Mission Mondays: A Legacy of Excellence

by Lorenzo Windrow, Associate Director of Development for the National Museum of African American Music

Recently, I had the privilege of sitting with Dr. Arie Nettles, whose story is one of accomplishment, cultivation, and of what happens when excellence is treated as a responsibility, a birthright. 

Dr. Nettles was born in Augusta, Georgia, to a mother named Augustine, in a family where August somehow became its own kind of sacred season. “A month of celebration,” as she called it. She was born in August. Her mother was born in August. Her daughters were born in August. Even the city itself echoed the rhythm. While some may have seen this as coincidence, it can also be seen as a symbol of intergenerational community identity.

Dr. Nettles shared story after story that revealed just how intentional her upbringing was. Her mother, a brilliant woman in her own right, made sure she had access to piano, ballet, music, culture, and rigor. She made sure her daughter understood independence, that nobody could be her but her, and that listening to the noise of other people could become its own kind of limitation.

That philosophy shaped everything.

As a young girl in Chattanooga, Dr. Nettles was exposed to Black excellence and artistic excellence at the highest level. She joined bands, theater, cheer, and just about everything else that could stretch her gifts. There is a beautiful story she told about a teacher overhearing someone question whether piano lessons were even possible for someone of her skin color. Without hesitation, that teacher stepped in and said, “I will teach her.” That moment says so much about what it means when somebody sees potential and refuses to let circumstance decide the future.

Nettles studied at the University of Tennessee, where she helped charter the campus chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, changing the institutional landscape in the process. She graduated with honors. She taught. She kept playing music. She kept pushing. Later, she returned to school, earned advanced degrees in psychology, and built a path that wove its way through education, medicine, counseling, child development, and systems-level work with families and children. At Vanderbilt, she was the first African American woman to become a full professor in her area.

But even with all of that, what stays with me most about Nettles is how she defined legacy, not with a long answer; just one word: Excellence. That word, from her, felt earned. Grounded. Demanding, in the best way!

She spoke with visible joy about her husband Michael, the “December” outlier in a family full of August birthdays, and about the life they built together over decades. She spoke about their daughters with the kind of detail that tells you immediately this is a household where identity matters. Ana, an attorney at HCA. Sabin, a PhD neuroscientist at Stanford. Aidan, a professor of dance at Florida Atlantic University. Different callings, mutual roots. This family’s legacy of excellence was not happenstance. 

When I asked what could be lost if we are not intentional about preserving African American music and scholarship, she said that there is something in our DNA, and even when it seems absent, it is not gone. It may simply be dormant. Our job is to create the conditions for it to rise again. That, to me, is one of the clearest arguments for institutions like the National Museum of African American Music.

Dr. Nettles said supporting NMAAM is meaningful simply because of what it is. Its existence matters. Its work matters. Its permanence matters. Preservation is about awakening memory and about making sure what is dormant is not mistaken for dead. It is about giving future generations access to story, sound, scholarship, excellence, and inspiration.

If there was one more thing she made clear, it is that we owe the next generation more than just inspiration. “We owe them access. To elders, to institutions, to culture, to one another…” Future generations deserve access to the stories that remind them who they are, and what they are capable of.

Mission Monday is often about recognizing support. This one is also about recognizing excellence within our community. In family, faith, education, art, discipline, generosity, memory, standards… Dr. Nettles reminded me that legacy is not merely what we leave behind; it is what we keep alive.

Lorenzo Windrow serves as Associate Director of Development at the National Museum of African American Music, where he manages an $8 million contributed income pipeline and leads transformative campaigns that sustain the museum’s mission of celebrating black music and culture. Read his bio here.

Mission Mondays is an initiative by The National Museum of African American Music to highlight the stories of the major donors who help make our mission possible. Want to be featured? Please contact marketing@nmaam.org. Inspired to support?