Page 12 - Distinguished Daughters Special Edition

1972 and had a stop in Australia to
perform at the annual Adelaide Arts
Festival. There Carole Johnson discovered
the sad story of the aborigines, the
descendants of the original native
population of Australia. She felt that the
aborigines had much in common with the
African Americans living in the ghettoes of
big cities in her homeland. She stayed in
Australia when the rest of the Pomare
Dance Company left so she could help in
her own field—the art of dance. Help was
needed in two areas. One problem was
that the native dances were in danger of
fading away. The other was that young
black people had almost no chance of
receiving proper instruction to qualify
them to make a living in modern dance.
To meet these needs, Carole Johnson
became the Executive Founding Director
of the National Aboriginal Islander Skills
Development Association in 1976. Then,
in 1989, Carole founded the Bangarra
Dance Theatre, which functions as
Australia’s internationally respected
modern dance company. Carole continues
to work for the native peoples of Australia
in a number of ways. She has been
honored for her work. In 1999, she was
elected to the Hall of Fame of Australia.
She received the Commonwealth Medal for
service to the community in the arts for
her efforts in the art of dance.
Minnie McNeal Kenny (January 1946)
had a 43-year career represented the Department of Defense on
with the federal
government. She rose Minorities, and the Handicapped in Science
through the ranks to and Technology. She finished her career in
become the Deputy
Commandant at the
National Cryptologic member of the Senior Executive Service.
School and was
responsible for the day-to-day operations
of the school that is housed within the
National Security Agency (NSA) and
provides training to members of the
Agency. Minnie was responsible for
overseeing the design, development, and
delivery of the curriculum in cryptology,
information assurance, language, and
leadership. She was not only a talented
leader at the school but also a strong
advocate and supporter of women and
minorities in the field of intelligence. Her
successful career is even more impressive
when one takes into account the fact that
she excelled during a period when very
few women and even fewer minorities held
any professional positions in the
intelligence community. Due to the nature
of her work, there are no newspaper
clippings about her career; however, she
rose to the second highest position in the
National Cryptologic School. Minnie
received NSA's two highest awards, the
Meritorious and the Exceptional Civilian
Service Awards. Presidents Ronald Reagan
and George H. W. Bush selected her for
the Meritorious Executive Award, and the
Director of Central Intelligence awarded
her the Intelligence Community's
Distinguished Service Award. She also
received well-deserved recognition from
the NSA for her work and leadership,
including being selected as an honoree of
Women in Cryptologic History and
receiving the NSA African American
Honoree award and was inducted into the
NSA Hall of Fame in 2009. She filled
several high-level positions in her career,
including the Deputy Chief of an analytic
support division, a Division Chief in the
Office of Techniques and Standards, the
Deputy Assistant Director for Training with
direct responsibility for day-to-day
operations of the NCS, and the Assistant
Director for Administration. Minnie also
the Congressional Task Force on Women,
1993 as the NSA's Director for Equal
Employment Opportunity and was a
When she retired from the NSA in 1993,
the Hon. Louis Stokes read into the
Congressional Record a Special Salute to
Minnie M. Kenny on January 6, 1993.
After noting her great professional career,
he paid tribute to her as a humanitarian.
He spoke of her as a civil rights pioneer
responsible for the integration of schools,
department stores, businesses, and
housing developments throughout the
Washington metropolitan area. Minnie
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