In celebration of Black History Month, Pi Gamma Mu will sponsor an Empowerment Conference focusing on the seven ideals of the international honor society and A Reflection/Scholarship Luncheon.The activities will be held Feb. 12-14. Dr. Neari F. Warner, former acting president of GSU and a member of the BEAP 500 Club, will deliver the keynote address for the luncheon.
BEAP is the Black Empowerment Apprenticeship Program, which will be celebrating its 15th anniversary. The luncheon theme is “Reflecting on Our Old Beginning: A Road Map to A New Beginning.”
Dr. Warner, served as acting president of GSU from January 2001 to June 2004, was the first female to head the institution.
During her tenure, she successfully led the university through a much-publicized crisis which had threatened the school’s loss of accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
In 2008, she was inducted into the Grambling State University Hall of Fame and also had a $1 million endowed student scholarship named in her honor.
She is officially retired but spends time working with selected educational projects. Presently, she serves as Visiting Professor in the Executive Ph.D. Program at Jackson State University.
Other speakers for the Empowerment Conference include former acting dean of GSU’s School of Social Work, Dr. V.T Samuel, and former students Andre Aikins ,Dr. Laivian Coleman, Kisha Richard and William Merritt.
Other conference presenters will be Pi Gamma faculty advisers/students from Alcorn, Grambling, Bossier Parish Community College, Delta Community College, Jackson State, Rust College, Southern University (Baton Rouge and Shreveport) and Wiley College.
The conference theme is “A New Beginning of Collaboration and Promoting the Seven Ideals of Pi Gamma Mu.”
For more information about the conference, call Dr. Frances Staten at 318-436-9572 or 318-274-2240.