Poole College Celebrates Entrepreneurial Success During Black History Month

Every February the Poole College of Management celebrates Black History Month by showcasing the stories of change-makers in the black identifying community. This year, the theme The Future is Bright Black represents blackness as multidimensional and intersectional in how it defines and builds the black community. 

As a part of the Black History Month display, alumni, faculty and staff and community members share their entrepreneurial success and involvement with Poole College. The stories can be found throughout Nelson Hall and in the third-floor display case. 

Profiles

Tamah Morant, teaching professor of economics

Tamah Morant joined Poole College of Management in 1999 and is currently a teaching professor of economics, a role she is returning to after four years as the associate dean of undergraduate programs. As associate dean, Morant provided leadership to the student service units, which support the academic, personal and professional development for the college’s 3,100-plus undergraduate students. Prior to her start as associate dean in 2016, she was director of the economics graduate program, which Poole College’s Department of Economics offers jointly with the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics in NC State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Morant received her Master of Science and doctoral degrees in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Morant and her husband, Chris, live in Durham with their daughter and cat and they look forward to regular visits from their sons, who are away at college.   

Fay Cobb Payton, professor of information technology and business analytics

Fay Cobb Payton is a trailblazer in the tech space and is the program director at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the Division of Computer and Network Systems. She is the founder and director of @myhealthimpact, a social network experience that focuses on health disparities and social media technology interventions. Her platform provides a voice for the millennial generation to address technology innovation and sexual and mental health. When she isn’t leading the next big innovation, she volunteers time connecting and mentoring people of color working in and toward executive leadership positions in the information technology industry. 

Payton has been the recipient of many accolades throughout her career — one of the most notable was being named 2016 North Carolina Technology Association Tech Educator of the Year. She has won the BEYA award for exemplary work in STEM and was most recently featured in the November 2019 issue of Essence Magazine. Her passion for STEM research and health care for women of color is extraordinary. Payton has been with the Poole College of Management for over 20 years.

Christina Frederick

Originally from Creedmoor, North Carolina, she obtained both her bachelor degrees in marketing and business administration in 2009 and a master’s degree in career counseling development in 2017 from NC State University. Her profound passion for assisting corporations and their leaders in unlocking motivation and developing talent to drive business resulted in her becoming a nationally certified counselor and North Carolina Licensed Professional Counselor. She assists clients in balancing their personal lives as they seek to grow their careers while increasing their own awareness of how their mental health directly affects career growth. Outside of work, Frederick dedicates most of her time to family, friends and growing her counseling firm, The Career Life Collaborative. She and her husband reside in Raleigh and spend their time keeping up with their growing toddler son and soon-to-arrive baby girl.

Jamelle Eugene and Dajuan Morgan

Gryppers Inc. was founded in 2015 by former athletes and current sports professionals, Jamelle Eugene and DaJuan Morgan. Both Eugene and Morgan played football at NC State University, and Eugene graduated in 2009 after completing Poole College of Management’s entrepreneurship program. Gryppers Inc. is an American-based, sports-technology brand and has become a multinational supplier of specialty apparel, protective compression wear and advanced wearable technologies for a wide variety of vocational and recreational needs. Gryppers Inc. seeks to increase the proficiency and preserve the longevity of every athlete and active professional worldwide.

Thomas Colclough

Thomas Colclough, acting district director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, fights for civil rights and for better business practices every day. He mentored countless Poole College of Management students through internships, volunteered at many Poole College of Management Human Resource Advisory Board meetings and participated as a guest speaker at engagements for well over a decade. Colclough graduated from Saint Augustine’s College with a Bachelor of Science in business administration and received his Master of Arts from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

David Washington

David Washington is the managing partner of Washington & Company, an organization that focuses on providing human capital development services. He is a former teaching associate professor and assistant dean for the Office of Undergraduate Programs at Poole College of Management, where he received the Outstanding Teacher and the Student Government Association (SGA) Distinguished Professor awards. He is a recipient of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans Award (TOYA); past recipients of the TOYA include President John F. Kennedy, President Gerald Ford and President William Clinton. Washington holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration from Excelsior College; a Master of Business Administration, with a concentration in management, from Webster University; a Master of Science Administration, with a concentration in public administration, from Central Michigan University; and a doctorate from North Carolina State University. He is also a veteran of the U.S. Army.

This post was originally published in Poole College of Management News.