Our story.
Our legacy.
Our service.
WHO WE ARE
For more than four decades, the Piedmont (NC) Chapter has brought friendship, leadership, and purposeful service together across our community.
Friendship transformed into service
PART OF A POWERFUL LEGACY
The Links, Incorporated is an international, not-for-profit corporation founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1946 by Margaret Rosell Hawkins and Sarah Strickland Scott. Their vision brought together a circle of nine friends committed to transforming friendship into meaningful service.
Built upon this enduring legacy, The Links, Incorporated has become one of the nation’s oldest and largest volunteer service organizations of accomplished women. Its members are dedicated to enriching, sustaining, and ensuring the culture and economic well-being of African Americans and other persons of African ancestry.
Today, that friendship chain includes more than 16,000 professional women of color serving through 288 chapters across 41 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, and the United Kingdom. Through friendship and service, the legacy established in Philadelphia nearly eight decades ago remains alive, relevant, and impactful.
Piedmont (NC) advances that mission locally through five programming facets: Services to Youth, The Arts, National Trends and Services, International Trends and Services, and Health and Human Services.
How Piedmont (NC) began
OUR CHAPTER HISTORY
A friendship circle became a service league, and then a chapter with a lasting commitment to the region.
1979
The first conversation
On September 24, Janice Hammond welcomed Margaret Wilson and Hazel Russell to her home to explore organizing a chapter of The Links. Their efforts formed the Tri-County Service League.
1980
A steering committee forms
Marie Fuller, Marie Hamilton, Janice Hammond, Ruth McDowell, Estelle Miller, Marguerite Pass, Hazel Russell, and Margaret Wilson joined with Mildred Sadler and Anne Miller to guide the organizing effort.
1980
The vision takes shape
On June 7, the committee defined the geographic area it hoped to serve and the region’s economic and cultural resources. The organization became the Piedmont NC Service League.
1982
Piedmont (NC) is chartered
On May 1, the service league officially became the Piedmont Chapter of The Links, Incorporated, beginning a legacy that continues today.
Chapter Officers | 2026-2028
LEADERSHIP IN SERVICE
President
Tequel Douglass Hager
Vice President
Allison Chisolm
Recording Secretary
Marietta Allen
Treasurer
Lisa Liggins-Pulliam
Financial Secretary
Deborah Ford
Corresponding Secretary
Erica Taylor
Connected by friendship.
United in purpose.
OUR MEMBERS
Our members bring professional excellence, lived experience, and a shared dedication to service.
Active Members
Monica Alexander
Marietta Allen
Melissa Balknight
Brett Barber
Donyel Barber
Jennifer Bishop
Gloria Bolden
Deborah Bowden
Glynis Brooks
Elizabeth Faye Brooks-Gordon
Ramona Brown
Denise Casey
Allison Chisolm
Arnita Dula
Valerie Dunning
Deborah Ford
Artenia Friday-Taylor
Antoinette (Toni) Godfrey
Shawnya Gore
Angela Gravely Harris
Tequel Hager
Continued
Jewell Hardin
Pamela Hart-Hemphill
Dena King
Renee Knight
Lisa Liggins-Pulliam
Kim Lindstrom
Kimberly McLean
Leah Moody
Deirdre Pippins
Lorette Polite-Young
Kimberly Price
Lisa Reynolds
Christina Sadler
Elizabeth (Lisa) Sido
Robin Smith
Erica Taylor
Regina Taylor
Valeria Waddell
Constance Walker
Barbara Williams
LaSaine Yates
Alumna Members
Deborah Ally
Myrtice Barnwell
Pearl Burris-Floyd
Joyce B. Fisher
Brenda Friday
Janice E. Hammond
Trish Johnson
Brenda Kegler
Constance W. Kennedy
Clara G. Lowery
Ann Neal
Jacqueline Robinson
Thomasina Sadler
Vivian Taylor
Jocelyn Thompson
Betty T. Werts
Jeanette Whitaker
Betty Worthy