MAY /JUNE 2016

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TACKLING BIAS WITHIN THE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

MANDAREE ENTERPRISES CEO CLARENCE O’BERRY SHOWS HOW FAR TRIBAL BUSINESS CAN GO

MASALA CHAI AND GLOBAL STEM DIVERSITY

CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM SNAGGED IN CAMPAIGN POLITICS

May/June 2016 meamagazine.com•Minority Enterprise Advocate 3

Contents

04 Publisher’s MessageDiversity News06 Tackling Bias Within the

Organizational Culture by Leah Smiley

Cover Story 20 Mandaree Enterprises CEO,

Clarence’OBerry, Shows How Far Tribal Business Can Go

International News24 Corporate Council on Africa

Elects New Chairman of the Board

Business News10 Masala Chai and Global STEM

Diversity12 Criminal Justice Reform Snagged

in Campaign Politics by Dee Hunter 14 National Minority Supplier

Development Council Honors Leaders in Supply Chain Diversity

18 The Bottom Line: Celebrating the Minds of Inventors by Iris A. Coopern

26 What is Your Brand? By Mel and Pearl Shaw

28 Debate Rages Over TV’s Future by Josh Peterson

30 Shumaker Report

Size Standard Protests -Those Guys Aren’t Small by Gary Shumaker

Financial News33 Gift Tax Basics by Walid Petiri

Automotive News34 2017 Cadillac XTS: Cross Touring

by Kate McLeod38 All-New for 2017: Hyundai

Elantra by Frank A. Aukofer 52 2016 Buick Enclave by Motor

Matters

Government News40 USDA Invests $103M in Vital

Watershed Projects 42 USDA Awards $8.5M to Improve

Communities Water Sources 44 Agriculture Secretary Vilsack

Next Steps Funding to Address Substance Abuse in Rual Communities

46 Food and Agriculture Groups Express Support , Optimism for New Opportunities in Cuba

48 U.S. Transportation Secretary Foxx Announces Notice of Funding

50 Black History Corner

MAY/JUNE 2016

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Mandaree Enterprises CEO, Clarence’OBerry

4 Minority Enterprise Advocate • meamagazine.com May/June 2016

PublisherDebra Williams

WritersDee Hunter; Leah Smiley; Jennifer

Colosimo; Julie Kantor; Lamont Hames; Mel & Pearl Shaw; Gary Shu-maker; Walid L. Petiri; Iris A. Cooper; Josh Peterson; Kate McLeod; Motor

Matters; Frank A. Aukofer

Design and ProductionCB & Associates

President Sunny Ezeji

Minority Enterprise Advocate Magazine is published bi-monthly by Minority Enterprise Executive

Council. © Copyright 2016. All rights reserved. Except as permit-ted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this magazine

may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever, or stored in a

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E-mail: dwilliams@meamagazine.com

US-Africa Business CouncilSunny Ezeji, Founder

Publisher’s Message

This summer MEA has a new program to support minority/small business – MEA Advan-tage. This program is designed to help emerging businesses

that are have financial restraints, but need to have topnotch support to understand how to market to the Federal Government. These classes will be conducted by indus-try leaders who are experienced in various

areas, strategic business development; pro-posal writing; recruiting; marketing collateral materials; team build-ing; mentor protégé programs; business plans; proposal costing; GSA Schedule; SBA Set-Aside Programs; learn how to respond to a govern-ment solicitation in real time.

Every other Tuesday there will be a 4 hour class including lunch. These are interactive classes with approximately 10-20 students per session. Anyone interested can attend the class, but you have to register. This is a very cost effective program for small business owners who want to reach the next level with the guidance of renowned industry leaders.

Today, the number of new businesses are decreasing, we need to in-crease entrepreneurship, especially among women. There are too few women business owners and I believe women are the answer to our economic future. Women are great at multi-tasking and designed for sharp decision-making.

Sunny Ezeji and I invite you to reach out if you would like to be an instructor or participate as a student. Right now this is a classroom setting, but we plan to have online classes in the future.

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Diversity News

Tackling Bias Within the Organizational Culture

I used to love watching “The Apprentice”, a television show where contestants vie in an elimination-style competition to work for Donald Trump as the president of one of his companies.

Wikipedia says, “The show led Trump to become known for his fateful catch phrase ‘You’re Fired!’.” In fact, over an 11-year period, the broadcast became a U.S. television sensation with interna-tional licenses in Africa, Asia, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Russia, Spain and the U.K., to name a few.

While the show was entertaining at best, Mr. Trump’s latest antics are not amusing. In fact, the Donald Trump for President Campaign has seized a very dangerous platform. Business Insider reports that Trump “sent out an epic three page, 881 word statement on Monday afternoon detailing his belief that “the worst elements in Mexico are being pushed into the United States by the Mexican government.” Trump asserts that Mexicans coming to the U.S. are rapists, illicit drug runners, and infectious disease carriers. The problem is that some Americans do not properly distinguish between illegal immigrants and the larger majority of law-abiding Hispanic citizens. This is

why Trump is number two in the polls among a field of 16 Republican candi-dates.

Bias is already rearing its ugly head in the 2016 Presidential campaigns. Yet, CNN writer Ana Navarro asserts that outrageous and offensive behavior is hardly new for Trump, as he “has been leading the birther movement against President Obama and frothing at the mouth against immigrants for years.” What is even more interesting is an article in The Daily Beast entitled, “Trump Tower Was Built on Undocu-mented Immigrants Backs”.

Unlike some things that are rela-tively easy to fix within an organiza-tion, bias can be a systemic, and often silent, people problem that is difficult to identify and just as hard to correct. Bias can be defined as “unreasonably hostile feelings or opinions about a social group; a tendency or inclination, particularly one that prevents unpreju-diced consideration of a question.”

In any workplace, bias can manifest between managers and employees, headquarters and field office staff, cus-tomers and employees, or citizens and immigrant workers. With the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, it’s pos-

sible for gays to be suspicious about Christians, or Christians to be distrust-ful of gays.

Distrust, caused by bias, creates an uncomfortable culture, where individ-uals mistake other people’s motives and intentions. Social research indi-cates that bias can manifest itself in several ways:

Cultural bias is the phenomenon of interpreting and judging phenomena by standards inherent to one’s own culture. Examples of cultural bias pertain to color, location of body parts (e.g., right hand dominant), mate selec-tion, concepts of justice, standardized testing, acceptability of evidence, and taboos.

In-group bias refers to a pattern of favoring members of one’s in-group over out-group members. This can be expressed in evaluation of others, in the allocation of resources, and in many other ways.

The opposite of in-group bias is out-group bias, where, by inference, out-group people are viewed more negatively and given worse treatment.

In-group linguistic bias is where out-

Leah SmileyBy Leah Smiley

May/June 2016 meamagazine.com•Minority Enterprise Advocate 98 Minority Enterprise Advocate • meamagazine.com May/June 2016

group people are described in abstract terms (which depersonifies them) when they conform to the out-group stereotype. Out-group people will be referred to in more specific, concrete terms when they act in unexpected ways.

Unconscious bias refers to a bias that we are unaware of, and which happens outside of our control. It is a bias that happens automatically and is triggered by our brain making quick judgments and assessments of people and situa-tions, influenced by our background, cultural environment and personal experiences.

