Emerald Award Honorees 2022

Valerie Lynn Willis – Student Advocate, Philanthropist, Community Service Provider is being recognized as the 2022 Emerald Award Honoree for Services to Youth at our 12th Annual Emerald Award Program.

Valerie Lynn Willis came to Raleigh over twenty years ago as a self-employed Information Technology (IT) consultant and competitive racquetball player. She founded The Christy Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization to function as a philanthropic channel to assist the Raleigh community and to host fundraiser events on area campuses. The Foundation operates exclusively for charitable purposes and engages in activities that provide scholarships for youth to advance in STEM, medical and other areas of higher learning.

Valerie migrated away from racquetball to golf. She has had the pleasure of combining her appreciation of golf with her continuous desire to help our youth. She has chaired the Triangle Women in Golf (TWIG) Kidz youth program for multiple years. She has been able to implement improvement in how the program helps girls excel in golf for potential college scholarships and has created added awareness for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Ms. Willis opened Metro Style salon studio that has given people of color a place to build their businesses from commission-based shops to self-employed and/or sole proprietors. Valerie was destined to be an advocate for change given her long lineage of education and community service. Her past encourages her keen interest in our youth and communities.

Lakeshia T. Reid – Artist, Web Designer, Entrepreneur is being recognized as the 2022 Emerald Award Honoree for The Arts at our 12th Annual Emerald Award Program.

Lakeshia T. Reid began her career armed with a degree in Graphic Design from Elizabeth City State University. She worked as a graphic and web designer for several years before transitioning to art on a full-time basis. She uses her background in designing to create works fansical in appearance that offer interpretations of #BlackGirlMagic – a phrase and a movement that celebrates positive images of Black women. Her work has been exhibited regionally at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts, African American Atelier, Inc., Harvey B. Gantt Center for Cultural Arts and the Greenhill Center for North Carolina Art, among others.

Her awards include the Regional Emerging Artist Residency by Artspace and the Brightwork Fellowship by Anchorlight. In 2021, she completed a commission for the North Carolina Museum of Art as part of their “Mucha/Inspiring Beauty” campaign to answer the question “What does beauty mean to you?” The exhibit shares the artist Alphonse Mucha’s story.

She exemplifies beauty in her own gallery, 311 Gallery in Raleigh. Ms. Reid hosts exhibitions for local and national artists. Her gallery has been described as “a jewel” with space separated in such a manner that it makes you “feel like you float from one universe to another.”  Lakeshia hopes to begin offering private lessons and small class settings in the near future.

Omisade Burney-Scott – Author, Storyteller and Social Justice Advocate is being recognized as the 2022 Emerald Award Honoree for National Trends and Services at our 12th Annual Emerald Award Program.

Omisade Burney-Scott has decades of experience in nonprofit leadership, philanthropy and social justice. She has studied systems of oppression and has trained extensively in the interconnected nature of social categorizations, such as race, class, gender, as they apply to a given individual or group and the interdependent systems of discrimination and disadvantages. Omisade sees herself as a facilitator of major transitions that social justice nonprofits and groups must make in order to remain relevant, responsive and sustainable. She is skilled in creating safe and open spaces that allow people to garner their own power and create their own solutions. She uses storytelling to disrupt the erasure of Black women’s voices as they age.

She has numerous podcasts, videos and digital storytelling such as Black Women and Aging; NC Woman Shares Passion for Justice from Early Age. Her writings have appeared in nationally recognizable newspapers and magazines such as Forbes, Prevention Magazine, The Washington Post and The New York Times. Ms. Burney-Scott has served on several boards including Stone Circles, Fund for Southern Communities, Spirithouse Inc. (a multigenerational Black women led cultural organizing tribe with a rich legacy of using art, culture and media to support the empowerment and transformation of communities impacted by racism, poverty, gender inequality, criminalization and incarceration).

Ms. Burney-Scott has spent the better part of the last 25 years on the liberation of marginalized people.

Siobahn Day Grady, PhD – Pioneer, STEM Supporter, Ambassador for Science is being recognized as the 2022 Emerald Award Honoree for International Trends and Services at our 12th Annual Emerald Award Program.

Siobahn Day Grady advocates increasing the number of women and minorities in science. She believes strongly that science gives learners an in-depth understanding of the world around us. Dr. Grady considers the STEM workforce as having both gender and historically disenfranchised groups disparities. Her efforts as an AAAS IF/THEN ambassador affect change by examining girls’ perceptions, attitudes and behaviors helping them gain confidence in curating and developing a STEM identity. The Ambassador program empowers current innovators and inspires the next generation.

Dr. Grady is extremely involved in promoting STEM initiatives whose influence stretches beyond our domestic borders and gives people skills that make them more employable, with each skill bringing valuable contributions to a well-rounded education for our youth. Siobahn has been a featured speaker at museums throughout the nation and has spoken at national and international conferences. Dr. Grady has a vision for girls and women and she realizes that vision by providing educational opportunities through community organizations, philanthropic efforts, college courses, research grants and publications.

Dr. Grady earned her degrees from North Carolina HBCU’s and has the distinction of being the first woman to graduate from NC A&T’s PhD program in Computer Science.

Marie Georgette Debnam, MD and Marjorie Lynette Debnam, MD – Healthcare Providers, Unsung Heros are being recognized as the 2022 Emerald Award Honorees for Health and Human Services at our 12th Annual Emerald Award Program.

Drs. Marie Georgette and Marjorie Lynette Debnam are twins and Raleigh natives. For twenty-five years, they have worked side by side providing medical care to the underserved in Wake County. After graduating from Meharry, they did their Internship and Residency in Primary Care Internal Medicine at Cambridge Hospital (Harvard Medical School teaching hospital). They served as Co-Chief Resident in Internal Medicine. Both doctors then entered into the practice of their trailblazing physician father, Dr. George Debnam, at the Debnam Clinic.

The Debnam Clinic is a private medical care practice that provides primary healthcare services for individuals and families who receive Medicaid and Medicare or do not have a health care plan. When their father retired in 2001, they assumed the practice and moved the office from its original location on Blount Street to the Lincoln Park neighborhood in Southeast Raleigh, which has allowed the clinic to expand, serve more clients, and fulfill a community need.  This was a pivotal move, as access to healthcare is a major issue for those living through poverty. Healthcare is expensive and usually located far from poorer communities.

In addition to their private practice, Drs. Marie and Marjorie are the clinic physicians for student health at Shaw University and are also on staff at WakeMed Raleigh Campus. Physicians like Drs. Marie and Marjorie Debnam have made a life commitment to providing quality medical care to the poor in Wake County regardless of the patient’s ability to pay. These women are unsung heroes.