Founder
Paula Quick Hall comes from a tradition of African American educational achievement. She is a fourth-generation terminal-degree holder, having a father (C. Mason Quick), grandfather (Warren C. Melchor), and great-grandfather (Paul N. Melchor) who were medical doctors. Her mother (Beulah Melchor Quick) and both grandmothers (Beulah V. Melchor and Edna B. Quick Taylor) were teachers and graduates of Bennett College.
Dr. Quick Hall founded the African American Education & Research Organization (AAERO) in 1999. This was in response to her research findings about the racial disparities in education which reflected systematic, pervasive discrimination against Black children in North Carolina public schools. Dr. Quick Hall also saw a need for a private space for meetings, ceremonies, performances, and other gatherings in the Fayetteville area. In 2009, she converted her family home to Melchor-Quick Meeting House (MQMH). In 2018 Melchor-Quick Meeting House was incorporated as a public charity and granted tax-exempt 501(c)3 status by the Internal Revenue Service. In January 2022 AAERO and MQMH merged, becoming a single nonprofit organization–African American Education & Research Organization at Melchor-Quick Meeting House.
Paula Quick Hall’s vision for AAERO is informed by experience at The College Board, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Niagara Falls Board of Education, North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Research and Evaluation Associates, and three NC Historically Black Colleges & Universities. Dr. Hall blends her experiences as a daughter, mother, and grandmother with her formal education– Bachelor of Science in psychology from Howard University, Master of Public Administration from the University of Southern California, and Ph.D. in political science from University of North Carolina.