TNJ - September

Erika Alexander

Erika Alexander has been named vice president of TownePlace Suites by Marriot International. Alexander will oversee the brand’s product and service development, as well as guide marketing and positioning strategies. Earlier this year, Alexander had been promoted to vice president of TownPlace Suites, with the responsibility of developing the company’s key business operations processes.

Alexander joined Marriot International in 1989 as an account manager for the Residence Inn by Marriot in Herndon, Virginia. She held several positions at Residence Inn, including director of sales and general manager at the Valley Forge Residence Inn in Pennsylvania. She was also general manager at the Durham Residence Inn in North Carolina. In 1995, when Alexander joined the Residence Inn Brand Team as director, she was instrumental in the launching of TownPlace Suites.

Alexander, 31, was born in Virginia. She studied at the University of Virginia for her bachelors degree, and at George Mason University for her masters degree in business administration.

John M. Palmer, PhD

John M. Palmer, PhD has been appointed executive director of Harlem Hospital and the Northern Manhattan Network of the Health and Hospitals Corporation. He is responsible for ten health care centers, and school-based clinics that provide services to residents in Northern Manhattan.

Palmer could never have been appointed to a more appropriate hospital than Harlem which is in the neighborhood he calls home. He was born in the Black-owned Provident Hospital in Chicago to a father who was a medical doctor there, and to a mother who was a nurse in the same hospital.

Palmer has a masters degree in psychology, and another in clinical psychology. He earned his PhD. in clinical psychology from Adelphi University in 1991. He has worked as a teacher therapist, and in mental health. He has been a part of New York City’s health facilities since 1980 when he moved to New York.

Palmer was founder and director of East New York branch of New Hope Guild, which provided mental health care to homeless families. The New Hope Guild also conducted drug education and AIDS prevention programs.

He supervised eight state hospital organizations as deputy regional director of the NYS Office of Mental Health, and implemented numerous mental health, drug and alcoholism programs. Palmer is a licensed psychologist in the state of New York.

Greg Collins

Greg Collins is now a tax partner with Mitchell & Titus in the accounting and consulting area. He is a specialist in sports and entertainment. In his new capacity, Collins will provide tax planning and preparation, business consulting, financial management, representation in IRS matters, and researching tax issues.

Collins was managing partner in a small firm, Collins, Austin & Co., based in New Jersey before joining Mitchell & Titus. His company provided consulting, and tax services to entertainers, high net worth individuals and small businesses. Collins has over 20 years of invaluable experience as an executive in corporate taxation, entertainment and the IRS where he started his career.

He has worked for Ernest & Young as a tax supervisor, for Columbia Pictures as an assistant director of taxes, and for AT&T as an assistant director of federal taxes. He served as chief financial officer for the Stevie Wonder business organization, and as managing director of Collins, Austin & Co., a New Jersey firm.

Collins has a bachelors degree in accounting from Montclair State University where he is being featured in television advertisements. He is a member of the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the National Association of Black Accountants.

Karen Johnson

Smart World Technologies, a leading software and telecommunications company, has appointed Karen Johnson, an experienced telecommunications executive, as vice president of client services. Her responsibilities include account implementation, customer service and ongoing support.

Before joining Smart, Johnson, 47, was senior director and vice president of information technologies and acquisitions integration at Bass Hotels and Resorts in Atlanta, the parent company of Holiday Inn, Crown Plaza and Intercontinental Hotels Worldwide. She worked for Lucent Technology and AT&T for a combined 20 years. At Lucent Technology she was a division manager in the chief information officer’s organization, with responsibility for outsourcing contract management.

Johnson is a member of the Black MBA Association, and was selected as a participant in the 1998-1999 Georgia 100, a mentoring program for the top 100 potential female executives in the state.

She earned a bachelors of science degree in early childhood education from North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, NC, and an MBA in International Marketing from American University in Washington, DC. She is married to Colonel Robert Johnson of the US Army, who serves as deputy director of admissions at the United States Military Academy in West Point, NY, where the couple resides.

General Johnnie Edward Wilson

General Johnnie Edward Wilson has been named president of Dimensions International Inc. (DI) with day-to-day operational responsibilities. He is a recently retired four-star general who served the US army for 38 years.

As head of the US Army Materiel Command in Alexandria, Virginia, from 1996 to 1999, General Wilson was responsible for equipping and sustaining the army, including coordinating and distributing $2 billion worth of material and equipment throughout the world annually. During the past decade, he has held senior positions at the Pentagon, the Ordinance Center in Aberdeen, Maryland, and as Deputy Commanding General of the 21st Theater Area of Command in Germany.

He was born in 1944, and raised in Lorain, Ohio. He entered the army in August 1961 as an enlisted soldier attaining the rank of SSG before attending Officer Candidate School (OCS). On his completion of OCS in 1967, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Ordnance Corps.

He was awarded a bachelors of science degree in business administration from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He also holds a masters of science degree in logistics management from the Florida Institute of Technology. His military education includes completion of the Ordnance Officer Basic and Advanced Courses, the Army Command and General Staff College, and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.