Pitt's Black Action Society and National Society of Black Engineers to Host Lecture by Randall Pinkett Feb. 19

PITTSBURGH-As part of the celebration of Black History Month at the University of Pittsburgh, entrepreneur Randall Pinkett will speak at 7:15 p.m. Feb. 19 in the Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) Auditorium, 130 DeSoto St., Oakland. The event, cosponsored by Pitt's Black Action Society (BAS) and National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), is free and open to the public, but students will be given priority seating.

Pinkett is the cofounder, chair, and CEO of BCT Partners, a multimillion-dollar management, technology, and policy consulting firm. BCT Partners works with corporations, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations in the areas of housing and community development, economic development, human services, healthcare, and education.

The season-four winner of NBC's reality television show "The Apprentice," Pinkett has remained involved with the Trump organization as a national spokesperson for the Trump Institute, a faculty member at Trump University, and a boardroom advisor to "The Apprentice."

Pinkett has received many awards and recognitions-most notably as the first African American to receive a Rhodes Scholarship at Rutgers University in 1994. Among his other achievements are a NSBE Distinguished Fellow Award (1992), the Lucent Technologies Cooperative Research Fellowship (1997), the National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship (1998), the MIT Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership Award (2002), the Rockefeller Foundation Next Generation Leadership Fellowship (2003), and the Achievements Leadership New Jersey Fellowship (2004). He also has been featured in several publications and was named among the "30 Leaders of the Future" by both "Black Enterprise" and "Ebony" magazines in 2000 and 2001, respectively.

Pinkett has earned five academic degrees, a BS in electrical engineering at Rutgers, an MS in computer science at the University of Oxford, and an MBA, an MS in electrical engineering, and a PhD in media arts and sciences, all at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of "Campus CEO: The Student Entrepreneur's Guide to Launching a Multimillion-Dollar Business" (Kaplan, 2007).

Pinkett maintains an active public role. He has been featured on "The Today Show," "Live With Regis and Kelly," and CNN, and is a regular segment host for the CEO Exchange on PBS. He also is the national spokesperson for Autism Speaks and EntrepeneurshipWeekUSA and the campaign spokesperson for New Jersey Reads.

Additional Black History Month events follow:

Feb. 12, 8:30-10:30 p.m.

Black Consciousness Bowl, WPU Ballroom;

Feb. 13, 7-9:30 p.m., $2 (Pitt students only)

Blind Dating Game, GSPH Auditorium;

Feb. 18, 8:30-10:30 p.m.

General Body Meeting, WPU Assembly Room;

Feb. 20, 10 p.m.-2 a.m. (Pitt students only)

Old School Jump-Off Party, WPU Assembly Room;

Feb. 21

Community Outreach Service Day;

Feb. 27, 6:30 p.m., $10

National Pan-Hellenic Council Step Show, Soldiers and Sailors Memorial, Fifth Avenue and Bigelow Boulevard, Oakland; and

March 3, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Health Fair, WPU Assembly Room and Ballroom.

For more information, contact BAS vice president Endia Vereen at 412-648-7880 or vicepres.bas@gmail.com.

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