The Best & Brightest

Despite her diminutive stature, Dr. Enid Pinkney is a giant when it comes to preserving the history and rich cultural legacy of African Americans in Miami. Born in 1931 to Bahamian parents and raised in Miami’s historic Overtown community, Pinkney has worked tirelessly to ensure that the role of African Americans in Miami’s history is acknowledged and preserved. A former educator turned writer, historian, and community activist, Pinkney has a successful track record of garnering support from local and regional leaders in her efforts to preserve such sites as the landmark Brownsville Hotel, which was once the social and cultural epicenter of Black Miami during segregation.

More recently, Pinkney successfully led a group to form the Historic Hampton House Community Trust. Built in the 1950s, the Hampton House was a prominent motel for the African-American community during the era of Jim Crow and segregation. Thanks to Dr. Pinkney’s single-minded focus, the Hampton House was declared a local historical landmark in April 2002, and a $6 million restoration of the property began in 2015. After nearly two years of construction, the former Green Book motel was restored, and now functions as a historic and cultural epicenter in Miami’s Brownsville corridor.

For more than 50 years, Dr. Juliet King has had an illustrious career in South Florida working as a teacher, union steward, administrator, and community leader. The co-creator of a school that is widely recognized as a vanguard in public Montessori, she herself has been hailed as a Black pioneer in Montessori education, and earlier this year became the first African American tor receive coveted recognition as a "living legacy" from the American Montessori Society.

Throughout his more than 30-year career, Matthew Muhart has worked tirelessly and collaboratively to ensure equitable and affordable access to healthcare for the indigent members of our community. He has been instrumental in developing innovative, strategic, and cost-saving efficiencies that ultimately result in the improved delivery of patient care, including the formation of one of Florida’s first Regional Clinically Integrated Networks with a neighboring health system with approximately 1,800 physicians and serving 150,000 lives.

An 18-year veteran of the NBA’s Miami HEAT, Clara Stroude Vazquez is the champion of HEAT Culture. She works to develop strategies and implement programs that inspire and motivate employees to understand and live out the franchise’s values, especially those related to the organization’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. A former basketball athlete and coach herself, she is fiercely committed to ensuring opportunities for women in sports and events.

Dr. Mary Eileen McDonough loves teaching, advising, working with students and helping them earn their degrees. She has been doing just that at Barry University since 1970. She has served as NCAA Faculty Representative since 1983 and currently chairs the Degree Completion Committee, which awards scholarships to student-athletes who need money to complete their degrees.