In “Workplace Diversity: What is Unconscious Bias & How to manage it?”, Sahar Andrade explains that unconscious bias “is a blind spot that requires a shift on how we think about other people that we perceive different. It is a belief or attitude in our heads. Bias is the very fundamental way we look at and encounter the world to make sense of the world around us. It is driven by the hard wiring pattern of making decisions about others based on what feels safe, familiar, likable, valuable and competent to us without us realizing it.”

Any kind of bias can cause organi-zations to miss opportunities because people will make decisions that are not objective, maintain practices that are not expedient, or foster a distrustful culture that will not lead to a compet-itive advantage. Here’s how you can eliminate and/or reduce these differ-ent types of biases within your organi-zation.

Ensure transparency. Examine decision-making, social networking, policies and procedures to determine where bias might exist. Make com-parisons against similarly situated organizations, and share your findings with stakeholders. Frequent commu-nication about sensitive issues implies openness.

Seek multi-dimensional feedback. Don’t just ask one Black person, or one Gay person, or one Woman, whether bias exists. Obtain multiple perspec-

tives to gain deeper insights about whether your business environment is fair, inclusive and impartial.

Build Trust. Consistently making small changes over time is more effec-tive than sweeping interventions that have no long-term strategy for sustain-ability. Also, leading by example is a powerful tool for building trust.

Create opportunities to build relationships across differences. Discourage the formation of cliques via the in-group/out-group phenomenon. Encourage more people to become active bystanders by challenging stereotypical information and behaviors. Additionally, form dynamic workgroups comprised of different people (managers and employees, field office and headquarters staff, various departments, etc.). Nevertheless, establish a formal process for handling team conflict.

Provide organization-wide incen-tives for change. You must establish “what’s in it for me?” in order for peo-ple to really want to change. Perhaps you can tie outcomes to bonuses, raises or promotions. Or maybe you can

link better performance with diverse groups to coveted assignments.

Encourage self-awareness. We all have biases, and owning up to and talking about our biases is a part of the solution. Encourage employees to explore biases during training exercis-es or coaching sessions.

Don’t blame, or shame, others when bias is acknowledged. Personal growth cannot occur when people are fearful of making mistakes. Create a “safe place” for people to acknowledge their own mistakes without being judged or disciplined.

Tackling bias is NOT easy. Nor is it an overnight success. However, the more education you acquire about this topic, the better equipped you will be to handle bias and reap significant rewards for being proactive.

Leah Smiley is the President of the So-ciety for Diversity. For more information about the Society for Diversity, log onto: www.societyfordiversity.org.

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May/June 2016 meamagazine.com•Minority Enterprise Advocate 1110 Minority Enterprise Advocate • meamagazine.com May/June 2016

Business News

Masala Chai and Global STEM Diversityby Julie Kantor, CEO of Twomentor, LLC. with A. Crosser

Taking a short break from an amazing NGO Leadership Summit put on by Center for Social Leadership and Sevalaya last week in Chennai, India,

I decided to walk the halls of Anna Technological University and look for some tea with milk and cardamom. I met a man and his wife on an alumni gathering and he shared how dramati-cally things have changed.

“When I went to school here in 1963 just two out of one thousand engineering students were women,” he said.

I cringed as I have spent the last four years hearing stories of isolation from many female engineers and computer scientists. “But walking around today, it’s filled with young women. Now, over 60% of the students are female,” he shared. “That’s the biggest change.”

“Progress,” I said with a beaming smile, but then thought of the Ameri-can Association of University Women report Why So Few, that shows only 12% of engineers are female in the US and we know women computer sci-ence majors have been on a significant decline in the past few decades... “Less progress,” I thought to myself with a slump.

With the turn of the century has come a flood of bright young minds

looking to break into the fields of Science, Technology, Engi-neering, and Medicine (STEM), hoping that through their life’s work, they may find new inno-vations in the most important fields through research and development. Around the world STEM fields are growing, partially due to the rise of importance in computer science and engineering. Although the growth of these fields has meant the fulfillment of big dreams for many, many others continue to look in from the outside.

Historically, STEM fields have been known to be the least diverse, with those employed typically being male Asians and Caucasians. In the United States alone, only 24 percent of STEM positions are filled by women, with African-Americans and Latinos com-bined making up less than 15% of the field’s workers.

In more promising news, many companies around the world have taken deeper notice of the issue, and are beginning to find solutions which will better promote diversity in the workplace. One angle is to increase flexibility, needed for working fami-lies and this came up a lot in discus-sions with many women especially around childcare. A executive from Sevalaya shared with me a front page

article that Deloitte just announced that women employees will now be receiving 26 weeks of paid maternity leave in an attempt to decrease the turnover as well as encourage more young women to apply at the compa-ny. Several other employers such as EY, PWC and KPMG, have all noted that they will also be moving to a 26 week maternity leave as well up from the country’s typical 12 week mater-nity plan. These companies efforts in India are setting an excellent example for other employers worldwide to in-crease diversity through offering more family friendly policies.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook also put a real stake in the ground when he took a few months off after the birth of his daughter. This is a time where the workforce is looking for work-life integration more than work-life balance and flexibility is paramount.

In addition to these companies making efforts to encourage long-term employment for their female work-force, many initiatives are being taken in the United States to help encourage

young women to pursue careers in the STEM fields. The U.S. Government has committed to increase the number of available STEM educational opportu-nities as well as to “broaden participa-tion to inspire a more diverse STEM talent pool.” In addition, the New York Academy of Sciences’ are doing their part to inspire young women with several programs which will work to encourage more high school students to pursue STEM careers. For example, their 1000 Girls - 1000 Futures program aims to give one-on-one mentoring for each student in hopes that it will encourage these young women to pursue careers in STEM after college. Lockheed Martin teamed up with Girls Inc. and are scaling their mentor-ing program in 12-15 US cities.

Diversity Rates Worldwide

Most of the data being discussed so far pertains to diversity rates in STEM fields across the United States, however many other countries around the world share the low numbers and often a low pipeline of candidates. For example, in the United Kingdom it is said that only 6 percent of math pro-fessors are women, while 42 percent of math majors are women. After college, many women either pursue jobs in non-STEM fields or simply have trou-ble finding jobs in the field.

Despite the bleak numbers of diver-sity coming from some of the world’s largest STEM hubs, some countries and regions are making significant progress in employing women and minorities in technical positions. For

example, in Latin America, over 45 percent of scientific researchers are women, putting them far ahead of the world average of 29 percent.

Much like Latin America, India is also becoming known as one of the greatest places for women to find ca-reers in STEM fields. Over 30 percent of programmers in India are women, compared to only 21 percent in the United States. In addition, nearly 50 percent of STEM students are women in India, and between 35-40 percent of all STEM jobs are held by women. This gap is often attributed to the large number of female role models work-ing in STEM fields in India. It is also said that tech fields are not considered to be masculine careers in India, which likely lends hand to the higher propor-tion of women workers.

As in India, women in China are finding themselves more often em-ployed in STEM careers than women in the United States. In a recent an-nouncement by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, it was stated that one third of its partners are female, with similar rates being found in their general employment numbers. To put that number into perspective, Cali-fornia-headquarter Google states that only one in twelve of its partners are female.

I sip the last drops of Masala Chai watching four young engineering stu-dents pass me by in purple and wine color Saris with ornate gold embroidery and the smell of fresh Jasmine in their hair. I think of our host former Tata Consultancy Services executive, Murali Sevalaya who opened a school for child laborers and now has 2,000 beautiful children enrolled with robust STEM training and more. On his “spare time” he and his team assembled top non-profit leaders from all over India for the conference run by CSL’s Anthony Silard (very proud of my older brother!) on Leading with Head, Hand and Heart. Big discussions ensue on how the best leaders lead, and how they create an empowering culture based on trust, empathy, and pas-sion to better retain their employees while driving significant change for good.

