Spotlighting Us!
We toot our own horns with these "Newsworthy TidBits" about our Class of '67 classmates and their families, We want to add yours, so please send in your tidbits to us at threadgillhsclassof67@gmail.com.
University of Arkansas (UARK) honors our own Chris Hinton-Lee (UARK 2019 Commence Speaker) with Honorary Doctorate Degree - May 11, 2019
Check out the following link:
https://news.uark.edu/
W. CHRIS HINTON-LEE, AIA, NCARB, SES (R)
Chris Hinton-Lee grew up in rural Mississippi, dreaming of becoming an architect. She didn’t have much support for that dream, but if she’s had one guiding principle in her life it’s that “I would not let naysayers tell me what I could not do.”
She attended the University of Arkansas, and in 1975 she became the first African Ameican woman to graduate with a degree in architecture. This was the first of many “firsts” in her life and career.
She moved to Maryland after graduation and became the first African American woman to be licensed as an architect in that state.
She had a successful 37-year career in the Army Corps of Engineers, where she was the first woman and first African American in virtually every leadership position she attained.
Among those positions were chief of architecture, chief of design branch and chief of construction quality assurance; strategic planner for a district commander; and co-chair of the Assistant Secretary of the Army’s task force for Army family housing privatization.
Hinton-Lee later served as project director in the Corps’ Medical Facilities Office, managing the $1.2 billion Department of Defense medical facilities construction program.
She was named chief of engineering and construction at the Transatlantic Center, where she directed a staff of 80 architects and engineers in the design and construction of a multimillion dollar program in the Middle East, Africa and Russia.
In 2003 she was selected to the Army’s Senior Executive Service, making her the first African American female and the first architect to achieve this highest civilian rank, traditionally held by engineers. She was assigned to serve as director of regional business at the Corps’ Lakes and River Division. The following year she was appointed by the Commanding General to be Chief Architect of the entire Corps of Engineers.
Hinton-Lee deployed to Iraq in 2006 to serve as director of reconstruction programs for the Gulf Region Division, where she directed the efforts of 500 personnel in the execution of the $13 billion Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund mission to rebuild war-torn Iraq. For her exemplary service there, she was honored with the prestigious Presidential Rank Award.
In 2007, Hinton-Lee joined the Corps’ South Atlantic Division as director of regional business, responsible for designing and building barracks, hospitals, office buildings, commissaries and other facilities at 11 major Army posts and 13 Air Force bases in the Southeast.
She retired in 2012 and has enjoyed nonstop world travel ever since.
Hinton-Lee is a past president and vice president of the Society of American Military Engineers, a member of the American Institute of Architects, the National Organization of Minority Architects, the National Technical Association and a University of Arkansas Charter member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
She is a graduate of the Army Management Staff College.
She holds a National Council of Architectural Registration Boards certification and is a registered architect in the states of Maryland and Georgia and in the District of Columbia.
With former husband, Nick Lee, she has one son, Nicholas Micah Lee.
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SHIRLEY MAE JOHNSON'S MOM with OCTAVIA SPENCER on Location, filming, THE HELP
THE HELP was filmed in GREENWOOD!
SHIRLEY MAE's and ANNETTE PAUL's MOMS featured in article on THE HELP.