2022 Community Service Award Recipients

For nearly 50 years, former baseball coach, administrator, and athletics director Marty L. Miller has served Norfolk State University and the community with distinction.

A native of Danville, Va., Miller is a 1969 NSU graduate and distinguished alumnus. During his collegiate career, Miller was an All-Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) player in 1967 and 1968, the same year he led the nation in doubles, and was the college's first National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) College Division All-American in baseball. 

Marty Miller also served our country as a second lieutenant in the United States Army and was signed by the Minnesota Twins of Major League Baseball. He ultimately returned to Norfolk State University to serve as head baseball coach from 1973 to 2005. For 32 years, he compiled an impressive record of 718-543-3; became the winningest baseball coach in CIAA history; led the team to 17 conference championships and 12 postseason appearances; and was named CIAA Coach of the Year 15 times. A model of inspiration, Miller encouraged his teams to achieve success on and off the field.  Twenty-two of his former players went on to sign professional baseball contracts.

From 2005 -2020, he served as NSU athletics director and was a leader in the Hampton Roads sports community as past president of the Norfolk Sports Club and as a member of the executive committee for the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame Museum in Virginia Beach.

In January 2022, Miller was inducted to the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame and joined the ranks of an elite group of more than 300 distinguished baseball coaches.

Today, Marty L. Miller continues his legacy of supporting his beloved alma mater, Norfolk State University, Hampton Roads, and beyond.

Dr. Tanya K. Kearney currently serves as the Director of the Virginia HIV/AIDS Resource & Consultation Center at EVMS. She is an accomplished Director with decades of experience in teaching, education and training of healthcare professionals. She serves as the Principal Investigator responsible for the preparation and administration of grants for training, public service projects, or other sponsored programs, in compliance with state and federal laws and regulations. She is a participative manager in an ever-changing public health environment. Dr. Kearney has been a key contributor to an article on “Self-Care Behaviors of African American Women Living with HIV: A Qualitative Perspective” published in the Journal of AIDS Nurses in AIDS Care. Additionally, she has completed missionary work in Kenya Africa.

Dr. Kearney received her Bachelor of Arts Degree from Kean University, Union, New Jersey, a Master’s Degree of Public Administration from Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey and her Ph.D. degree in General Human Service from Capella University, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Dr Kearney in a member of the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (ANAC), serving in the first Virginia Chapter of ANAC as Treasurer for 3 years and President in 2017. Her community associations are too many to name but include the EVMS/VHARCC representative on the Greater Hampton Roads HIV Health Services Planning Council, member of the Lt. Governor J. Fairfax’s COVID-19 Racial Disparities Task Force, course director for the Eastern Region HIV/AIDS Fall/Spring Conferences, completed COVID-19 Contract Tracing from John Hopkins University, and serves as Chair of the Board for Teens with a Purpose (a non-profit organization for teens & youth).

Dr. Kearney is an active member in church, serving as Chairwoman of the Trustee Ministry, Secretary for the Annual Family & Friends Day, Social Justice Ministry and participates as an instructor for Vacation Bible School–Arts & Crafts committee. Dr. Kearney enjoys the beach, reading, walking, spending time with her granddaughters and cooking gourmet meals.

Glenn R. Carrington is the dean of the School of Business at Norfolk State University and immediate past president of the NSU Foundation, Inc. Since June 2017, he has been leading the way to prepare business students for the real world of business and entrepreneurship through his aggressive fundraising efforts, passion and advocacy.

Prior to coming to Norfolk State University, he was a Partner/Principal at Ernst & Young, LLP, where he served on the U.S. Executive Board. At Ernst & Young, Mr. Carrington primarily focused on serving clients in the areas of corporate tax accounting and financial transactions. Additionally, he spent time developing and implementing strategy for the E&Y tax practice with an emphasis on high-profile issues such as corporation reorganizations (including spin-offs), contingent liabilities, capitalization, intangibles, bankruptcies, and environmental remediation. Mr. Carrington is the principal author of a standard reference treatise, Tax Accounting in Mergers & Acquisition.

Dean Carrington has more than 36 years of private practice and federal government experience. Over half of his career was spent as a partner with major accounting firms. Prior to joining EY, he was with Arthur Andersen for eight years, where he served as Managing Director of their Office of Federal Tax Services (OFTS) and head of OFTS Domestic Tax Practice Group.

Glenn began his career as an Attorney-Advisor in the Treasury Department’s Honors Program, rotating through the Tax Legislative Counsel’s Office and the Office of International Affairs at Treasury, as well as the former Interpretative Division in the Office of Chief Counsel at the IRS. Moving to private practice, Glenn worked for Caplin & Drysdale, Chartered, before returning to government service at the IRS with roles including Counsel to the Director of Corporation Tax Division, Branch Chief in the Office of the Assistant Chief Counsel (Corporate), and Assistance Chief Counsel (Income Tax & Accounting).

Mr. Carrington earned his undergraduate degree from Norfolk State University in 1977 and his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1980. Glenn is a two-time recipient of the Tax Excellence Award from the National Bar Association and former Chair of the ABA Government Relations Committee and member of ABA Tax Section Council.

A Norfolk, Virginia native, Elizabeth Vaughan Eccles is a retired music educator who taught classroom and choral music in the Norfolk City School System for 34 years followed by five years as Music Education Coordinator in the Department of Music at Hampton University, Hampton, VA.  She received a Bachelor of Science degree from Norfolk State (College) University, a Master of Music degree from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in Music Education from University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana.  Her musical career has included music teaching positions at the pre-school, kindergarten, elementary, secondary and university levels.  Also, her career has encompassed that of church organist/pianist/choir director and soloist appointments.  