Julie Kantor is the CEO of Twomentor, LLC a management consulting firm that provides mentor training, strategy and global speaking to elevate women and millennials in STEM.

“When I went to school here in 1963 just two out of one

thousand engineering students were

women,”

S T E M

12 Minority Enterprise Advocate • meamagazine.com May/June 2016

Business News

Criminal Justice Reform Snagged in Campaign PoliticsBy Dee Hunter, Urban News Service

Planned reforms to federal drug and sentencing laws that im-prisoned many African-Ameri-cans have become locked up by election-year politics.

“The cost of incarceration and a growing awareness of the problems with mandatory minimum sentences have created a diverse coalition calling for reforms,” said Kevin Ring, of Fami-lies Against Mandatory Minimums.

Reform supporters span civil rights advocates, law enforcement organiza-tions, numerous federal judges, con-servative groups and even Republican stalwarts, the Koch Brothers. Eighty percent of American voters support ending mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses, according to a Febru-ary Pew Charitable Trusts poll.

President Obama has made this issue a priority. He issued an executive order in January to prohibit solitary confine-ment of juveniles. He discussed crim-inal justice reform in his latest State of the Union address, and pardoned 95 federal inmates at Christmas. He also became the first president to visit a

federal prison.Several relevant bills enjoy broad

bipartisan support in Congress. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved

the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015 by a 15-5 vote last October.

Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced this legislation, which enjoys 28 Senate co-sponsors. “Our sentencing bill is a compromise that shows that senators from both sides of the aisle can come together to address a serious problem in a reason-able and responsible way,” Grassley said.

Traditional crime fighters and crim-inal-justice reformers debate whether drug offenders are violent. Thirty-five percent of drug offenders in federal prison had minimal criminal histo-ries and no previous imprisonment, according to the Bureau of Justice Sta-tistics. However, BJS also reports that 25 percent of drug offenders also used weapons in their most recent offenses.

Senator Ted Cruz (R – Texas) voted against the bill. As amended, it provides “leniency for violent crimi-nals who use guns and gives lighter sentences to criminals already serving time,” he said before the Judiciary Committee.

“That claim is false and does not fac-tually line up with the reality of who is behind bars in our federal prisons,” said Senator Cory Booker (D-New Jer-sey) in response to critics who say the bill would free violent criminals. “Each case must also go before a federal judge, with the prosecutor present for an independent judicial review.”

Grassley’s measure addresses several stringent sentencing provisions that have helped swell the federal prison population over the past 30 years. It would repeal the “three strikes” law that requires a mandatory life sentence without parole for anyone with a third conviction on drug or violent-felony charges. Instead, the bill creates a man-datory 25-year sentence.

This legislation retroactively applies a 2010 sentencing-reform provision that reduced the disparity between crack and powder cocaine penalties. This change alone would let about 6,500 prisoners petition the courts for release or reduced sentences. Grass-ley’s bill also includes juvenile-justice reforms and language to help former

prisoners transition back into society.Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mc-

Connell (R-Kentucky), facing pressure from tough-on-crime Republicans, has not said whether he will allow a vote on Grassley’s proposal. “Our system of justice is not broken,” former U.S. attorney general John Ashcroft wrote last month in a letter to McConnell, signed by 40 high-ranking former law-enforcement officials. “Mandatory minimums have caused a dramatic reduction in crime.”

Reform advocates do not consider Grassley’s legislation the major over-haul of mandatory-minimum sentenc-es for which they long have fought, saying his bill does not go far enough.

“It’s a Goldilocks reform bill. It’s not too much. It’s not too little. But it’s bet-ter than nothing,” said Nkechi Taifa of the Open Society Policy Center. “There was a time when this looked like a slam dunk…It was the right issue at the right time. Now it is not so clear.”

This bill only applies to the federal justice system, where about 200,000 inmates are held. This is just 8 percent

of the 2.5 million Americans confined to state prisons and local jails.

While the Senate’s path remains clouded, the measure has a brighter future in the House. Legislators and reform advocates consider Speaker Paul Ryan (R- Wisconsin) an ally in overhauling sentencing and drug laws. Ryan said he supports all the measures that have cleared the House Judiciary Committee. “We will schedule floor time for them,” Ryan told journalists at a recent Capitol press briefing.

Until then, reformers sound as impa-tient as ever.

“All there has been is talk, and more talk,” said civil rights leader Barbara Arwine. “Action is long overdue. Mass incarceration threatens many of the gains we fought for in the Civil Rights Movement. It’s time for a vote.”

“The cost of incarceration

and a growing awareness

of the problems with

mandatory minimum

sentences have created a

diverse coalition calling for

reforms,”

May/June 2016 meamagazine.com•Minority Enterprise Advocate 1514 Minority Enterprise Advocate • meamagazine.com May/June 2016

NATIONAL MINORITY SUPPLIER DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL HONORS LEADERS IN SUPPLY CHAIN DIVERSITY

On Wednesday, May 18th, the 2016 Nation-al Minority Sup-plier Development Council Leadership Awards recognized

the dynamic corporate executives, minority business owners and NMS-DC affiliate council presidents for outstanding leadership that has a positive impact on their companies and resonates throughout the NMSDC network. David Ushery, co-anchor of NBC 4 New York’s weekday 5:30 newscast, was Master of Ceremonies. The black-tie gala event, attended by 1,400 at the New York Hilton, included dinner and a ceremony to present the honorees.

The National Minority Supplier De-velopment Council (www.nmsdc.org) advances business opportunities for certified minority business enterprises and connects them to corporate mem-bers. To meet the growing need for supplier diversity, NMSDC matches its more than 12,000 certified minori-ty-owned businesses to our network of more than 1,750 corporate members who wish to purchase their products,

services and solutions. NMSDC, a unique and specialized player in the field of minority business enterprise, is proud of its unwavering commitment to advance Asian, Black, Hispanic and Native American suppliers in a global-ized corporate supply chain.

According to President Joset Wright-Lacy of NMSDC, “Leadership is not easy to define, but

it is an essential element in achiev-ing success and inspiring others to maximize their potential. A leader establishes a vision, sets direction and provides the guidance needed to reach a goal.

Leadership is about passion in pur-suit of that vision, in service of others, not oneself.”

This year, the Corporate Catalyst Award honoree was Ms. Shaleta Dunn, who is responsible for Supplier Diversity and Diverse Talent Initia-tives at ManpowerGroup of Milwau-kee, Wisconsin. ManpowerGroup believes in the power of connecting people with jobs and purpose. They rely on their diverse suppliers who have the knowledge, capacity, and capability to help find the best talent

to meet clients’ needs. The award honors a corporate member with five to ten years’ experience in a corporate supplier diversity role. The recipient demonstrates exceptional leadership while engaging internal and external peers in support of NMSDC’s mission. “I aspire to inspire others the way they inspire me. I aspire to raise other leaders…” says Ms. Dunn.

The MBE (Minority Business Enter-prise) Catalyst Award was presented to Ms. Azra Khalfan, Chief Executive

Corporate News

David Ushery, Emmy Award-winning TV anchor, Emcee of Black-Tie Gala Event at New York Hilton’s Grand Ballroom

Officer of Signs & Lucite Prod-ucts, which was founded by her parents. The award goes to the owner of a minority busi-ness enterprise (MBE) who has been actively engaged within the NMS-DC network for five to 10 years. The recipient is a change agent who has demonstrated exceptional leadership in guiding their company to success, and shared their knowledge and wis-dom with peers as a mentor. “My one word that I have is ‘vision,’” according to Ms. Khalfan. “Taking those small steps has taken me farther than I ever imagined.”

