First Lady Abbiegail Hugine, Chair

When Abbiegail Hamilton Hugine, chair of the Bulldog Pride Committee, first visited the campus of historic Alabama A&M University in the summer of 2009, she saw a beautiful, picturesque campus that radiated from its own hill within the stretches of the Appalachian Mountains.

Born in Green Pond, S.C., Mrs. Hugine was the eldest of the 11 children of Isiah and Viola Hamilton. Before AAMU, she had retired from Orangeburg Consolidated School District Five after a very successful career in education. She had served as director of The Technology Center, where she was an instructional leader, and monitored and supervised all school operations.

It was partly owing to her stint at The Technology Center that she learned the importance of praise for outstanding service and a job well done. She would later expand these truths into her new role as First Lady at a 140-year-old institution in Alabama.

Mrs. Hugine herself was the recipient of several awards: The National Blue Ribbon Schools Award, The Red Carpet School Award (for customer service) and the Palmetto Gold School Award for achievement (four consecutive years).

She also served in several administrative capacities at Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School, including assistant principal, administrative assistant, and chair of the Department of Social Studies. Prior to coming to Huntsville, where she launched the Bulldog Pride Committee, she directed a federally funded grant focusing on American History, which was designed to improve the performance of social studies teachers.

Thus, by the time she arrived in northern Alabama on a hot summer day, Mrs. Hugine already possessed the tools she would need to hone into being a diverse team of men and women united by their combined love for the historically black college and university experience, their positive nature, and their desire to sustain HBCUs’ unique missions.