Dr. Lenora Z. Helm Hammonds is a Durham based, Chicago IL native, former U.S. Jazz Ambassador twotime Fulbright Senior Music Specialist, and a tenured, Associate Professor in the Department of Music and Jazz Studies Program at North Carolina Central University (NCCU). Her leadership in the department include being Director of Graduate Programs, Jazz Studies.

Her achievements in academia are in addition to more than four decades as a recording and performing artist. P/K/A Lenora Zenzalai Helm, she is acclaimed as a jazz vocalist, vocal musicianship coach, lyricist, composer, arranger, and big band bandleader. Her achievements include seven commercially released recordings, her own recording and publishing company, Baoule Works Music Publishing, and an extensive discography with internationally renowned names in jazz and contemporary music.