Q and A with Angela (’90) and Pete (’88) Reddix

In February, a diverse group of JMU luminaries gathered outside the new Reddix Center for First Generation Students. Among them were dozens of enthusiastic former classmates of Pete (’88) and Angela (’90) Reddix, the visionary couple championing JMU as a home for first-generation and African American students.

“I found my voice on these hills,” Angela told the crowd that she affectionately referred to as her village. “I came to JMU as timid Angie; I left determined Angela. I came as a whisper; I left as a roar.”

Today, Reddix is known for using that voice. She’s a best-selling author, TEDx speaker, social media influencer, and award-winning entrepreneur with a Ph.D. in Business Administration. As the founder of ARDX, a Norfolk-based health management and technology consulting firm, she’s secured more than $200 million in government contracts while advocating for patient equity and access.

Now, Angela and Pete have returned to the campus where they first met, announcing their six-figure investment in the lives of future Dukes. The gift names the Reddix center and also establishes the Reddix Centennial Scholarship Endowment.

After the ribbon-cutting, the Reddixes sat down with cameras rolling. Here, we share parts of their interview, including their thoughts on first-gen survival, an important change they’d like to see on campus, and the special magic that is JMU.

Q: President Alger has challenged the university to become a recognized home for first-generation students, and the Reddix Center for First Generation Students is now the physical epicenter of that effort. What impact do you hope to make here?

Pete: We hope to leave a powerful mark on a university that has left such a powerful mark on our lives. May this center be a representation that regardless of where you start, we can all reach impossible dreams.

Angela: Sometimes a song can capture a sentiment for me. With this gift, I’m thinking of Beyonce’s lyrics: “I want to leave my footprints on the sands of time. Know there was something that, something that I left behind.” Every first-generation student who steps on the soil of James Madison University will know that I was here, too. I am leaving a footprint for them to follow. With this gift, both the center and the scholarship endowment, we are creating history, leaving footprints, changing lives.

Q: How would you describe the mark JMU left on you?

Angela: I’ve said this is where I found my voice. Well, finding your voice, your confidence, is half the battle in life. My social skills, my interpersonal skills, my relationship-building skills, those are what eclipse everything else when I’m sitting in a boardroom. I've had quite a rich career where I was typically the youngest person, the only woman, and definitely the only African American in most positions. I credit JMU for first giving me the opportunity to feel comfortable with whoever is at that table.

Pete: JMU is home. This is where we discovered ourselves. This is where we discovered another family. When we come back here, we feel 20 again. Every time.

Q: Pete, you were a first-generation student yourself. What was it like?

Pete: Coming from a big city full of diversity, JMU was a shock. My parents were postal employees who told me I was going to college. They cashed in U.S. Savings Bonds to help me, but no one in my family knew how to be a college student. My first memories are of a roommate who did not look like me and people walking around without shirts on; Where I was from, that was unheard of. I saw buffalo on a hill down the road in this green, green grass. OK, I thought, so there are apparently buffalo in Virginia. It felt like a foreign land. I stumbled, I fell, I changed my major, and it took a little longer than it should have because everything was so new to me.

Q: How did you find your footing? What is your advice for first-gen students going through the same thing?

Pete: Find your new family. Make friends. I had to find my new village. In the ’80s, we had the Student Union. That’s where folks who looked like me came to communicate and learn from each other. We had Forest Parker [former Assistant Director of Admissions] who was focused on Black recruitment and retention, and I was able to make friends and find mentorship. That’s where I met Angela, both of us going in and out of his office.

Angela: I was not first-gen, but I was very timid. I had been isolated in high school because I was the only African American in all of my classes. I was very much trying to assimilate just to survive. But then I became involved with JMU’s Black Student Alliance. The BSA was very positive – trying to make people feel like they mattered and feel they were seen. That’s when I started using my voice and realizing that others were listening. I became a leader, the BSA president and a kind of spokesperson for the African American students. I saw that I could get people to do things, and I was determined to not be silent any longer.

Q: Now you’re bringing that voice back to JMU. Why?

Angela: I’ve always been fond of JMU, and I’ve told the story about JMU. This university is teaching people both in and outside of the classroom. I see individuals coming to our company [ARDX] who are afraid of networking and don’t have the ability to network. They fear innovation because they fear rejection. JMU helps young people understand that networking is just having a conversation, and innovation is just having an idea. Good professors recognize that it is about more than reading and books; it’s about helping the students learn to take risks, use their voices, problem solve, analyze and assess data, and make new decisions.

Q: What are your hopes for the next generation of Dukes?

Pete: JMU is like home for me. And JMU should feel like home for everybody. I'd like to come back here and see more people who look like me – in different departments, at different levels of the administration, and everyday students out there on the quad. Everywhere. As JMU continues working on diversity, I’d like to see more African American students on this campus, feeling that they belong, and feeling encouraged to find their voices.

Angela: To all my fellow Dukes out there: I want to challenge you to leave your footprints here, too. We all come from something magical. But the JMU magic that we all love can only be as bright and as fantastic as we collectively make it. Show up in some way. Bring your time, your talent, your treasure. Let’s leave footprints to show we were here.