ALUMNI NEWS
Alumni Awards
The Alumni Awards honor the achievements and successes of FSU grads.
Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award
Consideration for the Distinguished Alumni Achievement award is restricted to those alumni who demonstrate outstanding professional career growth, community involvement, demonstrated interest in FSU, philanthropic commitment to FSU, special achievements, awards, honors and distinctions; and/or educational background, including honors and involvement in special activities. This year's award winners included:
Tracee Wilkins '97
Wilkins is an investigative reporter with the News4 I-Team in Washington, D.C. She has won an Edward R. Murrow award, multiple Emmy awards and an Associated Press award and was the 2022 Journalist of the Year for the Washington Association of Black Journalists. Wilkins has covered presidential inaugurations, moderated gubernatorial debates and reported on state and local politics. Her award-winning investigations have exposed discriminatory behavior in agencies, igniting policy and leadership changes. Since 2003, Wilkins' coverage at News4 has led to national television appearances on MSNBC, Discovery ID, TV One and a feature in Washingtonian Magazine. Wilkins has received awards for her philanthropic work, including D.C.'s Invest 40 Under 40 and the Prince George's Social Innovation Fund's Wayne K. Curry Forever 41 Award. She is a member of the Federal City Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, the National Association of Black Journalists, a member and conference presenter for Investigative Reporters and Editors and serves in leadership roles on local and national boards for the SAG-AFTRA union.
Nykidra Robinson '04
Robinson is an entrepreneur, visionary and motivator, and she believes in the collective power of people to make positive change for underserved communities. She has graced the cover of the Baltimore Magazine as one of Baltimore's Top 30 Female Leaders and was named by The Daily Record as one of Maryland's Top 100 Women in 2020. In 2015, Robinson launched Black Girls Vote, Inc., a nonpartisan grassroots organization focused on encouraging Black women to vote, be civically engaged and advocate for important issues. She has more than 14 years of experience in politics, project management, strategic planning and community engagement. In 2020, Robinson launched the Party at the Mailbox campaign, one of the most successful COVID-19 pandemic-proof voter education engagements in the nation. She and her team are currently overseeing an extensive randomized control trial evaluation focused on Black voter engagement. Robinson is a first-generation college student, graduating with a degree in business administration and a minor in leadership studies. She studied Mandarin and international business in Beijing after graduation and earned her master's in public administration from Baruch College.
Alpha Delta Chi Founding Fathers and Founders
(See bio below under Service to Alma Mater Award)
Service to Alma Mater Award
Recipients of the Service to Alma Mater Award have demonstrated interest in assisting, advancing and promoting Frostburg State University, successfully encouraged other FSU alumni to take an active role in their alma mater, show philanthropic commitment to FSU and have special achievements, awards, honors and distinctions. This year's award winners included:
Kathy A. Nicholas Boykins '80
Boykins is a member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and has served on the Alumni Association Board of Directors for nearly nine years. She was also the co-chair of the Alumni Outreach Committee for two years. Boykins is a member of the FSU Foundation Board of Directors, and she is possionate about encouraging her fellow alumni to stay connected and engage with the campus community. She and her husband have created a scholarship to help the next generation of Bobcats succeed because they believe "we all can do something and it's our responsibility and duty to give back." Boykins retired from Allstate Insurance Company, where she was recognized with a Distinguished Performance Leader Award, and was the first Eastern Regional director of the Wellness Program.
Alpha Delta Chi Founding Fathers and Founders
The Alpha Delta Chi Founding Fathers and Founders are a group of men with a combined impressive resume. They launched an effort several years ago to honor members by placing a plaque on the Wall of Recognition at Bobcat Stadium, and this effort alone has contributed more than $16,000 to FSU athletics. In addition, the group assisted younger members of the Delta Chi fraternity in endowing the fraternity's Student Accessibility Services Scholarship, as well as endowed two other scholarships of their own. Members also give to the Annual Fund, athletics programs, the Sloop Institute for Excellence in Leadership, scholarships and more.
Young Alumni Achievement Award
The Young Alumni Achievement Award recognizes emerging leaders who are graduates, are under 40 years of age and have used their FSU experiences to make significant impacts in their respective professions, local communities, service organizations, professional associations, etc. They must have made an impact in business, research, artistic, leadership, community, educational and/or philanthropic endeavors. This year's award winners included:
Michael J. Burt '07
Burt studied psychology at FSU with a goal of helping people. Upon graduation, he got a job as a community support worker, assisting adults recovering from mental illness. Burt joined McClendon Center, a nonprofit behavioral health organization, as a team leader in 2009, where he was responsible for managing community-based staff working with adults with mental illness. He was promoted to director of Quality Improvement a few short years later, a position that allowed him to ensure that clients were receiving timely and high-quality services. Among his many accomplishments, Burt played an instrumental role leading the center throught its Joint Commission accreditation processes. After 14 years of service, he took on the role of senior director and chief of staff at McClendon Center. Burt is responsible for strengthening existing services, leading key strategic initiatives and working with the CEO to develop and manage organizational operations. He earned his master's in counseling from Bowie State University in 2014.
