Amanda Green Alexander ’98 Law & Government

Amanda Green Alexander, Esq., a native of Kokomo, Mississippi, is Founder/Managing Partner of Alexander Law, P.A. in Jackson, Mississippi.

She leads a firm of litigators who defend a wide range of cases, including representing insurance carriers, businesses, and public entities in the areas of commercial litigation, general litigation, premises liability, workers’ compensation, labor and employment law and all areas of civil litigation.

Additionally, the firm practices in the areas of family law, including wills and estates. Alexander Law, P.A. is the only civil defense firm of its size led by an African American woman in the state of Mississippi.

Amanda received her Bachelor of Arts in English and History from Tougaloo College, Master of Public Policy and Public Administration at Jackson State University and Doctor of Jurisprudence from Mississippi College School of Law.

She is actively involved in the profession and the community both locally and nationally, including serving as a Bar Commissioner of the Mississippi Bar, Board Member of the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF), Past President of the National Conference of Women’s Bar Association and Board Member and Executive Committee Member of the Mississippi College Board of Trustees.

She has also received recognition and accolades by the professional community, including being named as one of the “2018 Top 50 Leading Business Women” and “2017 Top 50 Under 40 in Business” by MS Business Journal; “2015 Top Women Lawyers in the Mid-South” by Memphis Magazine “2015 Outstanding Woman Lawyer of the Year” by the Mississippi Woman Lawyers Association.

Amanda has co-authored a book on behalf of the ABA Commission on Women entitled “The Road to Independence: 101 Women’s Journeys to Starting Their Own Law Firms.”

She is the daughter of the late Reverend Arthur Green and Debora P. Green Williams of Kokomo, Mississippi.

She credits her success to her supportive family to include, her loving husband, Darius Taylor, her brother, Bernard Green, her bonus dad John Williams, beautiful nieces, nephew and countless supportive family and friends. She is the proud mom to Amari Elizabeth.

Amanda, her husband Darius and Amari are members of New Hope Baptist Church in Jackson.

Ms. Freddi Williams Evans ’77 – Education

Freddi Williams Evans is an author, independent scholar and arts educator.

Ms. Evans credits Tougaloo for laying the foundation for her work. Growing up in Madison, MS, only a few miles away, she studied piano under Professor James Mann beginning at age thirteen.

In 1974, she was initiated into Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.®, Gamma Omicron Chapter, and in 1976 was selected to participate in a two-month study/travel to Ghana, West Africa, which informed her senior research paper and launched her study of the African Diaspora.

She earned degrees in music and psychology in 1977 and received a graduate degree in creative arts therapy/music from Hahnemann University in Philadelphia, PA in 1979.

She is internationally acknowledged for her scholarship on Congo Square, a world-renown landmark of African and African American culture in New Orleans.

Her research and advocacy influenced the New Orleans City Council Ordinance Calendar No. 28,411 that changed the name of the location from Beauregard Square, named after Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard in 1893, to Congo Square in 2011.

Her book, Congo Square: African Roots in New Orleans, the first comprehensive study of the location, received the 2012 Louisiana Humanities Book of the Year Award, which made her the first, and only-to-date, African American author to receive the accolade.

Among her numerous honors, she is listed in The HistoryMakers, was named the Grand Griot of the 19th Annual Maafa Commemoration in New Orleans, and was recognized as a “Humanities Hero” by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.

Ms. Evans has two children and three grandchildren. Her son Melvin I. Evans, III is a graduate of Jackson State University. Her daughter, Akita Evans Edwards, married to Steven Edwards, is a third-generation Tougalooian as well as a graduate of Brown University Medical School and Harvard University School of Public Health.

Dr. Alfred E. McNair Jr. ’71- Medicine

Identified as gifted and talented at an early age, Dr. Alfred E. McNair’s educational experience began in his hometown of Collins, Mississippi where his parents were employed by the Public School System.

He completed his Elementary education and graduated from Carver High School at the age of 16.

At an incredibly early age, with the encouragement of both parents, he pursued his passion for Medicine and enrolled at Tougaloo College in Jackson, MS.

While there he interned for two summers at the Harvard School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated summa cum laude in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at the age of 19.

He went on to receive his Medical Degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City.

Dr. McNair completed his internship in Internal Medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York and went on in 1980 to complete his fellowship in Gastroenterology at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

In 1981 Dr. McNair founded the Pascagoula Gastroenterology Clinic with one office located in Pascagoula, MS. Due to the exceptional healthcare and an increased need for our services along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Pascagoula Gastroenterology Clinic was converted to the Digestive Health Center serving the entire Coast with satellite offices located in Pascagoula, Ocean Springs, Gulfport and Biloxi, Mississippi.

