In 2025 The Mary Frances Early Lecture Series celebrates its twenty-fifth year and the 63rd anniversary of Mary Frances Early’s graduation. In celebration of 25 years of the Mary Frances Early Lecture Series, trail blazers and influential thought leaders Dr. Valerie White and Dr. Tracey Ford will be this year’s speakers.
Each year, speakers are invited to deliver a lecture that honors Ms. Early’s quiet determination and dignity in her work to ensure that the state’s flagship university became an institution of higher learning for all the people of Georgia.
In 1962, Mary Frances Early was the first African American to earn a graduate degree from UGA.
Valerie D. White, of Tallahassee, Florida, is a retired associate professor in the School of Journalism & Graphic Communication at Florida A&M University (FAMU). Dr. White retired after 32 years of service in higher education and 23 years at FAMU.
As a UGA doctoral student, Dr. White was parliamentarian for the Graduate and Professional Scholars, researcher and script developer for the Foot Soldier Project for Civil Rights Study and Research, and member of the Multicultural Network. She served as a mentor for the Village Project and the Athletic Department, and a journalism instructor at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. As a doctoral student, she received the Cox Center Scholarship for International Study. The $10,000 award funded Dr. White’s trip to South Africa for nine months, where she conducted her dissertation research and served as visiting assistant editor of Ebony South Africa magazine.
Dr. White’s career at FAMU is distinguished by multiple accolades, including the 2024 Innovation Teaching Award, the 2021 Center for Disability Access and Resources Pacesetter Award, finalist for the 2019 Advanced Teacher of the Year, and the 2006 Teacher of the Year. She has also been recognized with a Distinguished Adviser Award from College Media Advisers.
A native of Fort Valley, Georgia, Dr. White completed her undergraduate degree at Hampton University, her master’s degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri, and her doctorate in journalism and mass communication from the University of Georgia.
Tracey D. Ford, of Austin, Texas, is the associate vice chancellor for Student Affairs in the University of Texas System, where she leads, initiates, and manages policy concerning student experience, student well-being, and enrollment management. With more than two decades of administrative experience, she has held senior roles at the University of North Carolina System, North Carolina A&T State University, UNC School of the Arts, and Tennessee State University.
At the University of Georgia, Dr. Ford served as the first director of the Office of Institutional Diversity, where she co-founded ASPIRE, a pre-collegiate program. She also served as assistant dean of students for the African American Cultural Center and an academic advisor for the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. As a doctoral student at UGA, Dr. Ford was instrumental in establishing the Mary Frances Early Lecture and participated in the Foot Soldier Project for Civil Rights Study and Research.
Dr. Ford is an award-winning advocate for education, leadership, and youth development. She was the NAACP National Advisor of the Year, a national semi-finalist for the First Year Advocate Award, the UGA Student Organization Achievement and Recognition (SOAR) Advisor of the Year, and Woman of the Year for the St. Mark AME Church (Athens) and the Athens graduate chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.
She also is a Tennessee Supreme Court-certified mediator, and alumna of the American Association of Colleges and University’s Millennium Leadership Institute, and a member of the Higher Education Leadership Foundation’s first cohort.
Hailing from Atlanta, Tracey D. Ford holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Norfolk State University, a master’s degree in genetics from Howard University, and a doctorate in education from the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education at UGA.
The 25th Annual Mary Frances Early Lecture will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 4, 2025. The event is free and open to the public and will take place in Mahler Hall at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.
The Mary Frances Early Lecture is sponsored by the Graduate School, Graduate and Professional Scholars (GAPS), the Mary Frances Early College of Education, and the Office of Inclusive Excellence. It is part of The Signature Lecture Series coordinated by the Office of the Provost.
