Jessye Norman, a member since 2002, is “one of those once-in-a-generation singers who is not simply following in the footsteps of others, but is staking out her own niche in the history of singing.” She entered Howard University on full-tuition scholarship at age sixteen, and graduated cum laude in 1967. She continued her studies at the Peabody Conservatory and the University of Michigan, earning an M.A. degree in 1968.

Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal, the Kennedy Center Honors, and more than 30 honorary doctorate degrees from colleges, universities and conservatories around the world. United Nations Secretary General Xavier Perez de Cuellar made her an Honorary Ambassador to the United Nations in 1990.

The Jessye Norman School for the Arts in Augusta, Georgia, her hometown, will begin its tenth academic year in September 2013. She serves on the Board of Governors of the New York Botanical Gardens, and also on the boards of several charitable and educational organizations including the New York Public Library, the Lupus Foundation and Paine College Board of Trustees.