Where Are They Now?
Each quarter, we will update you on the activities and whereabouts of some of your fellow alumni.
First AVBA President, 1984
Eugene Watkins, BS’75 is the President of Texas Community Builders, LP and HomePlan Realty. Since 1993, his firms have specialized in the development of affordable housing and economic development. Previous to private development, he served in the public sector as Housing and Economic Development Director for the City of Cincinnati, Ohio and the City of Austin, Texas. Mr. Watkins has extensive experience in the financing, construction and management of housing for families and seniors as well as mixed- use developments.
Mr. Watkins has served as the Director, Developer, Project Manager and Consultant for projects in excess of $450 million. His projects have shown particular attention to the design and construction of accessible housing. He has been featured in national publications such as Affordable Housing Finance.
In his eight years with Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, as Sr. Field Service Officer, he developed public/private partnerships to advance homeownership in over 60 communities in 26 States.
Mr. Watkins received a B.S. from Vanderbilt University in 1975. In 1990 he received a
Certificate of Professional Management from California American University, CA
Mr. Watkins is a former board member of the Austin Chamber of Commerce 1996-1998, chairman of the Capital City African American Chamber of Commerce 1996-1999, former member of the Austin Board of Realtors and the Vanderbilt University Board of Trustees, as well as a founding member of the Association of Vanderbilt Black Alumni.
Mr. Watkins and his wife, Helen live in Austin Texas. They have three children and three grandchildren.
AVBA President 1992-1993
Alma R. Clayton-Pedersen, MEd’83, PhD’92 has been Vice President for Education and Institutional Renewal at the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) since 2001. She is director of AAC&U’s Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) Campus Action Network, a network of campuses and organizations committed to providing all students with a quality liberal education based on achieving learning outcomes essential for the 21st century. She also oversees AAC&U’s Greater Expectations Institute, which is a five-day, intensive program designed for campuses working on ways to increase
student engagement, inclusion, and high achievement. In addition, she co-directs the Network for Academic Renewal, which is an annual series of four working conferences held across the country.
She has published articles and monographs related to making excellence inclusive in education, law and technology including lead authorship of Making a Real Difference with Diversity: A Guide to Institutional Change (2007), a step-by-step guide for implementing, evaluating and sustaining comprehensive diversity work on campus; and Curricula Designed to Meet 21st Century Expectations, in Educating the Net Generation. She co-authored (with Sylvia Hurtado, Jeffrey Milem, and Walter Allen) Enacting Diverse Learning Environments: Improving the Climate for Racial/Ethnic Diversity in Higher Education (1999), which provides a framework of the dimensions of campus climate and illustrations of promising practices to enhance the climate for diversity. She is a national leader on connecting equity, diversity, and inclusion with academic excellence and has consulted with campuses, foundations, and for- and not-for-profit organizations on collaboration, diversity, success of underserved students, policy, organizational learning, and program development and evaluation.
During her years at Vanderbilt University (1984–2000), Dr. Clayton-Pedersen was an administrator in both student and academic affairs as well as a faculty member. She conducted numerous studies on student retention, student engagement, campus services, and campus climate. Her positions there included Assistant to the Dean of Students; Assistant Director of an education policy center; Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs (Peabody College); and Assistant to the Provost and
Director of Academic Affairs in Athletics. She taught courses on human development, small group dynamics and contemporary multicultural issues. Dr. Clayton-Pedersen received a B.S. from UW-Milwaukee in community education and both the M.Ed.
in human development counseling and Ph.D. in public policy from Vanderbilt University. She has been married to Elton Pedersen, a high school mathematics teacher, for 35 years. They have one daughter, Sonja, who is a senior associate at the law firm of Katten, Muchin, Rosenman in Chicago.
