Register Now: AACHS Hall Of Fame Induction 2025

Inductee and Emcee Biographies

Richard F. America Jr. (205), author, educator, and policy analyst received his BS in Business Administration from Pennsylvania State University, and an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Harvard University. America then joined Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California. He worked there for four years as a Development Economist in the Urban and Regional Economics Group, on economic development, industrial location, urban transport, housing and education projects. His first major article, was, “What Do You People Want?” in the Harvard Business Review. It proposed a new focus on larger scale businesses and Federal subsidies for major acquisitions by African Americans, rather than simply small start-up assistance. He advocated for equity and meaningful and competitive participation in all industrial and commercial sectors. The following years America spent at the Haas School of Business Administration at the University of California, Berkeley. He was a Lecturer and Director of Urban Programs. He then moved to Washington, DC first in consulting and then in the Federal Government. He teaches an enterprise development course as a Visiting Professor at the Institut Superieur de Management, ISM, in Dakar, Senegal, annually. He created a partnership, with funding from the Kellogg Foundation, with the University of Botswana and the University of Pretoria and established the Southern African Development Community Business School Network, with 50 schools, to help strengthen management education in that region. He has visited 25 countries and 40 universities in Africa, to advance the pace of business school development. America served 20 years in the U S Government at the Department of Commerce and the Small Business Administration, working on policy and economic development in distressed areas and revitalization strategies. As a Professor of the Practice, Director of the Africa Initiative, and Director of Community Reinvestment, America teaches courses in community reinvestment and economic development at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He is also working with business schools in Africa to help them improve the teaching of management and to function as problem solvers and drivers of development. He travels there frequently and has established a host of relationships in the business community. America continues to analyze the problems of economic reform, economic development, and community reinvestment for African Americans, and in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Rel J. Dowdell (248) is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and film studies educator from Philadelphia. A Central High School alum, he earned a magna cum laude degree in English from Fisk University—where he served as SGA President—and an advanced degree in film and screenwriting from Boston University, winning top honors at the Redstone Film Festival. Dowdell’s critically acclaimed feature films include Train Ride (distributed by Sony Pictures), Changing the Game, and the documentaries Where’s Daddy? and Dr. Ira De A. Reid: Haverford College’s Unsung Scholar/Activist. His work often blends urban storytelling and suspense to address social issues, earning comparisons to John Singleton and Spike Lee. A full-time professor, Director of Film Studies, and film historian, Dowdell has interviewed award-winning actors including Ving Rhames, Keith David, and Tony Todd. He has also appeared on The 700 Club discussing African-American representation in film.