The Corporate Trailblazer Award is presented to an innovative corporate leader whose pioneering spirit paved the way for the creation of robust sup-plier diversity processes throughout a career that spans 10 to 20 years. This influential leader serves as a mentor for other supplier diversity profes-sionals. Their impactful leadership in supplier diversity has left an indelible

mark on their colleagues and peers. This year’s honoree was Ms. I. Javette Hines, Senior Vice President, Sup-plier Diversity and Sustainability for Citigroup Inc. Ms. Hines is passionate about her work in the supply chain, and reminds us to “remember that who you say you are is also reflected by how you treat others. Those themes are central to who I am and try to be.”

The MBE Trailblazer Award recog-nized Ms. Bonnie Nijst, President and Chief Executive Officer of ZEESMAN Communications, an award-winning brand strategy, marketing and design firm. The award honors the owner of a minority business enterprise (MBE) whose pioneering spirit has laid the foundation of success for other MBEs throughout the NMSDC network. For 10 to 20 years, this leader has estab-lished impactful programs, initiatives

or collaborations designed to help their MBE peers achieve greater success. This in-novator is also an influential leader at the affiliate

level within the NMSDC network. “It’s an honor to be recognized by the National Minority Supplier Develop-ment Council and to be part of this important organization,” said Nijst. “The work we are doing on inclusion has opened doors and broken down barriers for minority business owners in the greater Los Angeles area and across the country. I look forward to continuing our work to create a positive business environment for all entrepreneurs.”

The Corporate Clarion Award recognizes a corporate leader who has trumpeted the value of minority supplier development for more than 20 years. Through words, action and leadership, this corporate executive issued a strong, clear and distinct call for full support of and engagement in minority supplier development as

Joset Wright-Lacy with Azra Khalfan

May/June 2016 meamagazine.com•Minority Enterprise Advocate 1716 Minority Enterprise Advocate • meamagazine.com May/June 2016

Business News

an absolute business imperative for establishing and maintaining success in the global supply chain. This year’s honoree was Mr. George Ehrgott, Senior Manager, Strategic Sourcing, Sustainability and Supplier Diversi-ty for Communications Test Design, Inc., an independent communications and high-tech repair service provider. Mahatma Gandhi’s words inspire Mr. Ehrgott: “A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.”

The MBE Clarion Award honors an inspirational minority business leader with an established record of success for more than 20 years. Their achieve-ments place them firmly among the elite class of minority suppliers and provide a platform to tout the value of minority suppliers to the global cor-porate supply chain. This individual demonstrates an unwavering commit-ment to minority supplier develop-ment through leadership roles within the NMSDC network. This year’s hon-oree was Mr. John W. Rogers, Chief Executive Officer of Ariel Investments, LLC, who takes inspiration from leaders who “understood the impor-tance of using business to uplift their communities. They understood that

leadership was about creating the next generation of great leaders.”

CPO of the Year Award was pre-sented to Ms. Farryn Melton, Senior Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer, Bristol-Myers Squibb Compa-ny. The award goes to an outstanding leader whose vision, passion and in-tegrity have proven impactful within the CPO’s corporation as well as the larger supplier diversity community. Ms. Melton’s 20-plus-year career in procurement includes positions with Amgen, Novartis, Pfizer, Warner-Lam-bert, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Boeing and Rockwell International.

The Robert M. Stuart Leadership Award, named for Robert M. Stuart, the founding chairman of the Board of the Directors of the National Minority Purchasing Council (later renamed NMSDC), is presented to a leader who has invested their time, energy and passion to advancing opportunities for Minority Business Enterprises in Corporate America. This individual is recognized for their overwhelming support and generosity that elevates the entire NMSDC network. This year’s honoree was Ms. Harriet R. Michel, NMSDC’s former President for 22 years, who has worked for 50 years in the public sector developing

and managing programs that address major social concerns.

In addition to the above awards, the Vanguard Award is presented to an NMSDC affiliate council president who has exhibited leadership in driv-ing the value proposition for minority supplier development among corpo-rate and MBE constituents throughout the NMSDC network. The recipient is announced publicly for the first time at the Leadership Awards ceremony. This year’s honoree was Ms. Beatrice Louissaint, President and CEO of the Florida State Minority Supplier De-velopment Council, who has helped shape state-wide policy for minority business advancement. Ms. Louissaint has received many awards and recog-nitions for community service, in-cluding her recent induction in Miami Dade College’s Hall of Fame, being listed as one of The 100 Most Influ-ential Black People and Miami-Dade County’s Women’s Leadership Award.

The Corporate Co-Chair for the 2016 Leadership Awards was Toyota, the MBE Co-Chair was GEP, and the Corporate Plus Co-Chair was World Wide Technology. MetLife was the VIP reception sponsor. Black Enterprise was the media partner for the event.

May/June 2016 meamagazine.com•Minority Enterprise Advocate 1918 Minority Enterprise Advocate • meamagazine.com May/June 2016

BUSINESS NEWS

THE BOTTOM LINE: CELEBRATING THE MINDS OF INVENTORS

I wish I had paid more attention in science classes in high school and college. I was the student who daydreamed in class, crammed for the test, and avoid-

ed the laboratory. Now as a senager, I truly regret my past behavior. I cringe when I open directions for a house-hold devise that has more than three steps. I search for products that are easy-to-assembly: no tools required. In a world that depends on technology, I am mentally exhausted from running to catch up with every new system or application.

Technology is the driver of the future and innovation is inherent in the minds of inventors. I have a deep admiration for inventors and their vision. Inventors are entrepreneurs who believe that their ideas will change the world. Inventors see the possibilities and not the barriers; the glass is always three-quarters full and never loses content. Inventors produce goods and services that add value to the quality of life in our society. When inventors commercialize their ideas, jobs materialize for the local commu-nity and the world.

Listed below are a few of the noteworthy inventions from African-Americans in the 20th century.

1. Bessie Blount: Blount, a graduate of Union Junior College, invented an electrical device that would deliver one mouthful of food at a time to a patient in a wheelchair or in a bed.

2. Mark Dean: Dean, an IBM engineer, helped to design the first personal computer and the ports to allow speakers and monitors. He received a PhD in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

3. Lonnie Johnson: Johnson, an aerospace engineer invented the Super Soaker, a popular summer water toy. Johnson graduated from Tuskegee University.

4. Marretta I. Johnson. Johnson received a patent for the Total Travel Baby Bag, a diaper bag with a built-in bottle warmer, storage cooler, garment bag, and soiled garment pouch. She received a business degree from DeVry University.

5. Gerald A. Lawson: Lawson create the first interchangeable cartridge for gaming systems such as PlayStation and X-Box. His business model allows game system firms to earn unlimited income from game

cartridges after the game system purchase. He graduated from Queens College.

6. Ashley Scott, PhD: Scott, a University of Texas graduate, launched new applications for nan-otechnology, creating processes that enhance fabrics with nano-fibers to improve water resistance, change col-ors, or increase absorption.

STEM (science, technology, engi-neering, and math) is the platform for a sustainable civilization and a successful career. Truly, the evocative slogan for the United Negro College Fund,” a mind is a terrible thing to waste”, has universal application and a unique connotation for Black youth. We elders must support our youth in STEM disciplines to improve the quality of life on earth in the future. We must encourage young minds to dream, and dream boldly without the limitations of time, space, or financial resources.

