Bonnie Newman Davis, managing editor of the Richmond Free Press, was among several alumni and leaders recognized on Oct. 28 by North Carolina A&T State University’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communication’s Hall of Fame. The inaugural induction ceremony took place on the university’s campus in Greensboro, N.C.

Ms. Davis, who became managing editor at the Free Press last May, wrote her first article for her college newspaper after taking a journalism course during her junior year at NCA&T. That article and others later appeared in The Carolina Peacemaker, Greensboro’s Black-owned newspaper. After graduating from A&T with a bachelor’s in English in 1979, she earned a master’s degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1980.

After graduate school and several newspaper internships in North Carolina, Kentucky and Ann Arbor, Ms. Davis became a reporter and editor at the Richmond News Leader and, later, the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Additionally, Ms. Davis has served as a journalism professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and at NCA&T, where she was the Greensboro News & Record/Janice Bryant Howroyd Endowed Professor from 2011 to 2015. She has served on the boards of several local and national journalism organizations, including the National Association of Black Journalists.

Her book, “Truth Tellers: The Power and Presence of Black Women Journalists Since 1960,” will be released later this month.

Other JOMC alumni inductees include:

• Sandra Daye Hughes — The 1969 NCA&T graduate achieved numerous “firsts” in her career as a pioneering news reporter and talk show host in Greensboro. She also served as an adjunct professor of journalism at her alma mater.

• Nagatha Tonkins – A former TV news reporter, she joined the faculty at NCA&T in 1986, helping to develop the journalism department’s curricula for new majors, numerous courses and programs, and playing a role in its accreditation. After teach- ing at A&T for 22 years, she later taught at Elon University

for 12 years.

• Anthony Welborne Sr. — During his 50-year career with NCA&T, Mr. Welborne installed the university’s first television studio and established its radio station. He continues to serve as WNAA station manager and a university lecturer.

• Gail Boone Wiggins - Mrs. Wiggins recently retired from NCA&T after 38 years of service where she filled many roles, including stints as interim chair during two successful reac- creditations of the JOMC department. NCA&T continues to have one of only three nationally accredited journalism programs in North Carolina.