Rick Dunham (233) is co-director of the Global Business Journalism program at Tsinghua University and a senior visiting professor in the Tsinghua School of Journalism and Communication. As a journalist, he is a frequent analyst on topics of global business, politics and journalism, offering commentary on international television networks and multimedia news platforms. As a journalism educator, he has trained professional journalists, journalism students and journalism professors in locations including the United States, China, Italy, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Lebanon and the Philippines. Before arriving in China in 2013, Professor Dunham was a veteran Washington journalist and former president of the National Press Club. He covered the White House for Business Week magazine and the Houston Chronicle. Professor Dunham also is a prolific author. He is the author of the textbook, “Multimedia Reporting” (Springer, 2020) and co-editor of Springer’s Tsinghua Global Business Journalism book series. He wrote “The Global Business Journalism Stylebook” (Tsinghua University, 2024) and is co-editor of “The Routledge Companion to Business Journalism” (Routledge, 2024). He also has contributed to five earlier books. From 1992 to July 2007, Mr. Dunham was a Washington correspondent for Business Week, covering issues such as American politics, international economics, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Clinton, Bush and Obama White Houses. He also was Washington Outlook editor for BusinessWeek and a weekly columnist for BusinessWeek.com. From 2007 to 2013 he was Washington bureau chief of the Houston Chronicle, where he created the popular political site “Texas on the Potomac.” He also served as Hearst Newspapers Washington bureau chief from 2009 to 2012. He was chosen as one of the top regional reporters in the United States by the Washington Post in a 2013 article. Mr. Dunham earlier spent seven years in the Washington bureau of the Dallas Times Herald, covering Congress, the White House and the Supreme Court. He also worked on the city desk reporter in Dallas and the state capital bureau in Austin. His journalism prizes include awards for breaking news, beat reporting, regional reporting, feature writing and public service. During three decades in Washington, he appeared on C-SPAN, CNN, ABC, CNBC, MSNBC, the PBS News Hour and SiriusXM Satellite Radio. He also has offered news analysis for outlets including the BBC, National Public Radio, ABC Radio, Fox News Channel. From 2005 to 2009, he wrote a “Letter from America” column for the Finnish newspaper Aamulehti explaining U.S. politics and culture to an international audience. While based in China, Mr. Dunham offered regular news analysis for CCTV’s China Global Television Network and CGTN Radio, along with international news outlets from countries including the United States, Russia, the Philippines, Denmark, Estonia and Finland. Mr. Dunham is on the cutting edge of journalism education and training in both Asia and America, having served as president of the National Press Club Journalism Institute from 2006 to 2013. He has conducted global webinars, taught classes and hosted panel discussions on journalism skills, digital content, social media and journalism ethics. In China, he has participated in international journalism conferences and has conducted more than 50 lectures and workshops for journalism students and professionals across the world’s largest country. He created the USA Summer Journalism Training Program, an intensive two-week training program for international students. He also created a winter intercultural exchange and leadership program for Tsinghua University students in Europe that included meetings with journalists, educators, ambassadors, elected officials and local students. From 1999 to 2005, Mr. Dunham was a mentor with the UNITY Mentor Program for young journalists of color, where he worked one-on-one with young journalists and taught workshops on journalism skills. He has lectured to classes at U.S. institutions including Texas A&M University, the University of Alabama, the University of Oklahoma, Purdue University, American University, Boston University, Towson State University, Carleton College, Sam Houston State University, Flagler College, and the Organization of American States Mr. Dunham also has written for the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Cleveland Plain Dealer and has contributed to several books. From 1992 to 1999, Mr. Dunham served on the Executive Committee of Periodical Correspondents, which oversees the press galleries on Capitol Hill for more than 2,000 news magazine and newsletter correspondents. As Executive Committee chairman from 1995 to 1997, he helped to coordinate press logistics for the national conventions and presidential inauguration. He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in history from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Professor Jerome S. Engel (222)  is an internationally recognized expert on innovation, entrepreneurship, and venture capital, lecturing and advising business and government leaders around the world. His research and publications explore innovation ecosystems, technology commercialization, venture capital, and lean innovation management practices in established and emerging enterprises. Professor Engel joined the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley in 1991, after a successful business career, to found the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, where he currently serves as Senior Fellow and Founding Executive Director Emeritus. He is a leader in the Lean Innovation movement, founding National Faculty Director of the National Science Foundations’ I-Corps, a US government program that develops entrepreneurial technology commercialization teams at leading universities across the United States. He has been the founding General Partner of two successful venture capital funds, is an active Angel investor, and a member of the Investment Advisory Boards to several international venture funds. Professor Engel is an Adjunct Professor Emeritus at the Haas School of Business and instructs in both the School’s MBA and Executive Education programs, specializing in Entrepreneurship, Corporate Innovation, New Venture Finance, and Venture Capital. He serves on the Boards of Directors and Advisory Boards of several entrepreneurial ventures, venture capital firms, universities and innovation centers around the world. An author and frequent speaker, he has been cited in the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio and other global media. Professor Engel’s awards and recognitions include the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance Lifetime Educational Achievement Award, the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers Award for Outstanding Contributions to Advance the Discipline of Entrepreneurship, among others. His most recent research and publications focus on the nature of innovation processes in entrepreneurial ventures, major corporations, and venture capital in regional ecosystems and global networks. Professor Engel’s publications, including two books, Clusters of Innovation: Entrepreneurial engines of economic growth around the world [2014] and Clusters of Innovation in the Age of Disruption [2022] explore these topics in depth. Most recently in Europe and elsewhere, he has been an active advisor to leaders of emerging innovation ecosystems including in Barcelona, Munich, Oslo, Brussels, Madrid, Melbourne, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and London. His focus is on building communities where naturally collaborative relationships emerge among major corporations, entrepreneurs and new venture investors. This work engages local universities, government and service organizations in creating and sustaining an entrepreneurial ecosystem that fosters the well-being of the entire community. 

