A medical illustrator for more than 20 years, Charles Mills – 88 years young – has made art his life’s work, and a gift to neighborhoods throughout South Florida.  Although his nearly 60-year career includes dozens of exhibitions and numerous awards and recognitions, Mills considers his most notable achievement “The Wall of History,” a mural that marks the entranceway to Sistrunk Boulevard in downtown Fort Lauderdale.  The piece depicts the saga of African Americans over the centuries.

Jim McKinley is president of McKinley Financial Services, Inc. – one of the most successful minority-owned insurance agencies in the United States.  Ask him what he is most proud of, however, and the answer has little to do with business operations – it’s having provided more than 80 young people with an educational scholarship through the McKinley Financial Foundation, which he founded more than a decade ago.

Once a homeless mother on welfare suffering from substance and alcohol addiction, Rev. Dr. Rosalind Osgood went on to earn a master’s and a doctoral degree in public administration and a second master’s in divinity.  Founder of Women Reaching Women, Dr. Osgood helps those struggling create a more hopeful life.  As president of Mount Olive Development Corporation, she increased the budget 175 percent to fund programs for families in low-income communities.

At 15, Dr. Niara Sudarkasa left Dillard High School for Fisk University on a Ford Foundation Early Entrance Scholarship.  By 25, she had earned a master's and a doctoral degree in anthropology from Columbia University.  She went on to become a professor and associate vice president at the University of Michigan, and president of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.  Dr. Sudarkasa now gives back as a major contributor and consulting scholar at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center.

A performing arts enthusiast, Hope Williams ranks in the top 6 percent of her class at Miramar High School where she is enrolled in the International Baccalaureate Program. One of four children of an Army veteran, Hope spearheaded a children’s book drive for the U.S. Army’s United through Reading program. In addition, she organized a fundraiser benefiting a non-profit AIDS research organization and spent the last three summers as a camp counselor to special needs children at the David Posnack Jewish Community Center.