2024 Charter Day Honorees

2024 Alumni Award for Distinguished Postgraduate Achievement

Since 1943, Howard University has honored those among its ranks who embody its values as exemplars of Excellence in Truth and Service. The Alumni Award for Distinguished Postgraduate Achievement is one of our community’s highest honors and reserved for those individuals whose contributions have made a profound difference in their communities. The 2024 honorees have been selected by the committee, reviewed by the President and approved by the Board of Trustees. They will be formally recognized during the 2024 Charter Day Dinner.

Suzanne Marie Randolph Cunningham (BS ’74)

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Randolph Cunningham is Chief Science Officer with the MayaTech Corporation, a Silver Spring, MD-based firm that focuses on addressing existing and emerging public health challenges. Over the course of her career, Dr. Randolph Cunningham has been recognized as a renowned researcher on the maternal health of Black women and the health of their children. In 2015, the American Psychological Association Minority Fellowship

Program presented her with the James E. Jones Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to psychological and family science research on Black children and families, and in 2018, she was named the recipient of the Association of Black Psychologists’ Distinguished Psychologist Award. She is Past National President of the Association of Black Psychologists, Inc. Randolph Cunningham was also the recipient of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation’s National Fellowship through which she conducted international research on nutrition and pregnancy outcomes for women of color. Dr. Randolph Cunningham is also a 1972 Alpha chapter initiate and Golden Life Member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Andrae Townsel (BA ’07, M.Ed ’09, Ed.D. ’15)

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Townsel was born and raised in the beautiful state of Michigan. As a student-athlete at Cass Technical High School, he earned a football scholarship to Howard University in Washington, DC. His football scholarship ultimately turned into a doctoral degree. He earned his bachelors, masters, and doctorate all from Howard University and began his educational career in the District 

of Columbia. He served as a student teacher, teacher, football and basketball head coach, assistant dean, dean of students, central office specialist, assistant principal, high school principal, assistant superintendent, and a highly effective superintendent. On July 1, 2022, Dr. Andrae Townsel became the first black superintendent in the history of Calvert County, Maryland. Effective July 1, 2024, Dr. Townsel will become the first black President of the Public School Superintendents’ Association of Maryland (PSSAM).