Robin Eubanks (231) After graduating cum laude from the University of the Arts, he moved to New York City where he first appeared on the jazz scene in the early 1980s. He played with Slide Hampton, Sun Ra, and Stevie Wonder. Eubanks also served as the musical director with jazz drummer Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. He also was a member of jazz drummer Elvin Jones’ Jazz Machine. He was a contributor on fellow jazz trombonist Steve Turre’s 2003 release One4J: Paying Homage to J.J. Johnson. Eubanks has also released several albums as a band leader. He played for 15 years in double bassist Dave Holland’s quintet, sextet, octet and big band. Robin taught at The Oberlin College Conservatory for 20 years. He was a tenured Professor of Jazz Trombone and Jazz Composition. He also taught at Berklee College of Music and at New England Conservatory. He was a member in the all-star group the SFJAZZ Collective from 2008-2019. His notable students include trombonist Andy Hunter of the WDR Big Band. In 2014, Robin won the Jazz Times Critics Poll for Best Trombonist and on multiple occasions has won Downbeat’s Readers and Critics Polls for Trombonist of the Year. He has also won compositional grants from Chamber Music America and an ASCAP Composer’s grant. As with his performing career, his compositional interests are staggeringly diverse. Musically fluent, but also stylistically multilingual, the eclectic composer speaks a variety of musical “languages”. Robin is one of the pioneers of M-Base – a collective of young African American musicians, which emerged out of Brooklyn with a new sound and specific ideas about creative expression. He has appeared on numerous television shows and specials, including The Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live and The Grammys. He also pioneered the use of electronic effects with the trombone. Robin is a frequent lecturer, guest soloist and clinician at various colleges and universities in the U.S. and around the world. Robin Eubanks was voted #1 Trombonist by Down Beat magazine and Jazz Times.

William L. Maxwell, Ph.D (187) Dr. Maxwell is Emeritus Professor of Industrial Engineering at Cornell where he spent his entire career as a faculty member, commencing in 1961. He is known for innovating methods that addressed scheduling and production problems via computer simulations, and he co-developed the XCELL Modeling System and Cornell’s Computing Language. After graduating first in Cornell’s five-year engineering program, “he attributed his success to the thought processes that he honed at Central.” Maxwell has authored five books and sixty research publications, having been an editor and consultant for many journals and businesses. He and his mentor and thesis advisor, Dr. Richard Conway, co-authored the classic text, “Theory of Scheduling” in 1967 and in 1998, he was named a Fellow of the Institute of Industrial Engineers and became a member of the National Academy of Engineering, “one of the highest honors that an engineer can achieve.” Maxwell has been a visiting professor at many universities across the United States including the University of Michigan and the Wharton School at Penn. He also developed a laboratory for General Motors which performed operational research related to industrial engineering. Dr. Maxwell retired in 1998, becoming Professor Emeritus at Cornell’s School of Operations Research and Information Engineering. In his honor, students and colleagues established the William L. Maxwell Fund. In 2024, he received the James J. Byrnes Award for Excellence in Community Service with the YMCA, the Red Cross and The Greater Ithaca Activities Center, from the city of Ithaca, New York. 