Ms. Eccles has earned many accolades and awards during her career including voted Teacher of the Year in 1989 and 1996 by the Booker T. Washington High School faculty, a repeated recipient of the Norfolk Public School Bell Award for excellence in teaching and named Who’s Who Among American Teachers in 1998, 2002, and 2004.  In 1999, she was honored by the Norfolk State University Music Department as an outstanding music alumna and on April 20, 2013, she was honored by the Norfolk State Alumni Association at its annual Noah F. and Georgia A. Ryder Commemorative Concert. Ms. Eccles was the recipient of the 2020 “Dreamer’s Award” presented at the Virginia Symphony Orchestra’s Harmony Project MLK Tribute program.

Her experiences as a church musician began at age fourteen when she became the Sunday School pianist at Mount Zion Baptist Church, Norfolk (now Chesapeake) and she became the choir director/pianist of Bethel Baptist Church, Norfolk at age sixteen. Ms. Eccles has held other successful church musician positions. Most notable was the 2006 presentation of the Bank Street Memorial Baptist Church Gospel Choir, under her leadership, at an International Music Festival in Vienna, Austria. She was selected “2021Woman of the Year” by the Women’s Ministry of the church where she has been a member since 2004.

She holds membership in the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), Virginia Music Educators Association (VMEA), American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), Pi Kappa Lambda Music Honor Society, Phi Delta Kappa Fraternity, National Association for the Study and Performance of African-American Music (NASPAAM), and is currently a member of the organization’s Council of Past-Presidents, Tidewater Area Musicians Chapter of the National Association of Negro Musicians (secretary), Chesapeake-Virginia Beach Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, and the Norfolk Chapter of Norfolk State University Alumni Association. Ms. Eccles is currently Interim Music Director of the I. Sherman Greene Chorale, Inc. and is past president of the Chorale’s Board of Directors. Elizabeth is a member of the Historic Bank Street Memorial Baptist Church in Norfolk, VA.

Ms. Eccles considers her appointment as the first black female high school choral director in Norfolk Public Schools and being selected Music Educator of the Year 1996-1997 by the Virginia Music Educators Association – the first and only African American to receive this prestigious honor as two of the greatest achievements during her career.

The Watergate scandal was the catalyst for ending the Nixon administration, but it spurred the beginning of his career as a news reporter.  As a nerdy 14-year-old book worm, he followed in print and broadcast news accounts of the simple break-in, the congressional investigation and then the first resignation of a U.S. President. Ironically his first experience with the gratification and power of the media was provided by the Nixon administration.  It created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). CBS News carried stories about factories being forced to install filters and other systems to deter air and water pollution.

In his hometown, of Stuttgart, Arkansas, Black neighborhoods were menaced each year after the Fall harvest, by dust that spewed out from the huge rice milling plants which sat in the middle of them. The dust contributed to high rates of asthma and other ills among adults and children. In the early 70s, the first stories of environmental racism appeared in newspapers and national magazines he read. He wrote a letter to the editor of his hometown paper, The Daily Leader. He described the problem, called for the installation of filters to end it, and people to boycott the mills that produced the dust. He recalls playing with his dog in front of the house one afternoon when his mother summoned him into the house. There was a look on her face he had never seen before -one of alarm and fear. "The mayor wants to talk to you," she shouted. What did you do!!? He picked up the phone and said "Hello". "Leonard this is Mayor John Buerker...how are you?" I read your letter ...," he said. I am deeply sorry, and the city will try to do something about it." Colvin was so stunned at the mayor’s statement he never recalled what he said afterward. After that, each week he found some subject he would write a letter to the editor about and watched for the reaction. He was hooked.

At predominately White Henderson State University, for two years he was exposed to the basic mechanics of journalism and wrote a wide range of articles for the campus newspaper, The Oracle. While his journalistic career flourished, he floundered academically and took a break. Then he enrolled at Arkansas' largest HBCU, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB). It had no school of Journalism but in 1979, they were "building one”.  He was a reporter and then elected editor of the campus paper, "The Arkansawyer”. Colvin had three consecutive paid media internships at a KARK-TV and The Pine Commercial hired him during the Fall term before Spring graduation. It was a grand opportunity he could not turn down. He was his parent's first child to graduate from high school and attend college. He promised his family he would get a degree. While he taught himself how to drive, he was a regional reporter who covered most of the south part of the state. He recalls assignments in Sheridan, Arkansas, a town where Blacks were warned to exit it at "Sundown". Colvin recalls being accosted by police on his first night covering a council meeting and mistaken for a janitor a week later, although he was in a shirt and tie.

After a two-year stint with The Pine Commercial, it was off to the military when the Reagan recession impacted the paper's income. He wrote for the base newspaper, The Gazette. After Cuba, he spent a year and a half aboard the USS Truitt, an anti-submarine frigate based in Norfolk.  One day he received a package with his college transcript from UAPB alerting him he had accrued 154 credits and a B.S. degree.

After leaving the Navy, he landed a job with Norfolk Journal and Guide in 1987, where he has served since. As the Chief Reporter working with the paper's owner and Publisher Brenda H. Andrews, he has been blessed to work for the third oldest Black-owned publication in the nation. Colvin states it has been a very rewarding and fascinating career helping to sustain the publication as a viable journalist outlet.  More so providing a voice and a view of Black people on their triumphs, disparities, culture, history, and the economic life of the region.