30 Leaders Of The Future

Ebony, Jan, 2001

THEY'RE young--30 and under--gifted and Black, and they hit the ground running in the new century. Some are the youngest persons ever elected to their city councils or legislative assemblies; others have vaulted past the pack at an early age and are running their own businesses or heading major organizations; still others are raising the bar in the professions.

And they are not alone. For as members of our 2000-2001 list of the 30 young leaders of tomorrow, they represent tens of thousands of young Black men and women who are preparing the Black future today.

ALICIA REECE, 29, member of the Cincinnati City Council; youngest female elected to the City Council in city's history; chairs the City Council's Health, Social & Children Services, Small Business Development, and Employment and Training committees; proposed $30 million African-American neighborhood business revitalization program; drafted legislation to allocate an additional $2.2 million to keep neighborhood health clinics open; vice chair of the UNCF Campaign; president of the Greater Cincinnati Urban League Young Professionals Network.

EDWARD L. TAYLOR, 30, Princeton, N.J., founding pastor, New Horizon Baptist Church, which has "provocative street ministries" and a weekly radio program; author, an essay on the life of Dr. Gardner C. Taylor and six volumes of sermons and writings titled, The Words of Gardner Taylor; editor of a collection of sermons by outstanding American preachers; inducted into Morehouse College's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers (2000).

DEBORAH N. ARCHER, 29, litigation associate with Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett law firm, New York City; former assistant counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; mentor to ninth-grade student through iMentor program; participant, United Way Linkages Program; member, Civil Rights Committee, New York State Bar Association; member, Committee on Education and the Law of the Association, Bar of the City of New York.

DARIN ATWATER, 30, gospel and classical music composer, conductor and pianist, Dallas; director of creative arts at Bishop TD. Jakes' Potter's House; at 12, directed his own ensemble, Voices of Praise; studied composition at Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University and at the Juilliard School; made orchestral debut as composer and pianist with the National Symphony Orchestra (1995); accompanist for Kathleen Battle with National Symphony (1998); has performed with Morgan State University Choir at the White House; founder and artistic director, the Soulful Symphony; former minister of music and sacred arts at Long Reach Church of God Columbia, Md.

CYNTHIA E. WINSTON, 29, Ph.D., Washington, D.C., program director, National Science Foundation/Minority Graduate Education Program at Howard University; former director of Educational, Fellowship and Internship Program at the Congressional Black Foundation; former psychology instructor at the University of Michigan; vice president, Gamma Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa honor society; does volunteer work with a juvenile detention center, the youth ministry of her church and numerous organizations.

TED BYER, 29, real estate affiliate for Coldwell Banker Inc., Colorado Springs, Colo.; did $10 million in volume sales in 1999; has sold an average of 100 houses annually for the past five years; mentor and motivational speaker to high school students in his area.

PAUL ALLEN, 24, special assistant to New York State Comptroller H. Carl McCall, New York City; alumni member of the board, Dartmouth College; mini-reunion chair for class of 1998; alumni member of board of directors for Dartmouth's International Youth Leadership Institute; alumni interviewer, Dartmouth Admissions; recipient, Edward Mitchell Award for Outstanding Leadership and Community Service; presents motivational speeches to elementary and junior high school students.

TOKUNBO ADELEKAN, 30, Philadelphia, assistant professor of theology and ethics, Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary; associate minister, Christian education instructor and minister to Drama Ministry, Saint Paul Community Baptist Church, Brooklyn, N.Y.; doctoral student, Princeton Theological Seminary; president and CEO, the Tosabo Group, an international cultural and education consulting firm; 2nd vice president, Youth Leadership Development Program; advisor to board, Nigerian United Soccer Club, Brooklyn; has traveled extensively in Africa and Europe.

KENYA AYERS, Ed.D., 30, Washington, D.C., dean of students at Trinity College; visionary behind Trinity's "21st Century Paradigm for the Provision of Holistic Student Services"; previously held positions at the University of Houston, Florida Atlantic University (where she received Outstanding Mentor Award and the Outstanding Student Advocate Award) and Eastern Michigan University and the University of Michigan; co-author of Hitching a Ride to Success: A Roadmap for Collegiate Travelers, a study-skills text; founder, she Education Assessment Connection, a consulting firm.