Deal appoints five to boards

William Bowen, State Board of Funeral Service
Bowen is a fourth-generation owner and partner of Bowen-Donaldson Home for Funerals and owner and managing partner of Bowen Land & Timber, LLC. He is the director of the Ameris Bancorp and is involved with the Abraham Baldwin Agriculture College (ABAC) Foundation, the Tifton Rotary Club and the Tifton Chamber of Commerce. He is a former president of the Georgia Funeral Directors Association and his funeral home received the Pursuit of Excellence Award from the National Funeral Directors Association. Bowen earned a bachelor’s degree from ABAC, a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Georgia and an associate degree in Mortuary Science from Gupton-Jones College of Funeral Service. He and his wife, Kelly, have three daughters. They reside in Tifton.

Demarius Brinkley, Martin Luther King, Jr. Advisory Council
Brinkley is a Morehouse College Bonner Scholar, Morehouse College King Legacy Scholar and Joseph E. Lowery Institute Change Agent. He is a member of the Phi Alpha Delta pre-law fraternity and the Phi Sigma Tau Philosophy Honor Society. Brinkley interned with the U.S. Department of Education, the Atlanta Community Food Bank, the Atlanta Gateway Center and with U.S. Representative Hank Johnson. He is pursuing a joint bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Political Science. Brinkley resides in Madison.

Christine Miller-Betts, Martin Luther King, Jr. Advisory Council (reappointment)
Miller-Betts is the executive director of the Lucy Craft Museum of Black History in Augusta. She sits on the board of trustees for Historic Augusta and the board of directors for The National Coalition of 100 Black Women. Miller-Betts is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and the NAACP. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Nursing, a master’s degree in Counseling Education and a master’s degree in Theology. She has one child, two grandchildren and resides in Grovetown.

Rita Jackson Samuels, Martin Luther King, Jr. Advisory Council (reappointment)
Samuels is a former White House consultant and special assistant to the deputy director of Community Services Administration. In 1971, she became the first African-American in Georgia to be appointed as the coordinator of the Governor’s Council on Human Relations. She was the first chair of the Georgia Commission on Women and is a Rosalynn Carter fellow at the Institute of Women’s Studies at Emory University. In 2009, she was inducted into the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site. Samuels holds a business and secretarial science certification from Dimery Business College. She is a member of Ebenezer Baptist Church and resides in Atlanta.

LaQuoia Singleton, Martin Luther King, Jr. Advisory Council
Singleton is a student at Georgia State University. Singleton is pursuing a bachelor’s degree of Business Administration in Accounting. She resides in Atlanta.