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Making diversity count

The Black MBA Association at Goizueta is blazing a trail this school year, as they fulfill their mission to “promote diversity and add value to the Goizueta community.” The group provides members with “opportunities for academic, social, and professional development,” and functions as a support system to members while playing a vital role in minority student recruitment.

The group hosted an inaugural event in November entitled The Black MBA Diverse Leadership Conference: Empowerment through Entrepreneurial Leadership. Set to be an annual Goizueta tradition in conjunction with the Inside Goizueta diversity recruitment weekend, the conference targeted underrepresented minorities in the business school and allowed students, alumni, professionals, and academics to share ideas and gain knowledge through a series of lectures, panel discussions, workshops, and open forums. The conference drew 250 attendees.

Featured speakers included Lance LaVergne, vice president of the Human Capital Management Division at Goldman Sachs, and Dennis Kimbro, author, lecturer, and motivational speaker. Corporate representatives and alumni from companies such as The Coca-Cola Company, IBM, Nike, UPS, Booz-Allen Hamilton, The Home Depot, The Economic Empowerment Initiative, The Weather Channel, and The United Way were among the panelists. Workshop topics included diverse and entrepreneurial leadership, business financing, negotiations, and real estate development.

BMBA members of the ’06 class, from left to right: Laura Barfield, VP of professional development and conference corporate and logistics chair; Melissa J. Tartt, VP of communications and conference marketing chair; Ginger Green, VP of finance and conference finance and registration chair; Nsombi B. Ricketts, president; Rochelle McAllister, conference speaker and panelist chair; and Renette Richard, VP of activities and conference events and publicity chair.

While BMBA has been in existence at Goizueta for several years, momentum and the group’s visibility thrived under the leadership of outgoing president, Nsombi B. Ricketts ’06MBA. “When I became president last year, I did [a] competitive analysis of Black MBA organizations at other Top 20 business schools and saw that more than half of these organizations had been hosting annual conferences for many years,” explains Ricketts.

In addition, Ricketts notes that existing diversity challenges at Goizueta made the group realize “the great need for our community
to celebrate and embrace diversity.” The conference was the first step toward that goal and also was leveraged to increase the number of minority applicants to the business school. “I decided that a Diverse Leadership Conference would be Black MBA’s legacy and was the best way to connect our members and alumni while building stronger ties with the black business community in Atlanta,” says Ricketts, who will begin a job at American Express in New York upon graduation.

The group already has used its influence and connections to sponsor leadership speakers like entrepreneur Birdel Jackson, president/ principal for B&E Jackson and Associates, Inc., and Ray Anderson, EVP and CAO of the Atlanta Falcons. BMBA kicked off Black History Month with a display in the business school celebrating the lives of past and present black leaders who have exemplified Goizueta’s core values. The group also planned several social networking events, including an alumni mixer to raise funds for next year’s conference.

Members of BMBA are determined to keep up the momentum even as Ricketts and others graduate. Going forward, incoming BMBA President and Inside Goizueta Chair Jihan Francois ’07MBA and Vice President of Conference and Corporate Affairs Rachel Austin ’07MBA will work closely with, Alicia Sierra, newly appointed director of Diversity Initiatives, to make diversity count at Goizueta.

—Isha Edwards


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