Information retrieved from afri-can-americaninventors.org

JUSTASKIRIS! Your Source for Sound Business Advice

By Iris A. Cooper

Iris Ann Cooper

Mark Dean: Bessie Blount

Gerald A. Lawson

IBM PC

Super Soaker

nano-fibers

May/June 2016 meamagazine.com•Minority Enterprise Advocate 2120 Minority Enterprise Advocate • meamagazine.com May/June 2016

lending sources threatened its very survival to a thriving suite of firms with the resources, not only to fund its own operations, but to target and acquire other businesses as well.

As the commercial arm of a feder-ally-recognized tribal nation, MEL shares in the tribe’s sovereign immune status. In order to off-set the risk for loss posed by sovereign immunity to lenders, MEL was required to pay above-market interest rates and accept more stringent borrowing terms than typical borrowers. O’Berry personal-ly guaranteed loans made to MEL to keep the business afloat. He imposed strict limits on overhead spending, and used the savings to pay down the company’s debt and make MEL more attractive to lenders. He developed business relationships with larger firms who, in turn, provided MEL with references of credit-worthiness to their own funding sources. He trans-formed the company from an opera-tional support contractor to a provider of professional services in order to

yield higher margins and accelerate debt reduction. Finally, he established a superior record for timely loan re-payment, and, gradually, larger loans were made available to MEL. None of

this was fast; certainly none of it was easy. What it was, was disciplined, deliberate, and effective. (“Success,” O’Berry is fond of saying, “is not an

accident.”) Above all, it showcased the persistent blending of the personal and the professional that characterizes O’Berry’s distinctive leadership style. His abject investment in the success of his company raises the stakes for ev-eryone employed by it, and creates a culture of pride, loyalty, and account-ability that makes that success all the more attainable.

Discipline Tempered with Flexibility

The same discipline O’Berry brought to expanding MEL’s access to capital guides his approach to entrepreneur-ship generally. In his view, what is worth creating, is worth preserving. So, when you build a business, you build it for long-term viability. In practical terms, this means crafting a well-articulated five-year plan and sticking to it. It means tending to infrastructure: human resources, information technology, and finance. It means remembering that diversi-ty gives you options, and extending yourself accordingly to add new products, new service lines, and new

For small, tribally-owned businesses trying to establish themselves in the American marketplace, success can be both elusive and fleet-

ing. It has been neither for Mandaree Enterprises, LLC (MEL) and its CEO, Clarence O’Berry. Now, in its 26th year of operation – 23rd with O’Berry at the helm – MEL has grown from a fledgling reservation-based operation with a total of five employees and one customer into a dynamic family of twelve companies with over 450 employees, operations in 26 U.S. states and overseas, and a highly diverse customer base. It supports over a doz-en federal agencies and installations, as well as all four uniformed services. The services MEL provides are as varied as its federal customers. They include logistics, project management, training and professional staffing support, construction, sustaining en-gineering, corrosion control, military exercise planning, facilities manage-ment, healthcare claims processing, bulk fuel hauling, shuttle bus services, and equipment sales and leasing, among others. MEL has also made a concerted push in recent years for commercial diversification to reduce its companies’ reliance on the federal

marketplace, and to increase their creditability and sustainability after SBA graduation. In assembling MEL’s commercial options, O’Berry has placed a premium on heterogeneity, as the current slate of offerings attests: real estate and franchise sales, busi-ness marketing services, manufactur-ing, and an e-commerce and branding platform for the products of indepen-dent artisans. Thinking broadly and creatively about commercial diversi-fication has served O’Berry extremely well: MEL’s commercial revenue has grown from a trace amount in 2012 to a full 20% of total calendar-year reve-nue in 2015.

Yet, with all this expansion in the federal and commercial marketplaces, MEL remains immovably rooted in the Fort Berthold Reservation where it began, and profoundly invested in the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Na-tions whom it serves. MEL’s funda-mental mission of providing the tribes with enduring economic development and meaningful career opportunities on and off the reservation is one of the few things that haven’t changed over the years.

Making Growth Happen

MEL’s road to success was littered

with the same obstacles that con-front virtually any reservation-based enterprise at the outset: lack of access to working capital, geographic iso-lation, and exclusion from majori-ty-culture business networks. That MEL has managed to clear them all is a testament to the potent combi-nation of business savvy and raw determination O’Berry has brought to the job. He has both a passion and a talent for reframing the traditional liabilities of tribal ownership – real and perceived - as unique business assets that can be leveraged to advan-tage in the 21st-century federal 8(a) and commercial marketplaces. MEL owes much of its growth to O’Berry’s dogged pursuit of federal contracts that prioritize minority ownership. Of course, certain challenges of tribal en-trepreneurship are inherently resistant to reframing. They simply are what they are, and O’Berry doesn’t waste any time mourning them. Rather, he approaches them head-on, unflinch-ingly, methodically, and with all the resources he can muster. This is how MEL went from a small tribal business whose limited access to traditional

Mandaree Enterprises CEO, Clarence O’Berry, Shows How Far Tribal Business Can Go

Clarence O’BerryCEO

By Jennifer Colosimo

(“Success,” O’Berry is

fond of saying, “is not an

accident.”)

May/June 2016 meamagazine.com•Minority Enterprise Advocate 2322 Minority Enterprise Advocate • meamagazine.com May/June 2016

efits of stability and continuity that good working relationships confer. Long-term business relationships, like any sound investment, generate both security and interest. Well-chosen ex-ternal partners introduce best practic-es, access to capital, and tested strate-gies for increasing revenue. Internally, O’Berry runs a remarkably “flat” organization. While there is a clear chain of command in place to main-tain order and efficiency, the divisions between supervisors and subordinates are kept porous enough to facilitate the open, regular communication that engenders rapid, judicious action. O’Berry works closely and collabora-tively with his employees, cultivates their talents, supports them, and lets them know they are valued. He makes a point of listening more than he speaks, and has no qualms about losing his fair share of arguments. Through his humility, his profession-alism, and his unwavering loyalty to the company and the people who make it run, O’Berry commands rather than demands resect. Business, to his mind, is a team sport, and he earnest-ly advises aspiring entrepreneurs to make a priority of assembling the right team. “Everything,” he has learned, “is easier when you surround yourself with talented people.” At a time when American business culture has become increasingly nomadic, O’Berry has demonstrated a remarkable knack for keeping his people around. He has made MEL a place to stay; a place to build and spend a satisfying career.

When Hard Work Doesn’t Go Unrec-ognized

While dedication to the job is meant to be its own reward, external recog-nition is nonetheless gratifying. Both MEL and O’Berry have garnered numerous accolades over the past two decades. MEL has claimed the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development’s distinc-tion of “Tribal Enterprise of the Year” (1997, 1999, 2002); the U.S. Depart-ment of Defense’s Nunn-Perry Award (1999, 2000); the SBA’s Administrator’s Award for Excellence (1998, 2001); Northrop Grumman’s “Star Supplier”

(1999, 2000, 2012) and “Top World Class Team” (2005) awards; and the North Dakota Indian Business Asso-ciation’s “Tribal Enterprise of the Year (2014). Clarence O’Berry has been named to the Minority Network Asso-ciation’s list of “25 Powerful Minority Men” (2008) and the Minority Busi-ness and Professional Network’s list of “50 Influential Minorities in Busi-ness.” Already in 2016, he has been selected by the U.S. SBA North Dakota District Office for the rarely bestowed “Entrepreneurial Success Award,” and honored as a “Technology Business Executive” by MEA. With his charac-teristic focus on collaboration, O’Berry has chosen to accept these awards “on behalf of his team.”

