Who We Are

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Currently, the work of AAERO is done by the Founder and Executive Director, Paula Quick Hall, the Board of Directors (listed below), and volunteers. We also occasionally sponsor a student intern to work with the organization. If interested in working with AAERO, please read about Getting Involved.

Our Team

Biographical Information

Paula Quick Hall is a member of the North Carolina Central University (NCCU) Political Science faculty, where she teaches undergraduate courses including the course introducing students to social science research, research methods and the online American Government class. Her research interests include the scholarship of teaching and learning, the relationship of social and cultural capital to the educational status and opportunities of African Americans, and determinants of political attitudes and behaviors of African Americans.

Paula Quick Hall earned the Bachelor of Science degree in psychology at Howard University, the Master of Public Administration degree at the University of Southern California, and the Ph.D. in political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, specializing in public administration and public policy. Dr. Hall has done social science research, program administration, program evaluation, consulting, and/or advocacy at The American Association for the Advancement of Science, the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, the National Science Foundation, Research and Evaluation Associates, Inc., and EQUITY 2000 (an educational reform project of the College Board). Dr. Hall has been on faculty at three historically Black Colleges and Universities--NCCU, North Carolina A & T State University and Bennett College, where she was Associate Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department.

Millicent E. Brown is a Senior Research Fellow and Associate Professor in the Department of History and Sociology at Claflin University. She is the principal investigator of the "Somebody Had To Do It" project. Prior to teaching at the historically Black Claflin University, she was an Associate Professor in the history department at North Carolina A&T University, another historically Black university. A native of Charleston, South Carolina, Dr. Brown credits being reared in an activist household for her lifelong commitment to social change. Her introduction into issues of segregation and educational equity began with her role as a child in Millicent Brown v. School Board District 20, City of Charleston, SC, South Carolina's first desegregation case in 1963.

With parents and siblings willing to put themselves on the frontlines challenging racial segregation and discrimination, she accepted the call for individual responsibility and action to make all communities better, and grew in her political understanding of race as just one of many deterrents to shared power which limit true democratic ideals from being realized.  As an academic and social activist, she lends her support to organizations and issues that demand fuller inclusion of all groups into the historical record; especially the exposure of injustice based on color, gender, age, religion, sexual preference, class or economic status. Having advocated for social and  political change as a community organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (Mississippi and Georgia), an advocate for women’s and children’s rights as a Family Services counselor (South Carolina), a health professions minority recruiter and program manager at the Medical University of SC and Eastern Virginia Medical School; Dr. Brown has used the last fifteen years of professional service in higher education as an “ultimate” outreach to citizens of tomorrow who need to be encouraged to see themselves as change agents for an enlightened global community.

Kia M. Q. Hall is a Ph.D. candidate (ABD) in International Relations at American University in Washington, D.C. With an undergraduate degree in mathematics and a graduate degree in computer science, she has worked as an educator, teaching math, science and computer science to students of all ages from kindergarten through undergraduate college students. In recent years, she has turned her attention to issues of international development and is currently doing her dissertation fieldwork in the African-descendant Garifuna community of Honduras.

D. Hector McEachern has over 30 years experience in human resources management with Wachovia corporation. Mr. McEachern established the corporation’s Office of Diversity through which he steered a comprehensive cultural assessment of the organization’s workforce and designed and implemented a company-wide cultural awareness and diversity initiative. After retiring from Wachovia, he founded The McEachern Group, which provides guidance on human capital strategies, executive coaching and diversity leadership, organizational change through mergers and acquisitions, and organizational consulting. Mr. McEachern also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in English from Fayetteville State University, a historically Black university.

Nancy Shakir is a political activist, who was a Democratic candidate for Congress for North Carolina's 8th Congressional district. A founding member and officer of the Coalition of 100 Black Women, she has also served on the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Council for the Social Studies and the New Jersey Center for Civic and Law Related Education. She was a Non-Governmental Agency delegate to the United Nations Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, and she served as a staff member at a National Democratic Convention, as a delegate for the White House Conference on Families, and as a Commissioner on the Montclair, N.J. Civil Rights Commission. An anti-racist trainer, she has presented at regional and national teacher conferences.

Shakir graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Rutgers University and a Master of Arts degree in Education Administration from St. Peter’s Jesuit College. She often writes opinion editorials for the Fayetteville Observer, where she served as a member of the Community Advisory Board. She is a volunteer with the Cumberland County Progressives and hosts a local Progressives cable television show. She is also a member of both the Fayetteville Peace with Justice Committee and the Carolina African American Writers Collective.

Harriett J. Simon is a retired educator with forty years of experience. Simon graduated from Howard University with a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and from Newark State Teachers College with a Master of Arts degree in Urban Education. She has been certified in supervision and as a Learning Disability Teacher Consultant (LDTC) at Kean University in New Jersey.  Her professional experience includes years as a classroom teacher (elementary and adult education) and educational diagnostic consultant.  As an educational consultant on district wide Child Study Teams, she was responsible for educational assessments, program implementation, and facilitation of delivery of services to school age youngsters with special needs. Her experiences as an educator and her commitment to education have inspired her  to address the inability of many academic institutions to support Black children in integrated educational settings.          

Alice Holland Stephenson has been owner of Family Vision Center of Fayetteville, North Carolina for over 22 years.  She earned the Bachelor of Science degree in biology (Bishop College), and Master of Science degree in Guidance and Counseling (Tennessee State University).  She became an optician after earning the Associate of Science degree at Durham Technical Community College. Stephenson serves on the Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Board of Cumberland County, is a member of the Fayetteville State University Foundation, and is an E.E. Smith Senior High School Booster.