UNCF UNITE CONFERENCE BY LYNITA MITCHELL-BLACKWELL, ESQ.
“P owered by the United Negro College Fund [UNCF], UNITE is the nation’s premier annual gathering for accelerating strategies for Black higher education and support for the institutional transformation of Black colleges and universities.” The 2024 Summit delivered on this promise and gave so much more. Held at Signia by Hilton in Atlanta, GA, from Sunday, July 28-, through Wednesday, July 31, 2024, the Summit was a conference, concert, educational bastion, innovation generator, power connector and marvel of Black excellence.
The summit kicked off high energy, Sunday night, with
Dwyer, session co-facilitator. “We have convened people from all over who are working on this very descriptive problem right now, so we may elevate our HBCUs to have a larger footprint in entrepreneurship, commercialization, research and development, and all things STEM.” When I asked people what brought them to the summit, the answers were consistently rooted in a desire to promote our HBCUs to higher levels of excellence: Dr. DeShanna Brown, Vice President, HBCU Strategic Accounts, Ruffalo Noel Levitz: “I
believe in the transformation of our HBCUs, and this summit has taught me additional capacity building tools.” Dr. Adenike Akintobi, Director of Enrollment Management Systems, Spelman College: “I came to learn strategies to continue to move HBCUs, particularly Spelman College, forward as far as AI technology is concerned. I sat in a wonderful session and learned a lot of great tools that I’m looking forward to implementing and also sharing with my HBCU partners.” Dr. Tara Evans, Vice President, HBCU Strategic Accounts, Ruffalo Noel Levitz: “This has been an
Grammy Award-winning artists, Yolanda Adams and Ledisi belting out hit after hit with the combined talents of HBCU students backing them up. The fashions did not disappoint, as every attendee was dressed to impress. Monday morning, everyone was in place contributing to and learning in a plethora of sessions that included, The Meeting of the Minds II: Reimaging HBCUs, “exploring how our institutions may have a stronger space in innovation, entrepreneurship and the STEM ecosystem as a whole,” stated Ms. Tiara Booker-
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