Dr. McNair remains faithful and anchored in his strong religious beliefs in caring for his fellow man as his calling.

His passion and study of Autism Awareness led to him open the doors of Mississippi Centers for Autism and related developmental disabilities on February 23, 2011.

He serves on several professional advisory boards and committees such as the Blue Cross/ Blue Shield advisory board, the Mississippi State Board of Health, and the National Medical Association.

McNair has maintained strong connections with communities serving as the President of Accountable Care Coalition of Physicians on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, served on the Corporate Board of Directors for Boys and Girls Clubs of the Gulf Coast, member of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity and a member of the Xi Zeta Lambda chapter of Alpha phi Alpha fraternity.

Dr. McNair resides in Gautier, MS with his wife Rhonda of 22 years, and they share a family of seven children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Dr. McNair enjoys spending time with his 92-year-old mother, Ms. Irma Williams McNair.

Mr. Paul Douglas McQuirter ’74 – Business

Paul Douglas McQuirter’s spirit of entrepreneurship began with selling GRIT, a national weekly newspaper, at the age of 12.

Upon graduating with honors from Sumner Hill High School in Clinton, MS, McQuirter entered the gates of Tougaloo College in the fall of 1970. He joined Omega Phi Psi fraternity and became Basileus after his induction.

After completing three internship programs with the General Motor Corporation and the required course work, Paul graduated from Tougaloo with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry in 1974. He would further his education at Indiana University and earn his MBA.

In the summer of 1974, McQuirter began working with GM as a supervisor. He rapidly ascended through the ranks and became an executive at the age of 28, reaching a high mark early in his trajectory.

In 2004, Paul became CEO of TDS Logistics.

Since 2007, Paul and his wife Louise McQuirter, have started and acquired over seven diverse, successful, and sustainable businesses expanding across the US and globally. His latest joint venture, GalaxRay, develops and manufactures innovative and technically advanced radiation detection, monitoring and communication devices.

McQuirter is a lifetime member of both the Tougaloo National Alumni Association and the Detroit Chapter. He served as president of the Detroit alumni and achieved with the Detroit alumni their goal of raising $150,000 over five years. During his time as President, the Chapter established a lifetime Chapter Endowment.

McQuirter is proud husband of 48 years to his high school sweetheart, Louise. Together they have two children, Rhonda and Keith along with two grandchildren, Avery Grace and George Paul.

Dr. LaTonya Washington ’00 – Medicine

Dr. LaTonya Washington is a seasoned physician and healthcare executive committed to improving the health and wellbeing of the community around her.

She is passionate about improving lives by enhancing health literacy, health education, and patient empowerment.

She is a native Mississippian and graduate of Tougaloo College, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) producing most of the state’s African American physicians.

After obtaining her Doctorate of Medicine in 2004, she combined her life-long dream of becoming a pediatrician with her piqued interest in adult medicine completing a combined internal medicine and pediatrics residency at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Arkansas Children’s Hospital in 2008.

She became double-boarded in both internal medicine and pediatrics after completing training and held a position as an adult and pediatric hospitalist in Virginia until 2011.

At that time, she was drawn back to the Memphis area to serve the community in West Memphis, Arkansas as the medical director of Mid-South Minor Medical and Primary Care Clinic.

She felt compelled to learn more about the business aspect of medicine to understand how business policies and practices of healthcare organizations can both positively and negatively influence the health of individuals and communities.

In this vein, she earned a Masters of Business Administration from Auburn University in 2014 and has continued to grow as a physician leader since that time.

After returning to Memphis in 2011, she joined the Bluff City Medical Society, the organization of Black physicians who provided her with invaluable mentorship during her formative medical school years. Dr. Washington remains active with the organization and has served as president since 2019.

She is passionate about identifying and improving health inequities through improving health literacy, healthcare access, and improving diversity in healthcare by increasing the number of underrepresented minorities in medicine.

Dr. Washington championed the Memphis Area Tougaloo Alumni Chapter and Washington Area Tougaloo Alumni Chapter’s COVID-19 Webinar series in 2019 providing valuable information to Tougaloo alumni and the community on the medical, spiritual, and economic impacts of COVID-19.

Dr. Washington’s personal mission is to improve the health and wellbeing of those around her through education, empowerment, and action.