VALENTINA "TINA" R. MERDANIAN

Community leader and lecturer

Thursday, March 1, 2012 7:00 PM
Boyden Hall, Horace Mann Auditorium

Tina Merdanian, director of institutional relations at Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, oversees a department responsible for promoting Red Cloud and greeting more than 10,000 visitors each year. She frequently gives presentations on the history and culture of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Following her graduation from Red Cloud High School, she attended Creighton and Black Hills State Universities before graduating from Oglala Lakota College (OLC) with an associate degree in accounting and a bachelor's degree in business administration. She is a candidate for a master's degree in leadership and management from OLC to be awarded in May 2012.

A member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Ms. Merdanian is a lifelong resident of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Believing in the importance of economic development on the reservation, she helped to form and serves as a director of the Pine Ridge Area Chamber of Commerce. She is a resource to the South Dakota Department of Tourism and serves in the capacity of lead consultant of marketing and development for Native Discovery, a partnership with the development organizations of South Dakota's three largest reservations - Cheyenne River, Pine Ridge and Rosebud - as they work together to stimulate the largely untapped, culturally based tourism economy. In 2010, she was selected as a member of the first cohort of the Bush Foundation's Native Nation Rebuilders, a two-year program recognizing emerging Native American leaders.

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BILL STRICKLAND

Entrepreneur, social activist and author

Thursday, March 29, 2012, 7:00 PM
Boyden Hall, Horace Mann Auditorium

For 30 years, Bill Strickland has transformed thousands of lives, restored our faith in ethical leadership, and reshaped the business of social change. As president and CEO of the Manchester Bidwell Corporation - an extraordinary jobs training center and community arts program - he and his staff work with corporations, community leaders and schools to give disadvantaged kids and adults the opportunities they need to build a better future. Centers are currently open in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and San Francisco with plans to open more in the future. For years, in front of enraptured audiences, this MacArthur Genius has shared his unshakable message of leadership, self-worth and the intrinsic ability in all of us to achieve remarkable transformation in our lives. "Bill Strickland is a genius," said former eBay president Jeff Skoll, "because he sees the inherent genius in everyone."

Mr. Strickland is also the author of Make the Impossible Possible, a recipient of The White House's "Coming Up Taller" Award and founder of MCG Jazz, the most successful jazz subscription series in America.