Previous Conferences
The 5th Annual
2020 Uplifting Black Men Conference
What Do Black Men Need? Navigating the Public Domain
Hosted by Student Success Center Black Male Excellence Network
Saturday, February 15, 2020
8:00 A.M. - 4:00 P.M.
The Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center
On behalf of the Student Success Center and Black Male Excellence Network (BMEN) you are cordially invited to the 5th Annual Uplifting Black Men Conference on Saturday, February 15, 2020 at The Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center. Five years ago, the Student Success Center made a commitment to help meet the needs of Black male students’ by developing a conference for networking, professional development, and community engagement.
This annual conference is organized through the Black Male Excellence Network (BMEN) whose mission is to empower Virginia Tech’s Black men by creating academic and social community through holistic development. Our collective mission is to support the Virginia Tech’s Diversity Strategic Plan by improving academic performance, undergraduate experiences, and the overall graduation rates of Black male undergraduates at Virginia Tech.
As this marathon continues, we present to participants a listing of local, regional, and national stakeholders that investigated the most pressing needs of Black men. Thus, our conference theme for this year is What do Black Men Need? Navigating the Public Domain. In our individual and collective works, we recognize the frequent difficulty of allowing Black males the space to exist in public. We want each participant to actively and engage with thoughtful discussions that will provide both students and administrators, faculty, and staff the ability to support Black men. Each session will present best practices for holistic student development; opportunities to build leadership skills; social and academic capital, and creates a space for belonging on your institutional campuses.
Yours in solidarity,
Dr. Jennifer Brown, Co-Chair, The UBMC
Dr. Michael R. Williams, Co-Chair, The UBMC
Tentative Schedule
| Saturday, February 15, 2020 | |
| 8:30 A.M. | Registration & Networking |
| 9:45 - 9:55 A.M. | Welcome & Conference Schedule |
| 10:00 - 11:00 A.M. | Breakout Session I |
| 11:10 A.M. - 12:10 P.M. | Breakout Session II |
| 12:15 - 1:30 P.M. | Luncheon & BMEN Awards |
| 1:35 - 2:45 P.M. | Keynote Panel |
| 2:45 - 3:00 P.M. | Closing Remarks |
The 4th Annual
2019 Uplifting Black Men Conference
February 23, 2019
8:00 A.M. - 3:00 P.M.
The Inn at Virginia Tech
The Student Success Center’s Black Male Excellence Network at Virginia Tech proudly presents the 4th Annual 2019 Uplifting Black Men Conference. This conference focuses on the dissemination of methods to achieve the holistic success of Black males. We invite all who are invested in the uplifting of Black men to attend. The conference will run from 8:30am to 3pm. We hope you will join us!
Keynote
Mr. Michael Vick
The 3rd Annual
2018 Uplifting Black Men Conference
February 24, 2018
8:00 A.M. - 3:30 P.M.
The conference primarily focuses on uplifting Black Male high school students, college students and adults. We invite ALL (regardless of race or gender) to come, learn and engage. The success of this event depends on the presence of a diverse group of engaged learners. This free conference is open to anyone interested in the advancement and success of Black Men.
Keynote
Dr. Marc Lamont Hill
Marc Lamont Hill is one of the leading intellectual voices in the country. Hill is the host of BET News and a political contributor for CNN. An award-winning journalist, Dr. Hill has received numerous prestigious awards from the National Association of Black Journalists, GLAAD, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Dr. Hill is the Steve Charles Professor of Media, Cities, and Solutions at Temple University.
Featured Speaker
Dr. Winston Samuels
One of our featured speakers is Winston Samuels, two-time alumnus of Virginia Tech. Samuels holds a Master of Science and a Ph.D in Animal Science. Samuels has 32 years of experience in food and nutrition, animal nutrition and health, and the pharmaceutical and biomedical industries.
Black Male Student Leadership Panel
A student leadership panel will be hosted by Dr. Sylvester Johnson, Assistant Vice Provost for the Humanities at Virginia Tech. The panel will feature several influential Virginia Tech Black male students. The panel includes current Board of Visitors Undergraduate Student Representative, Seyi Olusina, Ganesh Annan, Darren Small, Lamont Livingston, and Jabari Byrd.
The 2nd Annual
2017 Uplifting Black Men Conference
Friday, March 24, 2017
8:30 A.M. - 5:30 P.M.
Inn at Virginia Tech
This year’s conference will focus on empowering Black men through stories of persistence from several dynamic Virginia Tech alumni while giving non- black males insight into the lives of Black males. The conference will feature multiple breakout sessions targeted on helping faculty/ staff support Black male students. Breakout session topics will range from student- athlete development to student spiritual development. The success of this conference will depend on the participation and engagement of the Virginia Tech community as well as guests from our region. ALL are invited to participate at NO COST.
