Acclaimed Author, Dennis Kimbro to Keynote FAMU Summer 2008 Commencement

Dennis P. Kimbro, Ph.D., acclaimed author and professor, will keynote Florida A&M University’s (FAMU) Summer 2008 commencement scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday, August 8, at the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center.

Kimbro has interviewed some of America’s most notable achievers with one question in mind: How can impoverished black Americans pull themselves out of poverty and reach their full potential? Kimbro decided to study, and use as a reference, Napoleon Hill’s bestseller “Think and Grow Rich.” He also developed an open survey to use among black Americans much like Hill did in the 1930s.

Two years later, Kimbro learned from the Napoleon Hill Foundation, that Hill himself had drafted a book in 1970 that explored his same question. After a personal meeting with the president of the foundation, Kimbro was commissioned to update and complete Hill’s original manuscript. The end result was “Think and Grow: A Black Choice,” which delves into the secrets of success contained in the lives of peak performing men and women, and reveals how readers can utilize these keys to make their dreams come true.

He has been awarded the Dale Carnegie Personal Achievement Award, and in 1996 he served as one of the eight national judges for the prestigious Ernst and Young USA Today Entrepreneur of the Year. The National Black MBA Association presented him with the 2005 H. Naylor Fitzhugh Award, emblematic of the top business professor in the nation. Kimbro has been featured on the Today Show and Larry King Live, and in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and USA Today.

Kimbro is the author of several books including his bestseller “What Keeps Me Standing: A Black Grandmother’s Guide to Peace, Hope and Inspiration.”

Kimbro received his B.A. and M.S. degrees from the University of Oklahoma, and his doctorate from Northwestern University, where he studied wealth and poverty among underdeveloped countries. He is currently a professor at the Clark Atlanta University School of Business Administration. He is married, and is the father to three daughters; Kelli, Kimberli and MacKenzie.