Mandaree Enterprises, LLC is an SBA 8(a)-certified, Native American business owned and operated by the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota. Clarence O’Berry is an enrolled member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Sioux Tribe.

customers. Throughout its existence, MEL has never stopped growing, and it has never stopped changing. Products and services are added and dropped as opportunities present themselves, as contracts begin, and as they end. When MEL opened for business in 1990, it was as the Manda-ree Electronics Corporation. At that time, MEL had a single product, elec-trical assemblies and wire harnesses for military weapons systems, and a single customer, its corporate mentor company through the U.S. Depart-ment of Defense Mentor-Protégé Pro-gram sponsored by the U.S. Air Force: the Northrop Grumman Corporation. In 2014, after nearly 25 years in opera-tion, the electrical assembly and wire harness facility was shuttered, and MEL manufacturing brought to an ap-parent end. Many new lines of busi-ness had led to exponential growth in

the meantime, but the foundational business had simply outlived itself. Yet, as things change, they can easily change again for an enterprise that remains open to new opportunities. A year after the closure of the Fort Berthold manu-facturing facility, MEL acquired an operation for the production of military- and com-mercial-grade tactical gear and accessories. Its signature prod-uct - a light-weight, customizable ballistic vest - has already garnered MEL a wide commercial, mu-nicipal, and federal customer base. Addi-tionally, MEL’s newly acquired capabilities with hook and loop technology helped se-cure it a coveted con-tract with the emerg-ing “Stop the Bleed” initiative through the Department of Home-

land Security. MEL supplies “Stop the Bleed” with custom-designed bleeding control kits for a blanket distribution to educational institutions and local governments nationwide. Thus, while

one door has closed, several others have opened. This sensational re-turn to the manufacturing arena has abundantly rewarded MEL’s ability to change and adapt in tandem with its growth.

Here again, O’Berry’s own ap-proach, with its conspicuous melding of rigor and flexibility, informs the corporate culture. He firmly believes, for instance, in the vital importance of drafting and adhering to a strong five-year plan, yet openly recognizes the need to treat even the most well-con-ceived plan as a living document subject to occasional amendment and reinterpretation. While such apparent-ly contradictory notions may seem to prompt accusations of erraticism, they are reflective of anything but. Gen-uine flexibility in business requires tremendous discipline. Success all too easily invites complacency and aversion to risk. Long-term planning can generate the comforting illusion of control while, in fact, steering the enterprise toward self-inflicted obso-lescence. Long-distance vision can reveal itself as myopia. O’Berry con-tinually pushes himself and his staff to embrace change, seek innovation, and adapt for lasting success. These are no mean feats, but they are ones best tackled the way MEL team does: together.

A Personal ApproachO’Berry understands the importance

of relationships in business. Among other things, he appreciates the ben-

“Everything,” he has learned, “is easier when you surround

yourself with talented people.”

24 Minority Enterprise Advocate • meamagazine.com May/June 2016

International News

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“MORE THAN THE CONSCIENCE OF THE CONGRESS – THE CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS (CBC) MAKES IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF LIFE FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS A PRIORITY”

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Corporate Council on Africa Elects New Chairman of the Board

Dr. Sturchio succeeds Paul Hinks, Founder and CEO of Symbion Power, one of the most prolific American power sector

firms in the generation, transmis-sion and distribution industry, with an established presence throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Mr. Hinks, who was elected in 2012, was an active Chairman of the Board who champi-oned a more proactive presence on the continent. Under Mr. Hinks’ leader-ship, African companies became the fastest growing group within CCA’s membership.

Dr. Sturchio takes the helm at a dynamic time for the organization. “It’s a privilege to chair the CCA Board. Africa is a continent full of possibilities – from the expansion of infrastructure, power and ICT, to the new energy and creativity of a growing middle class. CCA’s member companies have an opportunity to collaborate with countries to realize the vision of a stronger, more dynam-ic Africa. I look forward to working closely with my fellow Board mem-bers, Steve Hayes and the capable CCA staff to enhance our work with members in the U.S. and on the Conti-nent to realize those possibilities.”

CCA recently acquired the Africa Travel Association (ATA) in January. It

also hosted its 10th biennial U.S.-Afri-ca Business Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which brought together more than 1,400 CEOs, business leaders and high-ranking government officials from 49 countries, making it the largest U.S.-led event in Ethiopia.

This year, CCA will take a record number of trade missions to the con-tinent and will host two major con-ferences. In September, it will host its U.S.-Africa Infrastructure Conference in New Orleans and in November, for the first time under CCA’s aegis, ATA will host its 41st Tourism Congress in Kigali, Rwanda. CCA is committed to continue earning its reputation as the leading U.S. business association focused solely on connecting business interests in Africa.

Dr. Sturchio is also the chairman of the BroadReach Institute for Train-ing and Education and a member of the boards of ACHAP, Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS and the Museum of AIDS in Africa. Dr. Stur-chio is currently a visiting scholar at the Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health and the Study of Busi-ness Enterprise at The Johns Hopkins University; Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; a principal of the Modern-izing Foreign Assistance Network; a Fellow of the American Association

for the Advancement of Science; a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Arthur W. Page Society; and an advisor to amfAR, the Clinton Global Initiative, Intrahealth International and the NCD Alliance.

The Corporate Council on Africa is the leading U.S. business association focused solely on connecting business interests in Africa. Established in 1993 to promote business and investment between the United States and the na-tions of Africa, the Corporate Council on Africa serves as a neutral, trusted intermediary connecting its member firms with the essential government and business leaders they need to do business and succeed in Africa. The Council’s membership represents nearly 85 percent of total U.S. private sector investments in Africa. They represent a diverse pool of industries from Africa’s most promising sec-tors, including agribusiness, energy, finance, health, ICT, infrastructure, se-curity, tourism and trade facilitation.

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DENVER: OPEN FOR BUSINESS WHY THE MILE HIGH CITY MAY BE THE BEST KEPT SECRET FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN ENTREPRENEURS

MICHAEL HANCOCKMAYOR OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF DENVER

THE HAMILTONCOLLECTIONDENVER, COLORADO

May/June 2016 meamagazine.com•Minority Enterprise Advocate 2726 Minority Enterprise Advocate • meamagazine.com May/June 2016

out these core questions, you can craft the story about your organization. This is effectively what the brand is. Once you know the narrative in words, you can hire designers to inter-pret the brand via your website, logo, social media posts, case studies about constituents, videos, etc.”

Riemer, a former vice president of marketing at Yahoo! has shaped stories and brand for start ups, estab-lished corporations, and nonprofits. We enjoy checking in with him for inspiration and confirmation. Our recent conversation focused on the challenge of defining a niche. Orga-nizations often resist focusing on an ideal client or customer – those who will benefit most from your organi-zation. But unless you can articulate the main character, you’ll have a hard time telling a clear story!

“Once you identify your core audi-

ence, you will find people who sit on the shoulders of the core who aspire to the core audience. Those who aspire to your core audience can be visualized as outlying concentric rings.”

We love that image. Defining your unique niche allows others to “aspire” to your core audience. Now that’s different from exclusion!

Contact Riemer at davidariemer@yahoo.com or check out his storytell-ing course at http://www.avanoo.com/davidriemer.

