Alma Powell, MS ’59, Long Standing Advocate for Children and Youth

Alma Powell, MS ’59, H ’96, a longtime advocate for children and youth, a recipient of Emerson’s Distinguished Alumni Award, and the wife of the late, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, passed away on July 28. She was 86. 

Powell, whose career also included roles as an American audiologist, civic leader, and children’s book author shared with Expression magazine in 2019, when she received the award, that she had long valued the idea of giving back to the community that is important to you.

“There’s always someplace that needs your help. You look around to see what it is that needs doing, and then you go and do something about it,”she said.

Powell grew up in the South, and after graduating from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, wanted to go somewhere she’d never been before for graduate school. She studied speech pathology and audiology at Emerson and would later be honored with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Emerson in 1996.

“Boston always intrigued me because of the history that surrounds [the city],” said Powell, who majored in speech and drama as an undergraduate. “I subscribed to Theatre Arts Magazine so I could see what was going on in the theater world, and I saw an ad for Emerson College and I thought, ‘That sounds like a place I want to go.’ [I] applied for graduate school and it has made all the difference in my life.”

She and Colin married in 1962, and were together for almost 60 years prior to his passing in 2021. They had three children, Annemarie, Michael, and Linda.

Alma and Colin were important to launching America’s Promise Alliance in 1997, where she held several positions on its board including chair and her most recent post of chair emeritus, according to the Washington Post.

In her role with America’s Promise Alliance she oversaw the organization that connects more than 450 national organizations with each other, to share best practices in improving the lives of America’s young people.

She also wrote two children’s books to support the mission of the organization, called America’s Promise and My Little Red Wagon, which were focused on encouraging children to give back to their communities.

In addition, she chaired the National Council of the Best Friends Foundation, from 1989 to 2000, which aims to improve the lives of young girls.

The Powells played pivotal roles in both the Republican and Democratic parties. He was the first Black Secretary of State during George W. Bush’s presidency.  She was appointed to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts board during Bill Clinton’s presidency. From 2010 to 2012, she served on President Barack Obama’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

But it was her clinical work in hospitals and care centers that really set the stage for her life’s work. She loved helping patients who had had strokes learn to speak again, or helping people with cerebral palsy to communicate.

“It was learning about all phases of life that I found there,” said Powell in 2019.

Erin Clossey contributed to this article