When Dr. Tamerla Chavis’ best friend asked her
to try out for Lamar’s cheerleading squad
during their freshman year, she wasn’t overly
enthusiastic. The 1979 valedictorian of Beaumont’s Hebert
High School was more of a “background person,” she
said. But Sharon Goodwin, a chemistry classmate,
dreamed of being a cheerleader and really wanted her
friend with her for moral support. Chavis ’83 acquiesced
and made the squad. Goodwin didn’t. Was that the end
of the friendship? “No,” Chavis said. “We stayed friends
for the rest of our time at Lamar.”
Back then, Chavis was probably one of those girls
other girls would love to hate, but just couldn’t. She
was nice, smart and pretty, and her peers recognized
that by crowning her homecoming queen in 1980.
“That memory will stay with me forever,” she said.
Every extracurricular activity she became involved in
and every award she received “snowballed” from
being a cheerleader her freshman and sophomore
years. “There was so much energy on campus,”
said the former student supreme-court justice and
recipient of the McFaddin Spirit Award.
But it was the curricular opportunity that
brought her to Lamar in the first place. She
credits her family and teachers for stressing the
importance of a good education. Her mother,
Ruby Bernard Chavis, graduated from high
school, got married, had children, and never
pursued a higher academic degree. She wanted
her daughter to have more choices that a
college education could offer. “My mother
always wanted me to be financially
independent,” she said.
Her teachers at Hebert High School (now Ozen High School)
had encouraged her to succeed academically, especially in math and
science. That success did not escape Lamar’s Richard Price, associate
professor of mathematics (now retired), who was also director
of minority recruitment and retention for the College of
Engineering. When Price met Chavis, she was considering going to
Rice University in Houston, but the mathematician changed her
mind by promising that the people at Lamar University would take
care of her. He kept his promise. She had a full scholarship for four
years, which allowed her to study more and have time for cheerleading
and other activities that she said enhanced her time at
Lamar. “It would have been very difficult for my family to fund my
college education back then,” she said.
Keith Hansen, chairman of the Department of Chemistry and
Physics, remembers her as “an excellent student, very active and
vivacious.” He recalled one weekend when he and his wife and
some other couples were playing basketball in a gym on campus.
Chavis was there, and she joined in. A lot of students are uncomfortable
around their professors, especially in
social situations, Hansen said, but not
Chavis with her outgoing personality and
confidence. Those traits apparently served
her well. Back in the early 1980s, there were
very few African-American women in chemical
engineering. And even though Chavis
was involved in many extracurricular activities, Hansen said she
never missed class and was always prepared. “Her academic preparation
was her top priority,” he said.
Chavis noted the caring attitudes of her professors, including
Ku-Yen Li in chemical engineering and the late Margaret Cameron
in organic chemistry. “They were interested in my personal as well
as my academic development,” she said.
Sometime between her freshman and sophomore year, Chavis
decided that she wanted to become a doctor—about the same time
her older brother Cyril ’82 (mechanical engineering) decided that
he also wanted to pursue a medical degree. Today, he specializes in
diagnostic radiology in Virginia Beach, Va. She knew she was suited
for a career in medicine because “it is more personal,” she said.
After finishing the requirements for the pre-professional program
and a chemical engineering degree, Chavis graduated in 1983 and
went on to medical school at the University of Texas Health Science
Center in San Antonio. “I knew I wanted to do surgery,” she said.
During her clinical years, she completed a rotation in neurosurgery
and decided to follow that path. She earned her medical
degree in 1987 and continued there with her internship and residency.
After 10 years in San Antonio, she moved to New York for a
fellowship in endovascular neurosurgery at the University at
Buffalo—The State University of New York in affiliation with
Millard Fillmore Hospital. When she completed her fellowship, she
moved to Chicago and joined a group practice. After four years, the
Beaumont native wanted to come home. She moved back and
opened a solo practice in 2000. Her family members, including her
two younger siblings, Iran ’90 (computer science) and Jaylon ’92
(biology), give her “a lot of emotional support.”
After her return, Jack Hopper, dean of the College of
Engineering, was reading an article in the Beaumont Enterprise about
a man who had suffered a severe brain injury in a car accident. In the
article was a quote from the injured man’s wife praising Dr. Tamerla
Chavis for saving her husband’s life with emergency brain surgery. “At
the moment I read that,” Hopper said, “I swelled up with pride to
realize I had once taught ‘that little girl’—Tamerla Chavis!”
There are only eight neurosurgeons listed in the Beaumont telephone
directory, and Chavis is the only woman. “When I first started,
I was truly one of a few,” she said. “It’s getting better.” As far as
being a role model, she hopes she encourages women to evaluate
their professional choices.
As for getting involved, again, with Lamar University, Chavis
said, “It was just a matter of time.” Not long after her return to
Beaumont, she was contacted by the Lamar Alumni Association and
became involved in the Giddy-Up Gala fundraiser, where she sponsored
a table. She joined the alumni association and served as the
advisory board’s president in 2004. She is now a trustee of the
Lamar University Foundation and has
pledged a gift to establish the Dr. Tamerla
Chavis Scholarship in Engineering. “I understand
the importance of education,” she said.
“I understand what having a scholarship
meant to me.”
She believes that giving back to her
alma mater is the right thing to do.
“It has given so much to so many,” she said. She tells her
friends who went to Lamar that if they had not had the opportunity,
they wouldn’t be in the position to give back to Lamar. “We need to
support the institutions that have allowed us to achieve,” she said.
To others living in the Beaumont area who are not Lamar graduates,
she says Lamar is a good investment for their community and
businesses. The more educated the community, she believes, the better
able it is to function.
She is very thankful to Jimmy Simmons and his team for the
positive changes that have been made at Lamar. When the former
band director became president, good things started happening.
“They have increased the number of endowed chairs,” she said.
“They have beautified the campus and added new programs. It’s
been a phenomenal transformation.” And she believes now is the
time for even greater national recognition because of Lamar’s outstanding
academic programs.
Considering Lamar’s future, Chavis said she’d like to see her
alma mater continue to grow as an educational resource for
Beaumont and the surrounding communities. She is impressed with
the numerous and diverse speakers taking part in the Academic
Lecture Series and wants that to continue. She is proud of the
Dishman Art Museum that familiarizes students with great art, and
she is excited about Cardinal Village, which enhances the students’
university experience by making the campus a true community.
“It’s easier for me to support education,” said Chavis, who also
gives to St. Anthony Cathedral School where her two nieces attend
second grade and fourth grade. “It’s the foundation for success.”
