Barbara Anne McKinzie, p. 262. (born January 2, 1954) was from 2006 to 2010, the twenty-seventh International President of

Alpha Kappa Alpha Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. () is the first intercollegiate historically African American sorority. The sorority was founded on January 15, 1908, at the historically black Howard University in Washington, D.C., by a group of sixteen stud ...

(ΑΚΑ), the first Greek-lettered

sorority Fraternities and sororities are social organizations at colleges and universities in North America. Generally, membership in a fraternity or sorority is obtained as an undergraduate student, but continues thereafter for life. Some accept gradua ...

established and incorporated by

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

college women. Born in

Ada, Oklahoma Ada is a city in and the county seat of Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 16,481 at the 2020 United States Census. The city was named for Ada Reed, the daughter of an early settler, and was incorporated in 1901. Ada is ...

, McKinzie has a

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

degree from

East Central University East Central University (ECU or East Central) is a public university in Ada, Oklahoma. It is part of Oklahoma's Regional University System. Beyond its flagship campus in Ada, the university has courses available in McAlester, Shawnee, and Duran ...

as well as an

M.B.A. A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as account ...

from

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

. Before becoming president, she had various other roles in the sorority. She is a

certified public accountant Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. It is generally equivalent to the title of chartered accountant in other English-speaking countries. In the United Sta ...

and a former

Comptroller A comptroller (pronounced either the same as ''controller'' or as ) is a management-level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization. A financial comptroller is a senior-level executi ...

at the

Chicago Housing Authority The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) is a municipal corporation that oversees public housing within the city of Chicago. The agency's Board of Commissioners is appointed by the city's mayor, and has a budget independent from that of the city of C ...

Lawsuit to remove McKinzie

In July 2009, eight members of ΑΚΑ sued the sorority to have McKinzie removed as president. They alleged that she spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of organization funds on personal items, including jewelry and clothing. Further, the suit alleged that the ΑΚΑ board approved a "pension stipend" of $4,000 a month for four years after McKinzie leaves office without the necessary approval of members, and that a $1 million life insurance policy was purchased for her. McKinzie was also accused of spending $900,000 on a life-sized wax statue of herself. McKinzie responded that $45,000 was actually spent on statues of herself and the sorority's first International President, the late Nellie Quander. McKinzie said the expenses were "consistent with furthering ΑΚΑ's mission," and that the lawsuit was "without merit." The plaintiffs additionally claimed that under McKinzie ΑΚΑ lost large sums in investments. In October 2009, legal counsel for ΑΚΑ sent a letter to the plaintiffs' attorneys demanding that a web site supporting the lawsuit be removed from the Internet, but the web site, Friends of the Weeping Ivy, remained online. After the lawsuit initially had been dismissed, a Washington D.C. appeals court found in favor of the plaintiffs and reinstated the suit.Audit finds trouble at black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha
thegrio.com. March 23, 2012. Accessed February 24, 2024. A subsequent audit led to findings which supported the assertions raised by the plaintiffs.Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplemental Information, Year Ended December 31, 2010
fileden.com. Accessed February 24, 2024. According to ΑΚΑ's website, McKinzie has been expelled from the sorority since 2016. The sorority won an arbitration award of $1.6 million against her, which was challenged by McKinzie in court. However, the appeals court affirmed the award in favor of the sorority.McKinzie v Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority
casetext.com. Retrieved 2023-09-23.

References

External links

Presidents of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority
{{DEFAULTSORT:McKinzie, Barbara 1954 births Living people East Central University alumni Kellogg School of Management alumni People from Ada, Oklahoma People from Cook County, Illinois American accountants American women accountants African-American businesspeople Women in finance American women business executives American business executives 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women Alpha Kappa Alpha presidents African-American accountants