Two Esteemed Alumni to Serve as Fall 2024 Commencement Speakers

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (Oct. 18, 2024) – North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University will welcome two esteemed alumni as keynote speakers during its Fall 2024 Commencement ceremonies.

Cynthia W. Turner ‘90, Ph.D., CPA will deliver the address at the Graduate College ceremony Friday, Dec. 13, 2024, at 6 p.m. in First Horizon Coliseum’s Main Arena.

Marques B. McCammon ’98 will deliver the address at the undergraduate commencement ceremony  Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024, at 9 a.m. in First Horizon Coliseum’s Main Arena.

Turner is the associate dean of access, engagement and outreach of The Ohio State University Max M. Fisher College of Business and an Ernst & Young LLP (EY) Faculty Fellow. She graduated summa cum laude in 1990 from North Carolina A&T with a B.S. in accounting. In 1994, she received an M.A. in accounting from The Ohio State University and, in 1995, became the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in accounting at Ohio State. She was also a member of the inaugural cohort of The PhD Project founded in 1994 by KPMG.

An award-winning educator, Turner spent 17 years on the faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign before returning to Ohio State in 2013. In 2019, she became the first African American woman to join the leadership team at Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business as assistant dean and chief diversity officer where she created, led and executed the college’s strategy for inclusive excellence. Her efforts helped double private funding for Fisher scholarships and inclusive initiatives; facilitate a formal partnership with the city to support pre-collegiate programming for underserved and first-generation high school students; develop programming to engage Fisher’s diverse alumni; and create new inclusive leadership course offerings at Fisher.

As associate dean, Turner continues advancing Fisher’s inclusive excellence initiatives while overseeing access, engagement and outreach programs for key Fisher stakeholders. Her many honors include a 2023 lifetime achievement award for advancing equity and inclusion throughout her career; selection as a 2023 Power of Change Honoree by The Ohio Society of CPAs; a 2023 Kenneth Bouyer Difference Maker in Diversity Award from the Business School Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Collaborative; and Ohio State’s Distinguished Diversity Enhancement Award in 2018 for her work to double the diversity within the undergraduate program in two years.

As a researcher, Turner’s scholarly work has been published in her field’s most respected journals. Prior to her academic career, she was a practicing accountant at EY. She sits on the boards of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio, Women for Economic and Leadership Development, Community Impact Council, and PatientPoint Foundation. She is also a member of the American Accounting Association, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the National Association of Black Accountants, and the Business School DEI Collaborative.

Turner is an ordained Christian minister and an 18-year breast cancer survivor. Married to professional jazz guitarist Kevin Turner, she is mother to stepdaughter Kia and sons Julien and Justen, who make up the award-winning filmmaking duo the Turner Brothers.

McCammon is the president of Karma Automotive in Irvine, California, the state’s only ultra-luxury automaker. He graduated in 1998 from A&T with a B.S. in mechanical engineering and earned an M.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan.

Since taking the helm at Karma in 2023, McCammon has focused on reinvigorating the brand and implementing alternate paths to revenue. His career spans nearly three decades of auto industry general management, product development, manufacturing, brand leadership and marketing experience with expansive knowledge of software-based automotive product advancement.

McCammon has served in numerous leadership and management positions domestically and internationally for premier automotive companies and partners such as Ricardo, where he was global managing director, automotive & industrial, and president, North America; Wind River, where he was vice president, global automotive, and general manager and senior director, auto products; and Aptera Motors, where he was chief marketing officer.

At Ricardo, an international environmental, engineering and transportation company, McCammon led a global team focused on sustainable mobility solutions that balance short-term internal combustion needs with long-term electrification and autonomy requirements.

At Intel subsidiary Wind River, McCammon was responsible for automotive software products, where he oversaw development of the division’s corporate business plans, led business and strategy development for auto-related merger and acquisition activity and directed a global team, including product and program management, engineering and marketing architecture.

McCammon also put his engineering prowess to use in creating the Dodge SRT-4 (Street and Racing Technology-4 cylinder); crafting the blueprint for Chrysler’s SRT moniker and designing the first modern four-door convertible.

A rising star in his industry, Detroit Business named McCammon one of 40 Young Executives making an impact in the Motor City. He also serves on the board of ConnectED: The National Center for College and Career.

McCammon lives in San Diego with his family.

 “Dr. Turner and Mr. McCammon are among A&T’s most accomplished and innovative alumni whose commitment to leadership and service makes them exceptional role models for our newest graduates,” said Chancellor James R. Martin, II, Ph.D. “They have made the most of their Aggie experience and created rewarding, impactful career paths for themselves that I am certain will inspire this next generation of global leaders to chart their own course of excellence and success.”

More than 1,200 students, including more than 300 graduate students, will participate in the Fall 2024 ceremonies, which will be livestreamed.

Media interested in covering Fall 2024 commencement in person should email a request, including complete contact information, to jtorok@ncat.edu by 5 p.m. Monday, Dec. 2.