Copyright 2016– Mel and Pearl Shaw For more fundraising and nonprofit management suggestions visit www.saadandshaw.com. When you are ready to work with fundraising counsel call us at (901) 522-8727.

What Is Your Brand?

Business News

Mel and Pearl Shaw

Discussions of branding can quickly turn to logos, colors, web updates and a social media presence. Are those your brand, or

are they expressions of your brand? We believe they are brand expressions and that your brand isn’t as neat and tidy as a logo. Your brand should be what comes to mind when people think about your organization. The simplest way to get there is to ask yourself, “what’s our story?”

Defining your brand (or story) can be a messy process. For many nonprofits it brings up dreams and unanswered questions. It’s emotional, because the leaders of your organi-zation often have different ways of thinking (and talking) about who you are and where you are going. Getting there should involve a group process that engages diverse constituents – you shouldn’t just hand it over to an outside specialist.

When we work with our clients, we focus first on the “case for support.” While this is a technical fundraising term – often confused with a case

brochure – we take our clients through exercises that range from defining their unique niche and projected impact to what it would cost to truly implement their mission and vision. The conversations may start slowly but eventually they get heated. The greatest challenge is always defining that niche. No one wants to “close the

doors” to opportunity. But you need to know your niche in order to tell your story – and at its heart – that’s what brand is all about.

A colleague of ours, David Riemer, shared his perspective on how to think of your brand as a story. “Any good story begins with a protagonist; so an organization has to first identify who it serves. Next, you need to think about what makes them tick and what challenges they face. Any good story has a big conflict that the main char-acter has to overcome, and likewise, organizations need to articulate the main problem they solve for their core constituents. Then you talk about how you uniquely help them overcome this challenge, again, just like a charac-ter in a story. ‘We help the character improve their lives in these ways ... and this is what makes our organiza-tion different from other organizations who do similar things.’ Once you sort

“Once you identify your core

audience, you will find people who

sit on the shoulders of the core who

aspire to the core audience. Those

who aspire to your core audience

can be visualized as outlying

concentric rings.”

Have you thought about branding – or rebranding – your nonprofit, college, or even your business? Is branding about a logo or something deeper?

By Mel and Pearl Shaw

May/June 2016 meamagazine.com•Minority Enterprise Advocate 2928 Minority Enterprise Advocate • meamagazine.com May/June 2016

Business News

DEBATE RAGES OVER TV’S FUTUREIt’s a spirited debate: Would minorities benefit if online video could stream through their set-top TV boxes?

By Josh Peterson, Urban News Service

Bob Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Tele-vision, says yes. A range of minority advocacy groups say no. Both Mr. Johnson and

people on the other side of the debate have commercial interests that align with their views.

At issue is a proposal by Federal Communications Commission Chair-man Tom Wheeler to allow cable television subscribers to access their preferred online content alongside their cable content through the set-top box, which they now typically rent monthly from their cable providers.

If the proposal passes, you could go online or into a store like Best Buy and pay a single price for a single device that would offer access to your favorite cable programs — as well as a host of streaming channels (although you’d still have to pay for programming in many cases).

For cable providers like Comcast, the move could mean a possible loss of nearly $20 billion per year in rental fees to an industry already reeling from the trend of customers abandon-ing cable in favor of streaming devices such as Apple TV and Chromecast.

For cable customers, however, it could mean a big annual savings on set-top box rental fees, as well the abil-ity to search and compare program-ming choices across more than 500 cable and streaming channels.

The proposal is strikingly similar to the debate over telephones more than 40 years ago, when consumers could rent phones only from Ma Bell – the old American Telephone and Telegraph monopoly. Proponents see freeing the set-top box as opening the door to the same kind of innovation that created cellphones.

Wheeler’s office states that a typical consumer’s set-top box rental fees

amount to $231 annually, having risen 185 percent since 1994, while the cost of mobile phones has dropped by 90 percent.

Johnson, who recently launched the Urban Movie Channel, an online streaming company for diverse and African-American audiences, sees the proposal as a win — not just for minority consumers but for minority programming not carried by cable.

“I want an open forum for every mi-nority or independent producer who wants to produce content,” he said in an interview with Urban News Ser-vice. “And I’m willing to compete with my content channels” — Urban Movie Channel or Acorn TV (which streams British programming) — “with whoev-er comes along and programs to get to the consumer.”

President Barack Obama and several Congressional Black Caucus members also support the proposal.

But opponents say that if cable TV providers lose the money people are paying to lease their boxes, they would have less money to pay minori-ty channels such as BET and TV One for subscribers.

Alfred Liggins, chairman of TV One and president and CEO of Radio One, told Urban News Service in a statement that the proposal, known as “Allvid” regulations, is “nothing more than a sweetheart deal for Big Tech, letting companies like Google strip-mine the value of our work for their profit.”

“Niche and minority-focused net-works like TV One could be relegated to the remote reaches of the channel guides, or buried at the bottom rung of search results — depriving audienc-es of diverse viewpoints and threaten-ing the very survival of networks like ours,” said Mr. Liggins, who launched

the Future of TV Coalition in opposi-tion to the proposal.

Wheeler’s statement said the new structure would encourage minority programmers to innovate.

“When it’s easier for content cre-ators to reach consumers, we would expect this to lead to more and better programming accessed more easily, especially minority, independent and international programming,” said the chairman’s proposal.

But major African-American, Asian-American and Hispanic-Amer-ican organizations — such as the NAACP, National Action Network, National Urban League and the Rain-bow PUSH Coalition — doubt FCC assertions that copyright and privacy protections will remain the same under the new arrangement.

Evan Swarztrauber, communi-cations director of the think tank

TechFreedom, said minority organiza-tions are in part worried that the tech companies poised to win in an open system are the same companies that have yet to show a commitment to diversity in hiring or content. And so minority groups have joined in com-mon cause with cable companies.

“They’re very concerned, and that’s why they’re teaming up with the com-panies to oppose it,” he said.

Johnson said he understands the opposition from cable programmers.

“It’s a natural instinct,” he said. “If you’ve got a channel that targets a certain group, do you want 10 chan-nels targeting that same group? You’d want to keep your monopoly hold over that audience.”

Bob Johnson Alfred Liggins

Vs

May/June 2016 meamagazine.com•Minority Enterprise Advocate 3130 Minority Enterprise Advocate • meamagazine.com May/June 2016

Shumaker Report

“What? Did you see who won that small business set-aside procure-ment that we bid on and lost? Those guys aren’t small. No way!”

Did you ever feel that way when you saw who won the business you lost? Of course you know you can

file a protest, but everybody knows that protests are very expensive and take a LOT of work.

Size standard protests are different. For other protests, you have to allege that the agency that you want to do business with, did something wrong in their evaluation. You aren’t really challenging your competitors; you’re challenging the people that you want to become your customer. In a size standard protest, you have to allege that your competitor isn’t really eligi-ble to win, usually based on informa-tion that the contracting officer would have no reason to consider.

In fact, most agencies want their small-business business to go to truly small businesses. If another company has deceived them by misrepresenting size, the customer usually wants to know about it.

If you bid and didn’t win for any reason other than your size, you’re el-

igible to submit a size protest. (Note: A question that often comes up relates to the eligibility of your subcontractor to submit a size protest. The answer is no. Only a company who submit-ted a proposal as a prime is eligible to protest.)