Keynote
Irving Peddrew III
Our keynote speaker is Irving Peddrew III, the first African American student to attend Virginia Tech and the first to attend any historically all-white four-year public institution in the 11 former states of the Confederacy. Mr. Peddrew III received an honorary degree at Virginia Tech on May 13. Matthew Winston Jr., senior associate vice president for alumni relations explained “Irving Peddrew displayed enormous courage as he navigated the many difficult obstacles he faced attending a historically all-white institution. He became a catalyst and a pioneer for desegregation, laying the groundwork for the enrollment of generations of African-American students at Virginia Tech. He placed our university on a path to fulfill its true potential to become an inclusive institution for all.”
Rev. Dr. Virgil Wood
Dr. Virgil A. Wood, church leader, educator, and civil rights activist, has committed much of his life's work to the struggle for economic and spiritual development among the nation's disadvantaged.
Educated at Virginia Union University and Andover Newton Theological School, he holds a doctorate from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.
Ordained as a Baptist minister in his late teens, Wood has served churches in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Virginia. During his pastorate in Lynchburg, Virginia, he became actively involved in the civil rights movement, and served with Martin Luther King, Jr., as a member of the National Executive Board of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and coordinated the state of Virginia for the historic march to Washington, on April 28, 1963.
Wood has combined his dual career in church leadership and education with a lifelong commitment to community development, as economic and spiritual transformation. Dr. Wood is currently the pastor of the Pond Street Baptist Church, which he has served since 1983 (and also from 1955 to 1958). He previously served in higher education as an administrator and teacher.
Featured Speakers
Kenneth Cooke
Richmond, Virginia native Kenneth Cooke is a Vice President in the Finance Division of Goldman Sachs, in New York, NY. He is the leader of the Global Derivative Disclosures Team.
Kenneth was the 25th Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Black Accountants, Inc. (“NABA”). Kenneth has been a member of NABA for 24 years and hails from the Richmond, VA Chapter. He also is a current member of the Virginia Tech Accounting & Advisory Board, where he serves on the curriculum committee focusing on ensuring the school’s accounting program remains as one of the top curricula among universities.
Mr. Cooke’s educational background includes an undergraduate major in Accounting from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (“Virginia Tech”).
Everette Taylor
Everette Taylor will will speak about his journey from being homeless to becoming a successful entrepreneur and marketing genius in the tech industry. Everette has been featured in Forbes, Fortune, Inc Magazine, and Black Enterprise among others. Everette is a four-time entrepreneur and currently Chief Marketing Officer for Skurt, a mobility company that delivers affordable cars on-demand. He also serves as CEO of his marketing firm MilliSense, CEO of his social media software company GrowthPup, and co-founder of popular website and software company GrowthHackers.
Beyond that, he serves as the National Brand Ambassador for NASA's Startup Initiative helping aspiring entrepreneurs commercialize NASA technology and an advisor to We Are Onyx - a beauty box subscription service for women of color.
Special Event: President Talk
'President Talk’, hosted by Virginia Tech President Timothy Sands, will feature Virginia Tech alum and West Virginia State President Anthony Jenkins and President Brian Hemphill of Radford University.
Dr. Anthony Jenkins
Anthony L. Jenkins, Ph.D., West Virginia State University’s 11th President is an established higher education leader committed to advocating for students and creating opportunity to higher education for all students, especially culturally under-represented groups.
Born in Washington D.C., and raised between our nation’s capital and North Carolina, Jenkins is a vocal proponent for education and public policy issues. He has fostered meaningful dialogue within the national higher education community. His research, speeches and publications focus on crisis management, enrollment and retention, diversity, African-American male initiatives, first-generation college student success, state funding for higher education, mentoring and high-risk college campus behavior such as alcohol consumption and sexual misconduct.
Jenkins began his path to West Virginia State University as a United States Army veteran and first-generation college graduate of Fayetteville State University. He earned a master’s of science from North Carolina Central University and a doctorate from Virginia Tech University.
Prior to leading the State family, Jenkins served as Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and, most recently, as the Senior Associate Vice President for the University of Central Florida – the nation’s second largest university. His career includes serving at Jackson State University, thereafter joining Virginia Tech’s Housing and Residence Life and later the Office of the Dean of Students. He remained at Virginia Tech until becoming the Assistant Dean of Students at Northeastern Illinois University. Jenkins is a Life-member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated.
Dr. Brian Hemphill
Brian O. Hemphill, Ph.D., Radford University’s seventh president is an unwavering champion for positive change and a true advocate of shared governance. President Hemphill’s road to Radford University has taken him from the University of Arkansas–Fayetteville, a flagship university, where he served as Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean of Students; to Northern Illinois University, a large, public, research university, where he served as Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management and Associate Professor for eight years; to West Virginia State University, a public, land-grant, research university, where he served as the tenth President and Professor for four years. President Hemphill is a published author with a multitude of writings covering topics related to gun violence and threat preparedness on college campuses; emerging financial concerns affecting the collegiate sphere; STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and economic-related issues pertaining to education; and a myriad of additional scholarly perspectives pertinent to the higher education environment.