Que Tucker of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association has received a prestigious national honor, earning the 2013 Dr. Nell C. Jackson Award Honoree by the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport (NAGWS).
NAGWS is an affiliate organization of American Alliance for Health and Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (AAHPERD), and the NAGWS mission is “to develop and deliver equitable and quality sport opportunities for ALL girls and women through relevant research, advocacy, leadership development, educational strategies, and programming in a manner that promotes social justice and change.”
In 1992, the Dr. Nell C. Jackson Award and the National Association for Girls & Women in Sport (NAGWS) was established to recognize the contributions of African American women who have demonstrated outstanding potential in scholarship, coaching, administration, and leadership through distinguished service to girls and women’s sports.
Tucker was an outstanding coach at both the high school and college level before joining the staff of the NCHSAA in 1991. She has served the Association as deputy commissioner since 2005 and before that directed the NCHSAA’s acclaimed student services program. A native of Reidsville, she is a graduate of Mars Hill College and received her master’s from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is a charter member of the Mars Hill College Athletic Hall of Fame.
The award is named in honor of an outstanding woman of accomplishment. Jackson devoted her life to track and field competition for women, participating in the 1948 and 1951 Olympics and continuing a service to the Olympics as a coach and member of the Olympic Committee Board of Directors. This award is presented at 3 levels: professional, college/university, and high school.
Tucker received the honor at the National Association & Alliance for Health, Physical Education and Recreation Conference in Charlotte. Dr. Donna Duffy, an assistant professor of kinesiology and the director of the Program for the Advancement of Girls and Women in Sport at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, presented the award to Tucker.
