A spotlight on individuals who are moving onward & upward

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AMANDA AMANN

Amanda Amann is possibly the first Black woman in this nation to host a drag racing show. You may have seen her on MTV, but her new gig is co-hosting ESPN2's Stylefest and NHRA Xplod Sport Compact Racing Series. As he travels the nation to talk engines and speed, men in this mostly White sport are pleasantly surprised to know that she's much more than a pretty face.

"I'm a complete daddy's girl, and I have two older brothers who love cars," says Amann, 24, from Los Angeles, but of Trinidadian and Guyanese descent. "My dad used to teach me how to fix my own car. I've been able to change my own oil since I was 16."

Those skills come in handy as she interviews racers who build their own engines from scratch and trick-out cars for thousands in upgrades. The bigger challenge might be fending off" the men who are "coming out the woodwork" to get a date, she says. "They say, 'Oh, I'm thinking about getting married, but I wanted to talk to you before we walk down the aisle, just in case,'" says Amann. "It's flattering, however, very unrealistic."

AMANDA'S FIRST J-O-B: "I was a hostess at the Dough Roller. It's a small pizza and pancake diner in Crofton, Md. It was very country. I was paid like $6.50 an hour."

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VICTOR HENDERSON

Lawman Victor Henderson is the face of the Chicago Bar Association and the force behind the Windy City's largest and highly influential body of attorneys. He's the 131st president in the bar's 134-year history, and he is one of a handful of the group's Black presidents.

"There's something that pops up every day that requires attention on behalf of the profession," says Henderson, 46, a single father of two. He became president during the summer. "It's moving much faster than I had anticipated. It requires a lot of judgment, honesty and integrity."

Henderson enjoys living and practicing in Chicago. "I find, personally, that Chicago is the mecca for Black people, especially for Black lawyers. The Cook County Bar is here--the oldest Black bar in the country. You have this tremendous history of lawyers looking out for each other."

Henderson, who lives on the city's South Side, is a litigation partner with Holland & Knight. The view from his downtown office overlooks the prestigious Palmer House Hilton. It keeps him humble, since his father once washed dishes there. "In some ways it's a homecoming," he says before reflecting on his career. "I think I probably must just thrive on the competition, thrive on the challenge. Why do some people climb Mount Everest? I guess because it's there."

VICTOR'S FIRST J-O-B: "I delivered newspapers, and I did it extraordinary well. It was imperative for me to do a good job, delivering them on time and dry, because that's how I made my tips."

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CLIFF HOUSTON

Cliff Houston is used to being the "first." He was the first in his immediate family to attend college. He's the first Black person to get the Herman Barnett distinguished professorship in microbiology at the University of Texas at Galveston. And now, he's the first Black person to become president of the American Society for Microbiology.

Houston's love affair with the inner workings of tiny bacteria began while he was in college, where he already was a science major at the University of Oklahoma. "I knew that I liked science. I didn't know specifically about microbiology, and I took my first microbiology course and instantly fell in love with it," says Houston, 57, who lives near Houston.

Though he now focuses on administrative items and introducing science to the next generation of Americans, Houston is quite proud of his achievements. "One of the pleasures of being in my career is I know some of the work I've done has led to ... some type of research that will help millions of people," says Houston, who has researched bacterial toxins that cause water-born infections similar to cholera.

CLIFF'S FIRST J-O-B: I've done everything from washing dishes in a cafeteria to even working in the cafeteria [of the school] where I ultimately got my Ph.D."

COPYRIGHT 2007 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning