FIRST BLACK WOMAN COMBAT PILOT TO SPEAK AT COMMUNITY COLLEGE OF PHILADELPHIA EMERGING LEADERS SUMMIT

PHILADELPHIA, April 10, 2008 – Vernice Armour, the first black woman combat pilot in the U.S. armed forces, and Reneé Amoore, a local author and business woman, will be the featured speakers at Community College of Philadelphia’s Emerging Leaders Summit, Saturday, April 12.

The summit, which is free, but open only to the College’s students and faculty, will be held from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the College’s Center for Business and Industry, 18th and Spring Garden streets. Reneé Amoore will be the plenary speaker at 9:15 a.m. in Room C2-28. Vernice Armour will be the lunch keynote speaker at 1:45 p.m. in Room C2-28.

A former Marine lieutenant, Vernice Armour earned her wings in July 2001, becoming the U.S. Marine Corps’ first black female pilot. She made history again when she flew combat missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Armour left the Marine Corps in June 2007 after two tours in the Gulf. Today, she is president of Vernice Armour International and makes her living as a motivational speaker with an emphasis on young people who are in need of role models and mentors.

“I am standing on the shoulders of those men and women who’ve come before me,” Armour said during a 2007 interview on the Tavis Smiley Show on PBS television. “They blazed a trail and it left a path. It left a mark for me to walk down to blaze a slightly different trail for those next to me and behind me to follow.”

The summit will kick off with the 9:15 a.m. plenary session featuring Reneé Amoore, author of The Elevator of Achievement: Determination Requires a Choice. The book focuses on how women can move up the corporate ladder by shaping their own attitudes about success, prejudice, oppression, equality, business and leadership.

The daylong summit is designed to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas centered on leadership as an inclusive process that supports multiple viewpoints and empowers participants to succeed academically and professionally.

"Our goal is to provide a personal leadership development program for students, faculty and staff that will challenge them intellectually, socially and personally,” said Claudia Curry, head of the College’s Women’s Center. Curry and Biology instructor Meghan Solomon are co-chairs of the event, which is funded by the Community College of Philadelphia Foundation’s Mini-Grant program.

One of seven sisters, Reneé Amoore was born to working-class parents and raised in Bryn Mawr, Pa. Today, as founder and president of The Amoore Group, Inc. (TAG), she is a role model for anyone looking to make an impact in the fields of business, health care, civil rights or politics.

TAG provides diverse services, such as public relations, government relations, health care consulting, job creation, education, workplace diversity and allied health services.

Amoore also is a pioneer, but on a local level. She was the first African-American elected to the Upper Merion School District. She made history again in 2004 when she became the first African-American and woman to chair a Pennsylvania delegation to the Republican National Convention.

Community College of Philadelphia’s Emerging Leaders Summit also will feature a number of workshops on how to enhance professional leadership skills, public speaking and writing (See the summit schedule below).

EMERGING LEADERS SUMMIT SCHEDULE