Kaylah Calvert '19
Calvert is an entertainment marketing professional with more than four years of professional marketing experience. After earning her bachelor's in mass communication with a minor in graphic design at FSU, she quickly climbed the ranks, landing her on the marketing team at Atlantic Records. Thiy year, Calvert will launch her brand, which focuses on creating a platform for men and women to act and speak about their legacies. The stories will center around FSU alumni, artists and Calvert's long-term partner, Derrick Lee, who recently passed away. She has marketed various artists, including Gucci Mane, Symba, Don Toliver and more. Previously, Calvert held positions on the marketing teams at Angela Rye/IMPACT Strategies and BET. She has plans to mentor young children at the New York City Educational Center, assisting them with rebranding and marketing strategies.
Marjorie C. Gray '07/M'08
Gray is a program manager at Google in Los Angeles, where she leads a team of young professionals by cultivating diverse talent and developing leadership for the next generation of Google teams. Gray earned bachelor's and master's degrees, both in business administration, from FSU. She has spent the past 15 years honing her digital marketing skills, focusing on paid media strategy and consulting for some of the largest advertisers in the country. Gray is also a facilitator with Google's I AM REMARKABLE movement, which seeks to help individuals build self-confidence and improve their self-promotion skills to be better leaders. She has returned to FSU over the years to speak to students, faculty and staff, and she volunteers her time with several organizations and enjoys exploring endurance sports.
Jermaine N. Johnson '13
Johnson is the founder of Reality Check Mentoring, a nonprofit dedicated to developing the minds of young males of color between the ages of 10 and 17. The organization focuses on character development and teaching the young men life skills, how to be socially and culturally aware, and conflict and critical-thinking skills. in 2019, Reality Check Mentoring was one of six local organizations in the DMV invited to an Aid to Humanity event hosted by the Felix Y. Manalo Foundation. Johnson enjoys speaking to youth and young adults and returns to FSU to speak to students as well. He is also a certified personal trainer, a proud father, educator, writer, speaker and mentor. He studied business administration while at FSU and continued his graduate studies at Kaplan University, where he earned a master's in management, with a focus on project management. Johnson currently works as a business analyst for the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education.
And from 2020...Keenan Scott II '09
Scott won the Young Alumni Achievement honor in 2020, came to campus this past spring for the production of his play Thoughts of a Colored Man (see "The Last Word") and finally received his award. He graduated with a bachelor's in theatre. Scott is a playwright, poet, actor, director and producer. His work has been workshopped and produced at notable theaters, including the National Black Theater, the New York Theater Workshop, Arena Stage, Baltimore Center Stage, Woolly Mammoth and Broadway. Thoughts of a Colored Man world premiered at Syracuse State for its 2019-2020 season and transferred to Baltimore Center Stage to finish its regional run before settling at the Golden Theatre on Broadway. Scott made his writing and unconventional acting debut during the 2021-2022 Broadway season. He was selected to be a part of the 2021 TED Fellow cohort to be among a global community of artists, inventors and scientists. His latest works, The Migration LP and new original musical The Return of Young Boy, are currently being developed at New York Stage and Film, while his other stage plays are in various stages of development. Scott is part of the creative team of the miniseries A Luv Tale by Sidra Smith, now on BET+, and his is also developing an array of projects for television and film, including a pilot with UCP of NBCUniversal and an adaptation of a novel by JJ Bola called The Selfless Act of Breathing with BRON Studios. Scott is a passionate advocate for FSU and credits much of his success to to his experiences here as a student.
Honorary Alumni Award
Given to a non-alumnus who has made consistent and noteworthy contributions to the advancement of Frostburg State University through their time, their talents and their treasures.
Kathleen McGreevy
Kathleen McGreevy is a parent of an alumna and a current student, as well as an employee of the University. She began her career at FSU in 2018 as the director of Annual Giving. In just a few short years, McGreevy revitalized the once-struggling program and was responsible for implementing the first-ever Bobcat Giving Day. In addition to those efforts, she did significant work behind the scenes to bring Thoughts of a Colored Man back to campus for alumni, students and the community to enjoy. McGreevy’s connection to alumni is evident and she is a fierce advocate of FSU. Her passion and commitment to the University are on par with even the most active alumni, and she truly embodies what it means to be a Bobcat.
