The Wednesday, June 14, 2023 edition of Africa 500 welcomes two special guests who join hosts Sis. Tomiko and Bro. Ty to discuss the topic After Reparations, Economic Models for Nation Building: Dr. Andrea Thomas and Dr. Robert E. Weems Jr.
Dr. Andrea Thomas
Consultant, Global Learning, Innovation and Virtual Exchange
https://www.drandreathomas.com/
Dr. Andrea Thomas is a Senior Intercultural Learning Specialist at Purdue University, Center for Intercultural Learning, Mentorship, Assessment and Research (CILMAR), and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Southern California, Viterbi School of Engineering.
Dr. Thomas was the Head of International Programs and Senior International Officer (SIO) at the State University of New York (SUNY) Farmingdale State College as well as a 2019 Fellow for the Association of International Educators Administrators (AIEA). She brings more than 17 years of experience at global organizations and 15 years in operations, human resources, diversity, equity and inclusion and global engagement. She is passionate about global education and the importance of cultivating a global mindset among students and faculty to support capacity building for digital transformation in the Fourth Industrial context and to create the conditions for peace and mutual understanding.
Dr. Thomas began her career at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) where she focused on Ethics and operations within international development. In 2022, she became a United Nations Global Diplomacy Fellow through the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). She earned a Doctorate at the University of Southern California (USC), Rossier School of Education where she studied Global Education Leadership and Administration with rotations in Hong Kong, Finland and Qatar. She is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer from the Kyrgyz Republic and speaks Russian, Kyrgyz, and Spanish languages.
Dr. Thomas is an accomplished educational leader and global strategist with expertise in building infrastructure for global community transformation in a digital economy. She has an extensive background in international development, multilateral diplomacy, and private, public, and academic partnerships. A researcher on Industry 4.0, virtual exchange (VE), and digital inclusion, Dr. Thomas is knowledgeable about facilitating economic empowerment through community-building, collaboration, and digital transformation. She has lived and worked across Central Asia, Southern Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central and South America.
Dr. Robert E. Weems, Jr.
Willard W. Garvey Distinguished Professor of Business History
Wichita State University
Wichita, KS 67260
https://www.wichita.edu/profiles/academics/fairmount_college_of_liberal_arts_and_sciences/History/Weems-Robert.php
Robert E. Weems, Jr. has been the Willard W. Garvey Distinguished Professor of Business History at Wichita State University since Fall 2011. Before coming to WSU, he taught at the University of Missouri-Columbia and the University of Iowa. A native of Chicago, he received his Ph.D. in History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During his career, Professor Weems has published and spoken widely in the areas of African American business and economic history.
Besides his recently published The Merchant Prince of Black Chicago: Anthony Overton and the Building of a Financial Empire, Weems has authored three other books in the realm of African American business history (Black Business in the Black Metropolis: The Chicago Metropolitan Assurance Company 1925-1985; Desegregating the Dollar: African American Consumerism in the Twentieth Century; Business in Black and White: American Presidents and Black Entrepreneurs in the Twentieth Century), as well as nearly four dozen journal articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries. He is also the co-editor of Building the Black Metropolis: African American Entrepreneurship in Chicago and The African American Experience: A Historiographical and Bibliographical Guide. In addition, Professor Weems served as a historical advisor and appeared in the documentary Boss: The Black Experience in Business which premiered on PBS in April, 2019. More recently, in June 2021, Dr. Weems was the keynote speaker at a program sponsored by the regional banks of the U.S. Federal Reserve entitled “Racism and the Economy: Focus on Entrepreneurship.”
During his tenure in Wichita, Weems has coordinated the “Wichita African American Business History Project” where he gathered information related to the history of local African American entrepreneurship. In September 2017, Professor Weems donated the audio interviews, transcripts, and documentary materials he generated from this project to Wichita State University Libraries Special Collections.
While in Wichita, Dr. Weems has also served in a wide variety of community-based activities including: serving on The Kansas African American Museum Board of Directors (including a tenure as Board president); membership in the African American Council of Elders of Wichita and South Central Kansas (including a tenure as Presiding Elder) and serving on the Board of Directors of the Heartland Wichita Black Chamber of Commerce. In this capacity, Dr. Weems established and coordinates the organization’s “Wichita Black Business Hall of Fame” initiative.
To listen to the June 14 Africa 500 program, click here:
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Africa 500 is broadcast every Wednesday at 3:00 PM (Eastern Time, United States) on Hand Radio (https://handradio.org). After the broadcast, the show can be listened to on an update of this post or on the Audio-Visual Media Pages of KUUMBAReport (https://kuumbareport.com), KUUMBAEvents (https://kuumbaevents.com) or the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (https://srdcinternational.org).