David Oh (237), the son of the founder of the first Korean American church in Philadelphia, attended Dickinson College for undergrad and Rutgers Law School. After graduating from law school, he worked 3 years as an Assistant District Attorney in Philadelphia. In 1988, he resigned his position in the DA’s office to join the U.S. Army. He served from 1988-1992 as a 2LT in the Army National Guard. Upon his separation from the Army, David opened his own law practice until his merger in 2008 with Zarwin Baum DeVito Kaplan Schaer & Toddy, PC. He served on Mayor Ed Rendall’s transition team and led Gov Tom Ridge’s trade mission to South Korea. In 2003 and 2007, David ran very close races for City Council without success. Not giving up on a dream to be able to serve the citizens of Philadelphia, he finally won a seat in City Council in 2011 and served as the Minority Whip. David was the first Asian American elected to city council in Philadelphia and one of the most influential Asian American elected officials in the United States.  While serving in city council, David’s initiatives helped Philadelphia gain more recognition as a world class city. Some of his accomplishments are organizing ed the first annual First Responder Day to recognize & honor our police, firefighters and paramedic units. Additionally he passed an important Philadelphia tax credit bill that affords a Philadelphia based business a significant tax credit for hiring Post 9-11 military veterans. This encourages businesses to seek and hire veterans and also attracts veterans to consider living in Philadelphia at the conclusion of their military service. 

Sharif Street (251) attended Morehouse College, serving as president of the student senate. After earning a Bachelor of Arts in business administration with a concentration in finance, he received his Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law in 1999. During law school, he was the president of the Penn Law Democrats. Throughout the early 2000s, Street was known for his cultural pride and long locks, which he kept even while campaigning. During the 2000 presidential election, Street was a Pennsylvania state co-chair of GoreNet; a group that supported the Al Gore campaign with a focus on grassroots and online organizing, as well as hosting small-dollar donor events. In 2004, Street was elected as a Delegate to the Democratic National Convention committed to John Kerry for President. As a student at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, Street directed a Town Watch group in Philadelphia and has continued to serve the community in numerous positions since, starting both Philadelphia Green Communities and Urban Solution, serving as managing director of the Housing Association of Delaware Valley; serving on multiple boards, including the North Central Philadelphia Empowerment Zone’s Housing Trust Fund; the North Central Empowerment Zone’s Community Advisory Committees for Housing, Crime, Public Safety and Economic Development; and current member of Philadelphia’s African and Caribbean Immigrant Affairs Commission. He also served as Chief Legislative Advisor to the Democratic Chair of the Housing and Urban Development Committee, Senator Shirley Kitchen.  Street was elected to the State Senate in 2016.  He served as a member of the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing and the Joint Legislative Air and Water Pollution Control and Conservation Committee. Sharif also served as a member of the Senate Appropriations, Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Communications & Technology and Urban Affairs & Housing committees. In 2022, Street was elected Chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party after serving as vice-chair, the first person of color to fill that role.

Marc Weingarten (226) attended the University of Pennsylvania and Georgetown University Law Center. For more than twenty years, Marc Weingarten has been the leading lawyer in the United States for shareholder activism, which has revolutionized corporate governance and empowered minority shareholders to impact corporate performance. His not-for-profit activity has similarly focused on empowering underserved constituencies in education, charity and justice. The American Lawyer, a national publication, selected him as Dealmaker of the Year, for his work “on some of the fiercest shareholder activism campaigns and proxy contests in the market”. He was also selected by Chambers (US national and International editions), The Legal 500, IFLR1000, The Best Lawyers in America and Law dragon 500-Leading Dealmakers in America, all of which are national publications, as a top lawyer virtually every year for the last 25 years.  In Chambers, which ranks lawyers specifically for Corporate/M&A: Shareholder Activism/ USA, his ranking currently is Senior Statesman, which is the highest ranking and is above Tier 1. Per his classmate, Paul Fischer, “During the last 25 years or so, he has focused his practice on representing activist shareholders in their quest to bring accountability to corporate boardrooms. He was one of a few who gave birth to the legal representation of shareholder activists. He was an architect of many of the legal strategies utilized then and now in advancing the interests of shareholder activism.”  Moreover, Marc’s non-profit work has significantly benefited educational organizations that share the kind of mission Central embodies and it is consistent with the work Marc has done throughout his legal career.