Lane Women Receive Sterling Award

Lane Women Receive Sterling Award

Lane College’s Chief of Staff Darlette Samuels and Lane College alumna Helen Owens has received the Sterling Award which annually honors 20 of West Tennessee’s most influential women.

Darlette Samuels 

Ms. Samuels has served Lane College for over 20 years. She is a member of Dr. Logan Hampton’s Presidential Cabinet, acts as a liaison between Lane College and its board of trustees and coordinates a number of strategic initiatives for Lane College. Prior to her role as Chief of Staff, she held the titles of vice president for institutional advancement and director of public relations. Ms. Samuels is an active member of New St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church, is a member and former advisor of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority and serves on the board of directors for the Jackson Arts Council.

Ms. Owens is an alumna of Lane College’s Class of 1958 and has held the positions of director of alumni affairs, director of public relations, director of talent search and assistant professor of education at Lane College. She holds a Master of Education from the University of Memphis. Ms. Owens was the 20th National President of the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority and the first African-American woman to be elected to the Madison County Commission. She is the founder of the consulting firm Owens & Associates. Ms. Owens is the wife of Dr. Robert G. Owens Sr. and is the mother of four.

Established in 2010 by the Jackson Area Business and Professional Women and The Jackson Sun, the Sterling Awards have since honored 20 women annually who are both leaders in their professional fields as well as in their communities.

The recipients will be recognized at the Jackson-Madison County General Hospital’s J. Walter Barnes Conference Center today, April 4, 2017, at 6 p.m. Each year the awards are presented on Equal Pay Day, which marks the point in the year women must work to for their wages to equal men’s earnings from the previous year.

Lane College was previously represented at the Sterling Awards by 2015 recipient Dr. Clara Hewitt, Director of the Upward Bound Program.