Charter Day Honorees
Announcing Charter Day 2025 Recipients of Alumni Award for Distinguished Postgraduate Achievement
The Alumni Award for Distinguished Postgraduate Achievement is a high honor and is reserved for those individuals whose contributions have made a profound difference in their communities. The 2025 honorees have been selected by the committee, reviewed by President Ben Vinson III, PhD, and approved by the Board of Trustees. They will be formally recognized during the 2025 Charter Day Dinner.
Nelson Leon Adams (BA ’74), MD
In the Field of Medicine — Nelson Adams is a Miami native and 1974 alumnus of the College of Liberal Arts at Howard University with a bachelor of science in zoology. He earned his medical degree from Meharry Medical College and completed his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Emory University.
Adams has served as a leader in healthcare, including his historic appointment as the first African-American chairman of the Department of OB/GYN and chief of staff at North Shore Medical Center. He also served as the 107th national president of the National Medical Association. Adams founded the Maternal Child Health Initiative, a model for providing comprehensive care to at-risk pregnant women and is an active community leader. He hosts a health radio show and is an associate minister at St. John Baptist Church. Adams has received numerous accolades for his work in healthcare including an honorary doctor of laws degree from Barry University.
Sunny Sumter (BA ’94)
In the Field of Fine Arts — Sunny Sumter is a highly accomplished leader in the arts. She holds a bachelor’s degree in music business from the College of Fine Arts at Howard University and fellowships from the DeVos Institute of Arts Management and National Arts Strategies’ Chief Executive Program.
As president and CEO of the DC Jazz Festival, she has spearheaded cultural and educational jazz programs, receiving numerous accolades, including the 2024 Community Leadership Award from The Washington Chorus and the DC Mayor’s Art Award for Excellence in Creative Industries.
Sumter’s community service includes leadership roles with the HBCU Jazz Education Initiative and the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers. A recognized trailblazer in creativity and professional vocalist, Sumter has contributed to the jazz community both nationally and internationally.
Donald Thigpen, Jr., Esq. (JD ’74)
In the Field of Law — Donald Thigpen, Jr., has had an illustrious legal career marked by numerous accolades and a commitment to community service. He received his bachelor of arts degree in political science from Kent State University in Ohio and his juris doctor from the Howard University School of Law. A dedicated mentor and advocate, he has provided pro bono legal services to those in need.
Thigpen’s significant contributions to the legal profession have been recognized with a mayoral commendation and the Howard University School of Law Alumni Association Lifetime Appreciation Award in 2006. In addition to receiving the Distinguished Black Alumni Association Award from Kent State University in 2023, Thigpen was inducted into the National Bar Association Hall of Fame in 2020 and earned the Washington Bar Association’s Legacy of Excellence Award in 2022, after being inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2017.
Christopher Tyson (BArch ’98), JD
In the Field of Law and Servant Leadership - Christopher J. Tyson (BArch ’98) is president of NCST (the National Community Stabilization Trust), a national nonprofit working to increase homeownership by expanding the supply of affordable, single-family homes to stabilize neighborhoods and advance racial equity. Tyson advocated for federal homeownership policy innovation and reform and supported local innovations that advance affordable homeownership.
Prior to joining NCST, Tyson was the Newman Trowbridge Distinguished Professor of Law at the Louisiana State University (LSU) Law Center. He was a co-editor of a leading state and local government law coursebook and has published extensively on local government law and urban development policy. His work has been featured on NPR’s Marketplace and in numerous publications, including Nonprofit Quarterly, the Harvard Journal of Racial and Economic Justice, the Fordham Urban Law Journal, the Tulane Law Review, and the New York Times.
Tyson also served as the president and CEO of Build Baton Rouge, the city’s urban redevelopment authority. Under his leadership, the city secured over $50 million in grant funding for transit-oriented and equitable redevelopment projects currently underway.
Tyson is a public servant at heart and has invested in civic and community initiatives for the entirety of his career. He is the founding board chair of the Baton Rouge Youth Coalition and Metromorphosis. In 2007, he was appointed to the Board of Commissioners of the Capital Area Transit System and served as its chair. In 2016, Governor John Bel Edwards appointed him to the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission, and former Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon Broome selected him to lead her Mayoral Transition Committee. In 2017, LSU honored him with the Brij Mohan Distinguished Professor Award, and in 2018, he was inducted into the University Laboratory School’s Alumni Hall of Distinction.
He serves on the Baton Rouge General Medical Center Board of Directors and the Howard University Board of Trustees.
In addition to his bachelor of architecture (cum laude) from Howard, he holds a master of public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and a juris doctor from Georgetown University Law Center.