The Tufts Black Alumni Association (TBAA) strives to maintain the bond between Black alumni and Tufts University by developing programs and events that encourage prolonged involvement with the greater Tufts community. The chapter coordinates with the Africana Center and the Office of Alumni Relations to plan communications and events.

Alumni Spotlight

Cheryl McCourte, J84

Based in New York City, Cheryl is the Executive Director of the Montel Williams MS Foundation, a role she has held since 2006. She began her career with the foundation as its Director of Development, where she increased fund raising by 60 percent. The Montel Williams MS Foundation is a grant-making public charity founded in 2000 to fund scientific research on multiple sclerosis. Originally from Africa, Cheryl attended school in Liberia and lived in Malawi after graduation. Her studies took her to the United States, where she graduated from the George School, a Quaker institution in the state of Pennsylvania.

Cheryl has worked as a nonprofit professional for 16 years, specializing in fundraising and communications for small agencies. At The Children's Storefront, a private, tuition-free school in Harlem, she raised a record $2.3 million in the 2000-2001 academic year as its Director of Development. She has consulted for many prominent nonprofits in New York City, including the Central Park Conservancy, the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, Calvary Hospital, The New York City Algebra Project, the Haitian Women's Program and the American Bible Society.

A former magazine journalist, Cheryl won the 1989 award for excellence in feature writing from the New York Association of Black Journalists for her story “Where I Enter,” published in Essence, which documented her upbringing in Jamaica, Liberia, Malawi and Swaziland. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University with a degree in English.