant and Combs in Louisville.

Dr. Barbara Cady is a professor, Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, School of Education, Alabama A&M University. She earned the Ph.D. degree in speech pathology and audiology from the University of Kansas in 1981. She serves as the president of AAMU�s Faculty Senate.

Trustee Norman D. Hill is vice president of Volkert and Associates in Mobile. He founded and served as president of Gulf Coast Safety Products, Inc., an industrial and highway safety and traffic control company, for 14 years. He also served as vice president for Small Business Development with the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce and as director for the Mobile Housing Board's Johnson Center for Economic Development, assisting low-income and moderate-income residents with education and job training.

Odysseus M. Lanier is a founding partner of McConnell Jones Lanier and Murphy accounting and consulting firm based in Houston, Tex. He is a 1977 graduate of Alabama A&M University. He has evaluated the governance, management and operations of more than 30 school districts throughout the country. Lanier was lead partner for ongoing engineering and logistics support contracts for the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal, where MJLM's Engineering and Technical Services Division has 57 employees. He served on Texas Southern University Board of Regents and as chair of its finance committee, where he led efforts to correct financial management problems that plagued the university in the late 1980s. The university (TSU) emerged from its problems within two years and received an unqualified audit report from the Texas State Auditor in 1991. He also served on the board's presidential search committee.

James D. Montgomery, Sr. is President/CEO of Aliza’s Cookies, Inc.    Montgomery served as Systems Analyst, Management Analyst, Interim Equal Employment Opportunity Officer,   General Manager, Chief Organizational Development Consultant and interim Comptroller for the Department of Army prior to retiring in 1994.  He served eight years on the Anniston City Council and has been appointed to several national and international boards.  Trustee Montgomery received his B.S. degree from Alabama A&M University and M.S. Degree from Jacksonville State University.   He is a graduate of the United States Air Force’s prestigious Military Comptroller School (Montgomery, AL) and the Army’s graduate level Organizational Effectiveness Program (Ft. Ord, CA).  He has attended Gestalt Institute located in Cleveland, OH.  He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated.

L. Shefton Riggins

Alabama A&M University graduate L. Shefton Riggins serves as President Pro Tempore of the Board of Trustees.  The Birmingham-area cardiovascular surgeon has been a surgeon in the Baptist Health System for more than 20 years and has performed about 4,000 open heart surgeries.  He is the former chief of surgery at Baptist Princeton and former director of cardiac surgery there.

Tavis Marcel Richardson, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Willie Richardson, a native of the small but historic Smiths Station, Ala. Richardson is majoring in biology/pre-medicine with a concentration in pediatrics and a minor in chemistry. His goals in life are to be a faithful servant of God and to become a pediatrician, as well as involving himself in politics to make a difference in the lives of children. On campus, Richardson is very involved with numerous organizations: Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., Gamma Phi Chapter; Sigma Tau Epsilon Professional Fraternity, and serves as the Executive Student Government Association President.

Martha Lynn Sherrod

Judge Martha Lynn Sherrod is a native Alabamian, and a product of the Alabama Public School System.  She received her Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University of Houston, Houston, Tex.  She completed her last year of law school at the University of Alabama as a transient student.  Judge Sherrod was appointed District Judge in 1999, and she was elected for a full term in 2000 in a partisan election.  She was the first person of African descent to win an at-large election in North Alabama.  Before joining the State Court, Judge Sherrod served her community as Presiding Municipal Judge, Assistant District Attorney, private practitioner, and she taught criminal justice at Alabama A&M University.