E’Vonne Coleman To Be Honored By Duke University’s Samuel DuBois Cook Society

Durham, NC – Duke University is hosting their 22nd annual Samuel DuBois Cook Society Awards ceremony on Tuesday, February 19th. This event will take place at the Washington Duke Inn beginning at 5:15 pm. The Samuel DuBois Cook Society was founded in 1997 to honor the first African American tenured professor at Duke University and to shed light on his contributions and achievements as a member of the Duke University Board of Trustees. Dr. Cook’s mission was to cultivate positive relations between African Americans and other ethnic, racial, and national groups on the basis of an enlightened appreciation and knowledge of our historic interdependence.

This year, E’Vonne Coleman, Chief Operating Officer of Discover Durham (formerly known as Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau) will receive the Distinguished Service Award. Coleman has been with Discover Durham for over 10 years. Her role at Discover Durham is to promote and inform others about the city of Durham, NC.

She started her career here because she related closely to its mission, “I see myself as a person who connects others and connects people who would not have access to the things that I do,” stated Coleman. She holds a bachelor degree from North Carolina Central University and a masters from American University.

Coleman’s career and personal mission correlate closely with Dr. Cook’s mission as well. Coleman states that Dr. Cook inspires her “because he was the first. I have been the first in a variety of roles. I was the first Black person in North Carolina to run Durham Arts Council and the first African American woman to be the special assistant to the chairman for the National Endowment of Arts. Being the first is a relationship I have with him being the first at Duke.”

Coleman plans to continue connecting people and ideas. She also hopes to continue serving the City of Durham. Although she plans to retire, she still aims to be of service to others. “That’s what I live by. May I live long enough to be of service to others. To me, that’s very important,” said Coleman.

The Samuel DuBois Cook Society Awards will also be presented to Pamela Montgomery – Assistant Director, Finance and Administration at John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute, Dionna Gamble – Ph.D. Candidate, Genetics and Genomics Program, Felix Nwogbo – Ph.D. Candidate, Chemistry Department, and Corey Pilson – Class of 2020. The Raymond Gavins Distinguished Faculty Award will be presented to Onye Emmanuel Akwari, MD, FACS, FRCS(C) – Professor of surgery, Duke Surgical Sciences and Adriane Lentz-Smith, Ph.D. – Associate Professor, Duke History Department.

If you’d like to learn more about the Samuel DuBois Cook Society, it is open to all who are interested in their objectives and are committed to working toward the progress of African Americans who are a part of the Duke University community. If you would like to stay informed of Cook Society activities, please email your contact information to carla.peraza@duke.edu