Jamara Richardson

Jamara brings to the Peake Fellowship a strong background in collaboration best practices and service. Jamara currently supports the cybersecure growth of small businesses and coaches Community Navigators in the Peake Fellowship’s Higher ed Enterprise Leadership Program (i-HELP) at Fayetteville State University (FSU) adjacent to Fort Liberty. Prior to her fellowship, Jamara had been selected by Peake as an i-HELP Senior Navigator while she was still an undergraduate.

Jamara originally comes from Exmore on the Eastern Shore of Virginia where she learned the value of close knit communities and the impact of small businesses economically and personally. She enlisted in the U.S. Army after high school and served at Fort Bliss near El Paso, Texas in a range of business operational functions. Jamara received the Army Commendation Medal for business process improvement in logistics. She completed her military service as an Army Specialist before entering FSU on the GI Bill.

Jamara graduated magna cum laude from FSU in December, 2023 with a BS in Psychology and a minor in Social Work. In addition to her professional roles, she served as a mentor with teenagers on life skills and financial literacy through R.O.O.T.S. Mentoring (Regimine of Overriding the Statistic) in Fayetteville. She sees the Peake Fellowship as a way to make a difference nationally through the progress of each small business, Fellow, and Community Navigator.

Excerpt from Jamara’s nomination to the Mary S. Peake Fellowship Selection Committee:

I am excited to nominate Jamara Richardson for the Mary S. Peake Fellowship, with the support of the Chancellor.

Ms. Richardson is well known to me not only as a student in our undergraduate psychology program but as the current president of the FSU chapter of the International Honor Society in Psychology, PSI CHI, and a past president of the FSU chapter of Active Minds of which she continues to serve as the Social Media Coordinator. I have worked closely with her in these two student organizations as I serve as the faculty advisor to both.

I have been quite impressed by her leadership abilities, devotion in organizing activities and events, competence in collaboration, and skills in training other students to become leaders.

I could not think of any other student more fitting than Ms. Richardson.

Professor Pius Nyutu, PhD
Department of Psychology
Fayetteville State University