Friday, March 13, 2009

FAMU Alum Dierdra Zollar to Deliver Keynote Address at Annual Honors Convocation

Dierdra Zollar, senior editor of the Mahogany and Tree of Life lines at Hallmark Cards, Inc., will be the keynote speaker for the annual Florida A&M University (FAMU) Honors Convocation.

The convocation is scheduled for 10:10 a.m. on Thursday, April 2, at the Perry-Paige Auditorium. All honors students, those with a GPA of 3.0 or higher, are invited and encouraged to attend.

Zollar graduated from FAMU in 1990 with a bachelor’s of arts degree in English. Upon completing her undergraduate degree, she began her graduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburg, Pa., via the graduate feeder program, and earned her master of arts degree in literature in 1993.

At the invitation of Emma Dawson, Ph.D., former chairperson of the FAMU English department, Zollar returned to her alma mater and joined the faculty as a writing instructor in the fall of 1994.

She spent six years teaching in the English Department until Hallmark Cards visited FAMU's campus on a recruitment trip for summer interns. Intrigued by the opportunity to pursue a writing career herself, Zollar was recruited for a full-time writing position at Hallmark Cards’ headquarters in Kansas City, Mo. and began her new career as an associate writer in the summer of 2000. Over the next few years, she was promoted to writer then senior writer. Currently, she is a senior editor/writer for both the Mahogany and Tree of Life ethnic card lines at Hallmark Cards, Inc.

One of the highlights of Zollar’s career was having the opportunity to create an inspirational card line title Uplifted, which featured her name and picture on the back of the card. Zollar and Erica Keith (the designer for Uplfited) were also featured in the spring 2006 edition of Professional Women’s Magazine to celebrate Uplifted and Hallmark’s commitment to giving its employees opportunities to fully translate their passions, talents, and beliefs into meaningful product and work.

Zollar enjoys teaching the pre-school class at her church, mentoring teenage girls, being a wife and a mom to her three-year-old son.

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