COLUMBIA, S.C. . . The Columbia College Alumnae Association honored four women for their professional achievements and contributions to the College at its annual meeting on April 1.
 
Receiving awards were:—Cornelia Rickenbacker Freeman ’33, Distinguished Service Award; Nancy Jackson Gregory ’76,
Wil Lou Gray Outstanding Educator Award; Tamera Norton Smith, ’90, Career Achievement Award; and Jamila Harrington Hudley ’99, Young Alumna Award.

Freeman has been active with the Columbia College Alumnae Association since she graduated  as class valedictorian in 1933.  A resident of Columbia, S.C., she has served in many leadership roles supporting music and cultural arts on the local and national levels.  She served as president of the South Carolina Federation of Music Clubs (1965-67), and is a life member of the National Federation of Music Clubs, serving 14 years on the executive committee. Her many honors include the Sylvan Medal for Scholarship, the Lachicotte Medal for Music Performance, the Columbia College Medallion Award in 1984, a citation by the University of South Carolina School of Music in 1997, and an honorary doctorate in music in 1997. She is an active member of the Washington Street United Methodist Church and is now a great-grandmother.

Gregory has served as the principal of Blythewood Middle School since 1999. She received her master’s in elementary education from the University of South Carolina. Regarded by her colleagues as an outstanding educator, she was named a National Distinguished Principal in October 2005 by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Association of Elementary School Principals. Since 1976, she has been an active member of the South Carolina Middle School Association. She is also a member of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the South Carolina Association of School Administrators, the South Carolina Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, and the National Middle School Association.

Smith is president and senior consultant of Norton Audits, Incorporated; a South Carolina based firm specializing in Quality System's evaluations of Clinical Research Trials for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries.  She has sixteen years of U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Clinical Research experience and she is a former award winning U.S. Food and Drug Administration Investigator. She was nationally recognized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for her work in Biologics and Fraud Detection. Smith’s career after graduating Columbia College in 1990 began as a federal investigator with the U.S. FDA. She has been featured in FDA Today and FDA Consumer for her landmark casework, which includes the FDA’s first Anti-Tampering Prosecution in the history of the Southeast  and the United States’ first Consent Decree against the nation’s largest blood banking system. Smith currently is an active auditor, author, consultant, and trainer throughout the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries. She resides in Lexington, S.C., with her husband and two children.

Hudley is a speech language pathologist for the Chesterfield County School District. In 2004, she received her master’s in communication sciences and disorders from the University of South Carolina. She is a member of the American Speech Language Hearing Association and has served as a member of the Pee Dee Coalition Against Domestic Violence. In addition, she is active on the Columbia College Alumnae Council and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. Hudley helped reactivate Chesterfield County Columbia College Alumnae Club and has served as president for several years. Hudley resides in Cheraw, S.C., with her husband.

Columbia College is a private liberal arts women's college with a coeducational Evening College and Graduate School. The College has been ranked for 11 consecutive years by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top comprehensive undergraduate colleges in the South. Enrollment is 1500 students from 23 states and 20 countries