The WGSS Department is delighted to introduce Jonell Ashby as the 2024 winner of the Terry Alexander Award.

This award is given in honor of Terry Alexander, the mother of Courtney Alexander, a Women’s Studies major who graduated from Stony Brook in 2006. Terry Alexander worked in the New York City public schools, she was an active member of the Brownsville Community Baptist Church, and she was a community activist with the Bed Stuy Park Lions Club in Brooklyn. Terry was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1982 and, from that point forward, she and her family were regular participants in the annual MS walk to raise awareness about the disease and money to further the research. Terry attended the WGSS graduation in May 2016 to watch her daughter graduate. Sadly, shortly thereafter, she became very ill from MS-related complications and died on December 7, 2006.

The WGSS Department is grateful for the Alexander family’s continued support, and we are honored to give the Terry Alexander Award each year to students planning to pursue a career in health care or health advocacy. Our hope is that this award will generate interest among our students in examining the complexities of caring for people with chronic illnesses while also providing us with the chance to acknowledge the importance of a parent’s love, encouragement, and commitment to education and community work. Terry Alexander is a shining example of all these things.

Professor Jenean McGee presented Jonell Ashby with the award at our spring commencement ceremony. Here’s what Prof McGee had to say about Jonell:

“Hailing from Brooklyn, New York, Jonell Ashby is a doula, holds an associate degree in biology and is graduating with as a Women’s, Gender, Sexuality Studies major with post grad plans of becoming an OBGYN.

My first introduction to Jonell was this past fall at the WGSS open house. Immediately I was not only impressed but in awe of what Jonell had accomplished in so little time. I was then thrilled to see her seated in the front row (literally right in from of my podium!) for my WST 392 course on Black women and US modern medicine. Knowing about Jonell and being a new professor, I was a bit – dare I say – intimidated and nervous about teaching someone so steeped in the conversations about Black women and medicine. But it turned out being an amazing course, and Jonell provided her classmate’s and myself with unique perspectives from the vantage point of being a doula and having an interest in Black women’s health.

To list a few of Jonell’s accolades:  As a Collective Power for Reproductive Justice intern, she helped produce the first-ever “Trust Black Women Universe” project for Essence Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana. She also helped launch a youth-centered menstrual equity project, which involves a giveaway featuring people of color-owned and organic menstrual brands. This fall, she will begin working on her Masters in Public Health degree right here at Stony Brook University.

Getting to know Jonell and hearing my colleagues and students sing her praises, she is truly the perfect recipient for the Terry Alexander Award. With all of that it is my privilege to present Jonell Ashby with this award.”