Alpha Kappa Alpha, Incorporated (AKA), is one of the oldest Black sororities in the United States, and was

founded on January 15, 1908 at Howard University in Washington, D.C. AKA is an international service

organization that comprises nearly 300,000 members in over 1,000 graduate and undergraduate chapters

worldwide.

Theta Theta Omega originally started in 1962 when six members of AKA sought to create a graduate

chapter in Las Vegas, Nevada. AKA recruited members by posting notices throughout the Clark County

Deanne Alterwitz-Stralser (née Friedman) was born January 1, 1931 in Hammond, Indiana, the daughter of an insurance salesman and a stay-at-home mom. Alterwitz-Stralser spent her childhood in Calumet City, just across the state line in Illinois, and was raised with a strong Jewish identity. At the age of sixteen, she met her husband, Oscar Alterwitz, at an Alpha Zadik Alpha (AZA) dance in Gary, Indiana, and the two were married in 1950.