The Seattle Black College Fair

"Creating a Blueprint for Educational Excellence: a panel of alumni discussing their experiences"

Brooke Spearmon - Spelman College
Brooke earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Spelman College. She began her career as an Assistant Account Executive at DBL Multimedia Group, and then moved on to the position of Consumer Marketing Specialist for the Detroit Free Press. She currently is an Account Executive for ColorsNW Magazine, the only multicultural publication in the Puget Sound Area. Brooke is presently a volunteer at the YMCA Black Achievers Program, and resides in Bellevue, Washington with her husband, Shaun, also an HBCU graduate.

Chinua Limbie - Morehouse College
Chinua earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Morehouse College. He began his career working as a Human Resource Intern at the Seattle Times. Currently he is working in Human Resources at the Ida Culver House Broadview, a long term care facility in North Seattle.

Kevin Dukes - Tuskegee University
At six years old, Kevin knew he wanted to fly airplanes. His favorite toy as a kid was airplanes. At fifteen years old Kevin followed his passion outside of class and attended aviation ground school. After high school Kevin attended Tuskegee University and earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Aerospace Engineering. He began his career working in Flight Test Engineering as a Flight Test Engineer at the Boeing Company. His responsibilities as a flight test engineer are to gather data for airplane and systems development for airplane certification, verification, or customer specification compliance. He is currently a member of the Boeing Employee’s Flying Association, National Association of Flight Instructors, Society of Flight Test Engineers, Sub-Sonics Flying Club, Civil Air Patrol, and now the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

Randall Boseman - Xavier University
Randall is a Test Manager in the Microsoft Office product group. When he joined Microsoft in 1994 at the height of the word processor war, he worked on a set of features in Microsoft Word that were aimed at converting users of competing products into loyal Microsoft Word users. Over the course of his time at Microsoft he has worked on and led several teams concerned with integrating internet capabilities into the Office applications, tackling the Total Cost of Ownership around Office, to improving the user interface. Currently he manages a team responsible for the developing and running the Microsoft Office website (http://office.microsoft.com) and several other features that exist in the client applications all around enhancing the users knowledge of the product with the intent of improving user productivity and increasing customer satisfaction. Randall was born and raised in New Orleans, LA. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Xavier University of Louisiana. Prior to his full time employment with Microsoft, he did two successful internships at IBM in Tampa, FL and one with Microsoft in Redmond, WA. Randall is married with a son and two daughters. When his time is not being dedicated to the intense physical and mental training of his children, he can be found enjoying sports (participating and watching) as well as volunteering to speak to and help out with students from elementary to high school levels in the Seattle area as well as back in his home town.

Ian Heisser - Xavier University
Ian Heisser is a Software Test Engineer Lead in the Mobile Platforms Division at Microsoft Corporation. Since joining Microsoft over nine years ago, he has helped release many different products, some including versions of Microsoft Office for both the Windows and Macintosh Operating Systems, as well as versions of the Windows Operating System. Currently he heads up the Performance and Stress Test Team for the Tablet PC and other Mobile Devices. Ian received his Bachelors of Science degree in Computer Science and holds Associate degrees in Mathematics and Fine Arts from Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans, Louisiana. During his years at Xavier, he performed internships and co-ops for both International Business Machines (IBM) in Austin, Texas and Microsoft Corporation, here in Redmond, Washington. Ian is currently a member of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council for the Archdiocese of Seattle and is the Western States District Director of Junior Knights for the Knights of Peter Claver, Inc; a Catholic organization which mentors young African American, Catholic men between the ages of 8 and 18. Ian also serves as the Washington State Director of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Incorporated. Most recently, Ian was elected Vice President of the newly formed Puget Sound Chapter of the Xavier University of Louisiana Alumni Association.