Author and diversity consultant Lenora Billings-Harris will be the keynote speaker on Wednesday at Elon University’s annual MLK Commemorative Program, which honors the life of the slain civil rights leader. The program, free and an open to the public, begins at noon in Whitley Auditorium.
The winner of Elon University’s 2010 Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Essay Contest will also be announced at the ceremony.
Billings-Harris, a certified speaking professional and founder of Excel Development Systems, a consulting firm that specializes in helping businesses succeed through multicultural workplaces, will use personal stories, metaphors, and quotes from King in a program to help the audience make a sustainable difference in today’s world.
With more than 25 years spent in the public and private sectors, Billings-Harris has teamed with Fortune 500 companies, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions and government agencies. Billings-Harris previously worked for CIGNA and the General Motors Corporation, where she designed and developed management seminars and consulting services for various corporate and dealership populations. Among her successes was the completion of the first management program for General Motors of Australia.
Author of The Diversity Advantage: A Guide to Making Diversity Work, Billings-Harris is past president of the National Speakers Association, an organization of more than 4,000 members. She currently serves on the board of the Global Speakers Federation and as an adjunct faculty member of the Bryan School of Business and Economics at the University of North Carolina – Greensboro, where she is part of an award-winning research team.
She received her undergraduate degree from Hampton University and a master of arts from the University of Michigan. Billings-Harris worked in the 1970s at Michigan in its Executive Development Center of the Graduate School of Business.
For more information on Billings-Harris or the commemorative program, click on the link to the right or call the Multicultural Center in the Moseley Center at 278-7243.