Milestones

CMA Milestones & Past Chairs

Committee on Minority Affairs – early milestones (1993-1998)
(Kindly provided by Yvonne Curry)

  • 1993: The Committee is organized with fourteen members and one consultant.
  • 1993: An ACS award for encouraging disadvantaged students into careers in the Chemical Sciences is instituted and sponsored by the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation.
  • 1994: The Board of Directors devotes its meeting to studying the underrepresentation of minorities in the chemical sciences.
  • 1994: Cooperative efforts are started with INROADS instituting the summer internship program.
  • 1994: The Board of Directors votes to develop a program to fund scholarships to underrepresented minorities.
  • 1995: A staff position is established for the minority affairs program.
  • 1995: The Committee begins programming at national meetings to encourage minority participation.
  • 1995: Two hundred and one students are awarded scholarships.
  • 1995: The Committee establishes a section on the ACS Web.
  • 1995: Outreach activities to minority advocacy organizations such as AISES, NOBCChE, SACNAS, NACME are increased.
  • 1995: An ACS strategic thrust is added to address the underrepresentation of minorities.
  • 1996: The Committee on Minority Affairs joins with the Committee on Education in presenting programs with a diversity focus to undergraduate students at national meetings.
  • 1996: Programs at regional meetings are started.
  • 1996: Minority activities at national meetings are expanded to include a social hour.
  • 1997: The Committee collaborates with the Office of Local Section Activities to establish the Peer Mentoring Program.
  • 1997: Sixteen local sections organize committees on minority affairs and seventeen organize committees on peer mentoring.
  • 1997: The Committee establishes the NACME/ACS W. Lincoln Hawkins undergraduate research fellowship in chemical engineering to support undergraduate research.
  • 1998: Two evaluations are commissioned on the Scholar Program.
  • 1998: The Committee inaugurates its first “ticketed” luncheon.
  • 1998: The Committee presents its first presidential event “The Future of Chemistry Is All of Us” at the fall national meeting in Boston.
  • 1998: The Committee receives a successful five‐year report from the Committee on Committees.
  • 1998: The Committee awarded mini‐grants to four local sections to assist in minority programming.
  • 1999: The Committee presents a presidential event commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Percy L. Julian. The guest speaker was David Satcher, US Surgeon General.

Past Chairs

  • 1993 – 1995: Carlos G. Gutierrez
  • 1996 – 1998: Willie E. May
  • 1999 – 2001: Nancy B. Jackson
  • 2002 – 2004: Saundra Y. McGuire
  • 2005: Jean M. Andino
  • 2006 – 2008: Linette M. Watkins
  • 2009 – 2011: Allison Aldridge
  • 2012 – 2014: Al Ribes
  • 2015 – 2017: Madeleine Jacobs
  • 2018 – 2020: Ann Kimble-Hill
  • 2021: Kishore Bagga
  • 2022: Reni Joseph