These women are a part of Arkansas State University’s history. Whether she was crowned Miss America, the first female Ph.D. recipient, or the first Black female drum major, each one said they hope they’ve created a legacy to inspire the women after them. 

Jennifer Bouldin:

Jennifer Bouldin is the first female Ph.D. recipient at A-State, director of the Ecotoxicology Research Facility and dean of the College of Science and Mathematics. 

Getting her bachelor’s in 1976 in medical technology from the University of Arkansas School for Medical Sciences, Bouldin said she decided to pursue her Ph.D. to open up more avenues for herself in the science field. 

Bouldin earned her doctorate in environmental sciences in 2004 as a nontraditional student. She waited until after her youngest child graduated high school to return to education.

“I’ve had a lot of female students who were kind of inspired by that because I know what it’s like to go through a program like that,” Bouldin said.

After working as the quality assurance manager at the Ecotoxicology Research Facility, Bouldin was promoted to director in 2006. Since becoming director, Bouldin has added new analytical equipment and hired three full-time technicians.

The new equipment allows for the facility to test more samples at one time, as well as allow researchers to test water samples for metals. Bouldin said having both sampling and analytical equipment allows for results to be more easily publishable.

Despite serving as dean and Ecotoxicology Research Facility director, Bouldin is still in the classroom, teaching everything from ecology principles to wetland evaluation to agriculture and the environment.

Even though she acts as an inspiration to her students, they are the ones who continue to inspire her. 

“I am always re-inspired by the young women that are up and coming,” Bouldin said. “I realize why I do my job because then I can turn around and inspire them as well to accomplish what they want to accomplish.”

Cherisse Jones-Branch:

Historian, U.S. Army veteran and dean of the Graduate School, Cherisse Jones-Branch, Ph.D., has been all around the world.

Jones-Branch, a published author, writes extensively about women’s activism and the role of Black women in agriculture.

“I remember that we had a set of the ‘Encyclopedia Britannica’  and the ‘Ebony Encyclopedia of Black History’ and I read them both,” Jones-Branch said. “I was always curious about how people put stories together and how one determined whose story mattered and whose story didn’t.”

Jones-Branch studied American history, earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the College of Charleston. In 2003, she earned her doctorate in American history from Ohio State University. She is the first in her family to get a Ph.D.

However, during her sophomore year of college, Jones-Branch was sent overseas to serve in the Persian Gulf War as part of the U.S. Army Reserves from 1988 to 1996. Jones-Branch said she joined the Reserves to help pay for college.

Jones-Branch was part of the 941st Transportation Company, providing fuel to military equipment. She left service at the rank of specialist. 

Jones-Branch said she struggled to return to civilian life because many people, including herself, didn’t recognize the signs of post-traumatic stress. She added that for many years, she never talked about being a veteran because she thought veterans were men.

“People have been going to parties and hanging out and I’m like, ‘I just spent the last six months looking at Scud missiles going overhead and having to keep a gas mask close by and wondering if I’m gonna get to see my family again.’”

Nowadays, Jones-Branch said she is working to show women are veterans too. She is also chairing a committee that will host the Arkansas Women’s Veterans Symposium at the Clinton Museum in Little Rock March 23. 

“I aspire to be the woman I needed when I was younger, to provide access and opportunity wherever I can for women,” Jones-Branch said. “We can go much farther if we go together than we would if we go alone.”

Argelia Lorence:

Argelia Lorence, Ph.D., is a bioengineer and part of the team that discovered a new biosynthetic pathway for vitamin C in plants. 

In 1998, a group in the United Kingdom proposed a pathway for vitamin C in plants, which if boosted, can create plants more tolerant to environmental stressors such as extreme temperatures or lack of water. Shortly after, groups from around the world began discovering different pathways.

While at Virginia Tech, Lorence’s team discovered one. These pathways convert the compound myo-inositol into vitamin C, with the pathway Lorence studied taking four steps to do so. In 2004, the team discovered the first step in that process. 

“Since 2005 to now, my students and I have discovered the second, the third, and the fourth step in the pathway. We have now completed the entire pathway for vitamin C.”

Lorence added that vitamin C is her favorite molecule, not only because of her role in discovering the pathway but also because she fully understands what it can do for plant and human health.

Lorence is the only female co-director of the Wheat and Rice Center for Heat Resilience. A collaboration between A-State, Kansas State University and the University of Nebraska, the project aims to find more heat-tolerant wheat and rice varieties. 

She continues her research on plant stressors as director of A-State’s Plant Phenomics Facility, which uses specialized imaging tools to identify genetic characteristics that make plants more tolerant to drought, salt, insects or disease.

During her career, Lorence said she’s had to outperform her male counterparts just to get the same recognition. She said she teaches her students to fight for themselves.

