The Changemakers The Changemakers

students from select HBCUs and direct them toward internships and careers at top-tier asset management firms. The eight-week program includes academic sessions and a speaker series presenting industry experts. Students from eight HBCUs applied for 16 fellowships in the inaugural cohort this year.

“The benefit to students will be a higher degree of financial fluency, making them even more competitive candidates,” says Smith.

BLAIR C. SMITH, ’90 Advancing Equity in Finance

Blair C. Smith is a financial professional with the heart of a community activist. Nearly two years ago, the former ROTC scholar brought his 20 years of financial services and capital markets experience to Milken Institute, in Washington, D.C., a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank with a mission to improve financial, physical, mental and environmental health.

The hiring has been mutually beneficial. As Senior Director of Milken’s Center for Financial Markets, Smith leads the Access to Capital and strategic innovative financing initiatives and has created two entities: Milken’s Inclusive Capitalism Program and the institute’s HBCU Strategic Initiative and Fellows Program, of which Morgan is a strategic partner. Recognizing that quality talent at HBCUs is often overlooked by the investment industry, Milken and Smith launched the Fellows Program to recruit and support academically competitive

Smith came to Milken from a community development financial institution, the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation, in New York, where he was Chief Investment Officer. Before that, he was responsible for co-managing a $5.2-billion Emerging Manager investment portfolio, within the State of New York Common Retirement Fund. Even earlier in his career, he served as a Relationship Manager with the Greenwich, Connecticut, and New York City Wealth Management teams at various top-tier banks, for more than 15 years. He has also worked as an adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Business of his other collegiate alma mater, Columbia University, where he received an M.B.A. Smith serves on the boards of directors of the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, the Baltimore Afro-American Newspapers and the Afro Charities.

Smith’s community activism isn’t the first in his family. He’s the great-grandson of the late Carl J. Murphy, Sr., founder of the Baltimore Afro-American and a longtime member and first African American chair of Morgan’s Board of Trustees (now the Board of Regents).

Smith is a 1987 initiate and legacy member of the Alpha Iota Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.

TRACY VONTÉLLE GREEN, ’92, and NANCEY FLOWERS HARRIS, ’93

Tracy Vontélle Green’s passion for stylish eyewear began when she was 13 and in need of corrective lenses.

“I remember how upset I was to have to wear them, but then Sally Jessy Raphael had a hot talk show and wore red frames. And I said, ‘OK. If I’ve got to wear them, I want them to make a statement,” Green says. “I begged my mom to buy me a pair. So started my journey of wearing glasses, not only to see the chalkboard but to be fashionable.”

Nancey Flowers Harris’ fascination with fashionable specs came later, after she and Green had met and become best friends as undergraduates at Morgan. Perhaps not coincidentally, Harris began working for an optometrist as a public relations coordinator after graduating from Morgan.

“I had an eye exam, discovered I was nearsighted and was prescribed my first pair of glasses. I was rocking my Malcolm X-styled frames and felt like I could change the world with my new glasses and recently acquired education from a historically Black university,” Harris recalls. “I started buying glasses to match my outfits and hairstyles. As my tastes began to shift, I was no longer satisfied with the limited styles and designs available on the market.”

Green had come to the same emotional place, and one day, as the friends bemoaned together about what was missing in eyewear, Green suggested they launch their own company to sell glasses better suited to diverse faces. Harris, the natural entrepreneur of the two, heartily agreed, and Vontélle Eyewear was born. Founded in 2019, Vontélle (www.vontelle. com), an online store, offers products and accessories designed and handcrafted to pay homage to the owners’ African ancestry, with traditional colors and patterns that channel their African, Caribbean and Latin heritage. Customers can ‘test drive’ glasses using Vontélle’s Virtual Try On feature and upload their eyeglass prescriptions to the website to be filled. The company commits a portion of its sales proceeds and eyewear to further vision support services for low-income children and families, through a partnership with Women in Need, an organization based in New York City. Vontélle has also partnered with ViacomCBS Consumer Products to offer children’s eyewear designed around Nickelodeon characters. The company has benefited from a wealth of attention from the media, and in February, Harris and Green appeared on “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” where they were surprised with an invitation from journalist Mika Brzezinski to the Forbes 30/50 Summit, in Abu Dhabi.

“We’ve only just begun!” says Harris. “Vontélle will surely make you feel bold, brave and beautiful and give you the ‘wow’ effect all day as you rock these stylish optics.” n