2020 Summit Speakers

Carole Moore McLeod Entrepreneur Summit

Boss: The Black Experience in Business

On Thursday, November 5, 2020, the Center for Entrepreneurship (CFE) and the Black Student Association (BSA) co-hosted the 17th annual Carole Moore McCleod Entrepreneur Summit. The 2020 Entrepreneur Summit was an all-new virtual format. The CFE and BSA provided access to students, faculty, staff and community members  to watch the film "BOSS: THE BLACK EXPERIENCE IN BUSINESS." The day was concluded with a round table discussion with BOSS's filmmaker, Stanley Nelson, as well as esteemed local entrepreneurs,  Yolanda Adams and Alfred Glover. 

BOSS provides its viewers the opportunity to learn about the untold story of African American entrepreneurship, where skill, industriousness, ingenuity, and sheer courage in the face of overwhelming odds provide the backbone of this nation’s economic and social growth. 

 

About Stanley Nelson

STANLEY NELSONStanley Nelson is the foremost chronicler of the African American experience working in nonfiction film today. His films, many of which have aired on PBS, combine compelling narratives with rich and deeply researched historical detail, shining new light on both familiar and under-explored aspects of the American past. Mr. Nelson's film, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (2016), is the first comprehensive feature-length historical documentary portrait of that iconic organization, as well as an extremely timely look at an earlier phase of black activism around police violence in African American communities. The film won the 2016 NAACP Image Award. Nelson's two previous films, Freedom Riders (2010, three Primetime Emmy Awards) and Freedom Summer (2014, Peabody Award), took a fresh look at multiracial efforts to register black voters and desegregate public transportation facilities in the Jim Crow South, critical events in the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. Nelson's 2003 film The Murder of Emmett Till, about the brutal killing of a fourteen-year-old African American boy in Mississippi in 1955, an event that had a galvanizing effect on the mid-century civil rights movement, uncovered new eyewitnesses to the crime and helped prompt the U.S. Department of Justice to reopen the case.

Other notable Nelson films include the Emmy nominated The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords (1999), a sweeping portrait of over a century of independent black journalism; Two Dollars and a Dream (1989), a biography of Madame C.J. Walker, the first self-made African American female millionaire; Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple (2006, Tribeca Film Festival Special Jury Prize), a riveting account of how cult leader Jim Jones led more than 900 followers to commit mass suicide in a remote corner of northwestern Guyana in 1978; Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind (2000, Sundance Premiere) a moving account of the life of the controversial early twentieth-century black nationalist; and A Place of Our Own (2004, Sundance Premiere), a remarkable and revealing portrait of the upper-middle-class African American resort community of Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard, as well as a very personal portrait of Nelson's sometimes difficult relationship with his father.

In 2000, Mr. Nelson, along with his wife, Marcia A. Smith, founded Firelight Media, a nonprofit production company dedicated to using historical film to advance contemporary social justice causes, and to mentoring, inspiring, and training a new generation of diverse young filmmakers committed to advancing underrepresented stories. In the last seven years, fifteen films have aired on national television.

Nelson, a MacArthur "Genius" Fellow, was awarded an individual Peabody for his body of work in May of 2016. He has received numerous honors over the course of his career, including the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts Sciences. In 2013, Nelson received the National Medal in the Humanities from President Barack Obama.

Yolanda Adams, Panelist

Yolanda AdamsYOLANDA is from Bogotá Colombia and has lived in the High Country for 28 years. Her passion and service to the Latino community led her to a position in the Watauga County School system as a Family Resource Coordinator, and she is the founder of Que Pasa Appalachia. Yolanda has created programs that promote higher education for the Latino Community and built bridges between the Latino and broader communities of Boone. Yolanda serves as the Chair for High Country Community Health, sits on the board for the Boone Chamber of Commerce, and is a member-at-large for the Immigration Justice Coalition. In September 2020, Yolanda obtained a Certification in Diversity & Inclusion from Cornell University.

Alfred Glover, Panelist

Alfred Glover

ALFRED was owner and operator of Boone Ford for 12 years in Boone, North Carolina. In 2016, Alfred sold the business and transitioned into the owner and president of Alfred B. Glover Investments Company, which acquires and renovates real estate and invests in startup companies. Alfred is very active within the community and has served on numerous boards including Boone and Ashe County Chambers of Commerce, The Appalachian Theater on King Street, First Citizen’s Bank, Salvation Army, and the Ashe County Free Medical Clinic. Alfred also served for 4 years in the United States Navy.

Kyndavee Bichara, Moderator

Kyndavee Bichara

KYNDAVEE is a junior at Appalachian State studying International Business. Over the past three years at Appalachian, Kyndavee has dedicated her time to being a leader, advocate, and student-athlete. In her freshman year at Appalachian, Kyndavee founded the Black Student-Athlete Association and was appointed the president of The Black Student Association. That summer, she served the campus as a Student Orientation Undergraduate Leader, Ascend Mentor, and Trailhead guide. She is also the CEO and Founder of Wai LLC. Now Kyndavee is president of both the Black Student Association and Black Student-Athlete Association, Chief of Staff of the Appalachian Chapter of Queen In You, member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., and one of the founders of the Black At App State Collective.