“I have a lot of female students of all levels, bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, Ph.D., and I show them they can do anything they want and that they should achieve their potential no matter what and fight for what they believe in and what they are working for,” Lorence said. “I said, ‘Look, this has happened to me. It’s not fair. Don’t let it happen to you.’”

Alandria Maddox:

Alandria Maddox made history as A-State’s first Black female drum major and went viral on social media for drum majoring after being crowned Homecoming queen. 

“It’s starting to sink in that time, it’s over,” Maddox said. “But at the same time, it’s not, because people are still asking me to come talk to them and talk about my experience and stuff like that. That experience of last semester has ended, but the impact, I don’t think ever will.”

During this year’s Homecoming, Maddox was crowned queen. The video of Maddox drum majoring in her dress garnered over 20 million views on Instagram and almost 8 million on TikTok.

The senior history major said the day after Homecoming, people in her church and community were telling her she was famous on social media. She got a huge influx of requests for interviews, including “Inside Edition” asking her to be on their front cover.

“It sounds crazy, but I was trying to focus on Spanish because I was not doing well. I’m over here going viral, people are recognizing me in the gas station and stuff like that and I’m just trying to focus on my grades,” Maddox said.

Graduating in August, Maddox said she plans to take a gap year to look into graduate school options.

Maddox said she tries to use her platform to highlight the importance and value of women on campus.

“I have to use my platform to speak for them or to remind us all of all the great resources and people that we have coexisting on this campus right now,” Maddox said. “I think we underestimate the great value of people that we have because of everybody trying to live their lives and survive.”

Debbye Turner Bell:

The 1990 Miss America winner, veterinarian and broadcast journalist said her accomplishments were all part of God’s plan. She is the third Black woman to hold the title of Miss America.

Debbye Turner Bell, graduated from A-State in 1986 and graduated vet school at the University of Missouri in 1991. 

Turner Bell said she wanted to be a veterinarian from a young age. 

“We rescued and adopted every abandoned, abused, half roadkill, anything that we came across, and so I grew up with lots of animals in our home,” Turner Bell said. “I would go and volunteer at (the local) clinic and that was where I decided that this is what I want to do.”

During her senior year of vet school, Turner Bell was crowned Miss America. However, her journey into the pageant world began at age 16, when she competed in the Jonesboro High School Sweetheart Pageant. 

Turner Bell continued participating in pageants to pay for her college. After seven years and 11 attempts, Turner Bell was crowned Miss America.

“When Gary Collins announced me as the new Miss America, it was a feeling of relief. A feeling of immense gratitude because it truly took a village of people to get me there,” she said. 

After completing veterinary school, Turner Bell became the spokesperson of a pet education program for Purina. This, along with the interviewing and communication skills she learned from her pageantry years, would set her up for a 25-year career in broadcast journalism.

While working as a broadcast journalist, Turner Bell served as a correspondent for CBS News and later had a segment on The Early Show where she discussed pet care.

She said some of the stories she’s enjoyed working on the most included her interview with then-President George W. Bush about his pets, doing a cageless SCUBA dive to feed sharks in the Bahamas, as well as doing a profile on Aretha Franklin.

Turner Bell said throughout her extensive career, there have been many times when people doubted her abilities, whether it was because she is Black, a woman or both.

“What’s more important to say to any person who’s underestimated or marginalized or overlooked and that is what my mother taught me: My worth and my value is not dependent upon anybody else’s perception,” Turner Bell said. “I don’t have to let their biases be limitations for me.”

Alexx Weaver:

In addition to being just one of six Goldwater Scholars in A-State history, she is the first female Goldwater Scholar.

Alexx Weaver, a senior biotechnology and biology double major from Lonoke, Arkansas, received this honor in the spring 2023 semester.

The Goldwater Scholarship provides up to $7,500 per year toward a recipient’s undergraduate education. In 2023, an estimated 5,000 students applied. Of that number, 413 received the scholarship and only three students were from universities in Arkansas. 

“I feel very honored to be the first female Goldwater Scholar from A-State. The field of science has been, historically, man-centric. I am proud to represent a new generation of Arkansas women in STEM,” Weaver said.

Weaver said she has been conducting research as early as high school. She attended the Arkansas School for Math, Sciences and the Arts (ASMSA), where she studied the link between the nasal microbiome and the flu. 

When she arrived at A-State, Weaver began researching anticancer properties found in isolated compounds in peanut hairy roots. These compounds can be used as potential therapeutic agents for triple-negative breast cancer, a more aggressive type of breast cancer.

After graduation, Weaver plans to pursue a doctoral degree in infectious disease.

Weaver said there were many women throughout her educational career who inspired her, including her teachers at ASMSA and A-State and University of Arkansas Medical School professors.

“Without the hard work of previous generations of women scientists, I would not be where I am today,” Weaver said. “I hope that I can serve as a reminder that individuals from all backgrounds can achieve success with enough determination.”

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