Home NCSU Diversity News College of Veterinary Medicine Professor and Student Win National Minority Role Model Honors!

College of Veterinary Medicine Professor and Student Win National Minority Role Model Honors!

Dr. Cecil F. Brownie, professor of toxicology/pharmacology at North Carolina State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, and fourth-year veterinary medicine student Nneka M. George are recipients of national awards presented by Minority Access Inc., a non-profit educational organization that supports diversity on campuses and in corporations and agencies throughout the United States.

Brownie is one of six educators recognized as a Faculty Mentor Role Model and George is one of eight students recognized as a Student Role Model. The awards were presented during the recent Fifth National Role Models Conference in Washington, D.C. Dr. Allen Cannedy, the College of Veterinary Medicine’s director of diversity and minority affairs, nominated Brownie and George for the honors.

Brownie, recognized internationally as an authority within the area of veterinary medicine and toxicology of plants, received the award for “exemplary achievements, mentoring, consulting and guiding others,” and for his career-long support and development of opportunities that promote the advancement of minority students in the study of veterinary medicine. He joined the college faculty in 1982, has published extensively and is currently studying environmental food contaminants in developing countries.

George, certified by the American Society for Clinical Pathology as a clinical laboratory scientist, served as a lab scientist at the Duke University Hospital microbiology laboratory. She also is a recipient of a technical intramural research training award from the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Institutes of Health (NIEHS-NIH). Fluent in Spanish, she has participated in veterinarian projects in several countries in Central and South America.

Established in 1995, Minority Access Inc. supports individuals, institutions, federal, state, and local government agencies, and various corporations in their efforts to improve the recruitment, retention and enhancement of minorities.

One of the goals of Minority Access is to increase the pool of minority researchers in the biomedical and health-related fields that are more likely to conduct research on health risks that disproportionately affect minorities.