Honoring Black Excellence

From left to right: Jonathan McGee, Amber Townsend, Michael Behnam, Marquis Miller and Emmanuel Ezeocha stand in front of a polished stone wall

Dean Michael Behnam (center) with the 2024 Black Excellence Award honorees (from left): Jonathan McGee (MBA ’22), Amber Townsend (MBA ’24), Marquis Miller, and Emmanuel Ezeocha (BBA ’25).

At its second annual Black Excellence Awards Dinner, the Quinlan School of Business honored four exceptional difference makers who embody the values of inclusion, equity, and leadership.

"Tonight, we elevate the Black members of our community, and we elevate the excellence they have worked hard to achieve even with the systemic and other challenges they have faced," said Michael Behnam, dean of the Quinlan School of Business.

Below are the 2024 Black Excellence Award recipients:

Undergraduate Student Leadership Award

Emmanuel Ezeocha (BBA '25) is an information systems major and a student leader in the Black Business Student Association. He was described during the award nomination process as passionate about connections and impact, and someone who goes out of his way to connect his peers with each other, faculty, staff, and industry professionals.

During his acceptance speech, Ezeocha shared that he initially struggled to find internships and his career path. But after the encouragement of the Rambler Brotherhood Project and his mentors, he earned the Google Analytics Certification and landed an internship at Riddell, the leading manufacturer of football equipment. In summer 2024, he will work at Amazon.

"I am grateful that God has led me to achieve this award," said Ezeocha. "Sometimes you don't know what God is preparing you for or what the universe has in store."

Graduate Student Leadership Award

Amber Townsend (MBA '24) is a Baumhart Scholar MBA student and serves as the inaugural manager of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the Northwestern University Lurie Cancer Center. Townsend is the youngest person ever to serve on the cancer center leadership team.

According to her nominators, she is known for advocating for underrepresented voices and has genuine passion for racial equity work, especially as it pertains to health and educational outcomes for those from the African diaspora.

"Receiving the Black Excellence Award is a reminder that we all have a responsibility to show up authentically and to serve as an example and empower others to do the same," Townsend said. "It is a call to action to continue dismantling systemic barriers and creating inclusive spaces where every student can thrive without having their identity, credentials, or inherent value questioned or disregarded."

Watch Townsend describe what Black excellence means to her.

Distinguished Alumni Leadership Award

Jonathan McGee (MBA '22), is a graduate of the Baumhart Scholar MBA program and an expert in equitable economic development.

He is currently a senior consultant for economic development at Baker Tilly. Before that, he served as director for the Office of Business and Workforce Diversity at the Illinois Department of Transportation and was one of the youngest and only African-American male deputy directors in Governor J.B. Pritzker's administration at the time. His tireless work during the COVID-19 pandemic directed $100 million towards Black businesses over two years.

At Loyola, McGee mentors Black undergraduate and graduate students and recently joined the project team for a social impact initiative led by the Quinlan School of Business to support Black businesses in Chicago.

"I know that with more awareness, and preparedness communication, coordination, and collaboration, we will be able to close the racial wealth gap for black people not just in Chicago, but across the world," McGee said.

Watch McGee as he shares his Black Excellence Awards Dinner experience.

Community Leadership Award

Marquis Miller is the Obama Foundation's vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion, and was the first chief diversity officer for the City of Chicago. Miller's nominator described him as a servant-leader committed to helping people and their communities become their best selves.

At Quinlan, Miller is a member of the Baumhart Center's Leadership Council and served as a guest speaker for the Leading for DEI program, which is facilitated by the Baumhart Center and Loyola's Institute for Racial Justice.

"And as practitioners, we will all succeed...when we treat diversity, equity, and inclusion, not as a buzzword or a series of boxes to check, but as a lens through which we view all parts of our organizations and our lives," Miller said.

Award nominees

The Quinlan School of Business also congratulates all Black Excellence Award nominees. Kamille Minor was nominated for the Undergraduate Student Leadership Award. Distinguished Alumni Award nominees include Kamena Brooks, Andrew Coombs, Dr. Tracy Dumas, Joni Duncan, Alenda Durr, and Anyea Taylor. Nominees for the Community Leadership Award include Jamie Jones Ezefili, Jeremy Frierson, Gennell Jefferson, and Anyea Taylor.