Nana Meriwether ’03, crowned Miss Maryland USA in October 2011, was named first runner-up in the Miss USA competition. Meriwether lost to Olivia Culp, Miss Rhode Island USA, in the nationally televised June 3 event.

A Potomac, Maryland, native, Meriwether is also a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, where she was a two-time NCAA All-American for women’s volleyball, a Collegiate Volleyball Update Player of the Year, and a holder of three national NCAA women’s volleyball records. She led her team to an NCAA Final Four appearance in 2006.

Inspired by the pro bono medical and community work that her parents did in Africa in the 1980s, Meriwether co-founded an international nonprofit organization in 2007. The Meriwether Foundation supports and sustains AIDS/HIV orphanages, schools, rural clinics, and community and agricultural projects in five Southern Africa countries.