Ellen Strong was the first Black female graduate from Arkansas State University. She graduated with a degree in education in 1964.
Earlaine Young Sandoval was voted the first female Student Government Association president in A-State history in 1964. It took a full ten years for A-State’s SGA to elect its first female president.
Marilyn Broadway was crowned Homecoming queen in 1974, the first Black queen. This was the first time a predominately white school in the south had elected minority women as both Homecoming queen and runner-up.
Adena Williams Loston was the first Black female educator at A-State, teaching from 1974-1976. After her time at A-State she also worked as the educational director for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and is currently the president of St. Phillips College in San Antonio.
Sonja Tate’s women’s basketball records include the highest career score in both men’s and women’s basketball and the highest single- season score. She earned her bachelors in physical education in 1996. She went on to play professionally for the Minnesota Lynx.
In 1997, activist Julia Lorraine “Butterfly” Hill conducted the longest tree sit-in, over 700 days, to prevent Pacific Lumber from cutting down a 1,000-year-old redwood. She attended A-State in 1992.
Shunquetta N. Cunningham, CEO of KHARIS Group Consulting, graduated from A-State in 2008. In 2018, she founded the Over-A-Cup Initiative, a nonprofit aiding minority women entrepreneurs. She was recognized as one of Arkansas’s 2023 Top 100 Women of Impact.
Philippine-American Olympian Kristina Knott currently holds the Philippine records for the 200-meter and the 100-meter dashes and competed in the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. She attended A-State between 2015- 2016.
Marybeth Byrd was a contestant in season 21 of “American Idol,” making it to the Top 10. In 2019, she made it to the Top 8 on season 17 of “The Voice.” Byrd graduated in 2023 with a degree in strategic communications.
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