FFTC Excellence Award
FFTC Excellence Award
- Hits: 1227
Tommy & Ursala McNeal:
Tommy McNeal is a 41-year-old native of Chicago, Illinois. He and his wife Ursala have been together for 18 years 15 of them as man and wife. They have three children together, one son and two daughters.
Tommy has worked with Comcast Communications for the last 15 years. “I think [Andre McNeal] likes what we [he and his partner Terry Austin] have done with our company, Positive Image, over the last 10 years, and we are community active.”
Positive Image is a nonprofit 501(c)3. It’s an organization that tries to sponsor community, group, and family-orientated events. “We have five events that we host throughout the year,” explains Tommy. “The father-daughter dance is coming up the 26th [of February], and it is five years running. It’s an opportunity for daughters to spend an evening with their fathers.”
They also have an annual Father’s Day Weekend Event, No Bullying School Drive, Mother-Son Dance, and an annual coat and winter apparel drive.
“We have been married for 15 years,” said Ursala. “But more importantly than that, [Tommy] is my best friend. I [have] worked for Wells Fargo for 13 years. I am also the chairperson for our affinity group at Wells Fargo, The Black African-American Connection. [We] hold signature events throughout the year to provide connection in the community. We also mentor girls at Patrick Henry High School and Girls in Action.”
On being nominated, “We do a good job connecting to the things that are happening in the community,” said Ursala. “We try to provide a bridge any way we can for people in our community. We do that from our heart, and I think that is what attracts us to [do] the good work that we do. I think because we do that from our heart, people notice that.”
Pete and Kimberly Bedell Rhodes have been producers of cultural media and arts programming,
providing communications, entertainment, outreach and education to urban markets since 1980.
The team founded The Minnesota Black Music Awards in 1982 to recognize local and national
Black Music genres, artist and provide industry education and artist mentorship. The program has
presented more than 500 awards.
The couple owns and operates Black Music America Networks, a digital cable channel and the popular web site, www.BlackMusicAmerica.com. BMA Cable Networks is Minnesota’s only 24 hour African American owned cable-programming channel. The service broadcasts on Channel 937 to over 500,000 cable subscribers via Comcast/Xfinity cable systems in Minnesota and Western Wisconsin .
In 2014, the team debuted the Emmy nominated Urban Perspectives program a weekly
community affairs show distributed by WCCO Channel 4. Their mission is to provide diversity in
programming content through quality programs for audience and clients locally and worldwide. ©