If you submit a size protest, you need some level of evidence that there is a potential violation, but the gov-ernment will do extensive research on what you submit, basically working to “make the case.” They will have access to data that you won’t, such as filed income tax returns of the com-pany in question, so the decision isn’t based entirely on what you submit.

Before you start, it is important that you understand the nuances of size determination and affiliation. Dollar size thresholds are based on a three-year average, so if the standard is $7 million and you’re sure the company in question made $10 million last year, check further. They might not have exceeded the size standard if their three-year average is still less than the $7 million standard.

If you’re looking at a size standard that is measured in number of em-ployees, it’s a running 12-month aver-age, not the number of employees they had on the last day of last month.

The issue of affiliation enters into the determination. Size eligibility is based on the size of the independent small business. If a company is a division of a larger company, the size determination is based on the total revenues of the two affiliated compa-nies. For example, if the bidding com-pany is a $7 million division of a $50 million company, the size determina-tion would be based on total revenue of $57 million.

Another tricky area is the so-called ostensible subcontractor rule. If a small business prime has a large business subcontractor, by itself, that doesn’t make them affiliated. If, in spite of their claims, the relationship of the two companies makes the small business prime contractor dependent on the subcontractor to the point where it cannot independently control the contract, it might create an affilia-tion that would cause the total reve-nue of both companies to be counted to size determination purposes.

“Ostensible” mean that the larger company appears to be the subcon-tractor, but isn’t really. Unfortunately, there’s no hard and fast rule that de-termines when a subcontractor is only ostensibly so. The decision is made based on the totality of this situation,

Size Standard Protests -“Those Guys Aren’t Small!” By Gary Shumaker

Gary Shumaker

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Gift Tax Basics Shumaker Report

By Walid Petiri

but if two or more of the following are in play, then the two companies might really be affiliated for size standard determination purposes:

• Division of work. Normally, the small business prime is expected to do at least 51% of the work. In a case that is close to the line, the type of work the prime does (hopefully substantive work) in comparison to the type of work the subcontractor does (hope-fully less substantive work) might be looked at also.

• Management. The prime has to manage the work. If a project man-ager who is not an employee of the prime contractor is proposed, it may be interpreted as an indication of lack of control.

• Relative Experience. The prime should be capable of performing pri-mary and vital contract requirements. Not necessary all of the primary and vital requirements, but at least some of them.

This can be extended to an evaluation of dollar value. If it’s a $25 million contract requirement, and the largest thing the prime has every demonstrat-ed its ability to manage is a $1 million contract, this may be an indication that the sub is an ostensible subcontractor.

• Bonding, financing and equipment. The small business prime must be ca-pable of meeting these requirements.

• Terms of the Teaming Agreement. A Teaming Agreement prepared on the subcontractor’s letterhead would raise a question and demand a closer look.

• Incumbency. Hiring the incumbent as a subcontractor is not problemat-ic in itself, but it might make other factors be more closely reviewed. This is particularly true if the incumbent subcontractor had become too big or otherwise ineligible to re-compete on his own.

• Proximity to the job site. If the prime contractor’s closest facility is 1000 miles from the place of performance and he has no history of performance in that area, and the subcontractor’s facility is very near the place of perfor-mance, it might trigger consideration of whether management of the effort might be delegated to the ostensible subcontractor.

• Proposal Preparation. If the subcon-tractor manages the proposal prepara-tion process, or if he plays an unduly large role in the proposal preparation, if the proposal is prepared at the sub-contractor’s facility, or if he leads the proposal review processes, it may be indicative of undue reliance.

• Proposal Terminology. Use of the work “team” to describe the prime and subcontractor does not necessarily indicate undue reliance. However, the proposal should differentiate, where appropriate, between the firms. The presence of both companies’ logos on every page might be interpreted to indicate undue reliance.

• Profit Sharing. Profit sharing, while not definitive by itself, might be in-

terpreted as an element of affiliation. A prime and a sub who share profits might have to defend it, however.

• Hiring of subcontractor’s rank and file employees might be interpreted as an indication that the prime is giv-ing up his authority to hire and fire employees to an affiliated company. While this practice is often practiced, the prime must defend is right to uses incumbent subcontractor employees as a pool that he can select those that meet his requirements from, not as automatic hires.

Small business set-aside acquisitions should go to small businesses, and small is measured by such metrics as three-year average revenue and number of employees, but with the ostensible subcontractor rule, these are not the only metrics. An unsuccessful prime does not run the risk of alleging improprieties on the part of his poten-tial customer that he does with other protests. This type of protest might be worth pursuing if there is a “sort of good” case for it.

Of course, it works both ways. Any bidder’s proposal is subject to the same kind of scrutiny, and you want to ensure that you’re not vulnerable to the same faults!

Gary E. Shumaker is the founder and senior consultant for Gary E. Shumaker,

Inc. He has spent 20 years inside government and nearly 25 years in the in-dustry as an executive, business developer, chief operating officer and chief executive

officer for multiple small companies in the federal contracting market. He helps small companies develop the intellectual infrastructure to succeed in the federal

marketplace. For more information, visit garyeshumaker.com.

If you submit a size protest, you need some level of evidence that

there is a potential violation, but the

government will do extensive research

on what you submit, basically working to

“make the case.”

Financial News

The federal government impos-es a substantial tax on gifts of money or property above certain levels. Without such a tax, someone with a sizable

estate could give away a large portion of their property before death and escape estate taxes altogether. For this reason, the gift tax acts more or less as a backstop to the estate tax. Yet few people actually pay a gift tax during their lifetime. A gift program can sub-stantially reduce overall transfer taxes; however, it requires good planning and a commitment to proceed with the gifts.

Advantages of Gift GivingYou may have many reasons for

making gifts - some people have personal motives, others are motivat-ed by tax considerations. Many want their gift-giving program to meet both personal and tax-planning objectives. Reasons for considering a gift-giving plan include:

• Assisting someone in immediate financial need

• Providing financial security for the recipient

• Giving the recipient experience in handling money

• Seeing the recipient enjoy the gift• Taking advantage of the annual

exclusion• Paying a gift tax now to reduce

overall taxes• Giving tax-advantaged gifts to

minors

Gift Tax Annual ExclusionPerhaps the easiest way to

reduce the size of your taxable estate is to make regular use of the gift tax annual exclusion. You may give up to $12,000 each year to as many persons as you want without incurring any gift tax. (Con-gress has now indexed this gift level to inflation; however, the figure will rise only in increments of $1,000.) If your spouse joins in making the gift (by consenting on a gift tax return), you may (as a couple) give $24,000 to each person annually without any gift tax liability.

Unlimited Gift Tax ExclusionIn addition to the $12,000 exclusion,

there is an unlimited gift tax exclusion available to pay someone’s medical or educational expenses. The beneficiary does not have to be your dependent or even related to you, although pay-ment of a grandchild’s expenses is a common use of the exclusion. You must make the payment directly to the institution providing the service -- the beneficiary himself or herself must not receive the payment.

Gift Programs and Your EstateUse of the gift tax exclusion in a

single year may not affect your estate tax situation significantly, but you can reduce your taxable estate substantial-ly through a planned annual program of $12,000 gifts ($24,000 if you are married). All gifts within the exclusion limits are protected from federal estate taxes.

In addition to reducing the size of your estate, another major tax advan-tage of making a gift is the removal of future appreciation in the property’s value from your estate. Suppose that you give stocks worth $50,000 to your children now. If you die in 10 years and the stock is worth $130,000, your estate will escape tax on the $80,000 apprecia-tion even though you pay a gift tax on your next tax return.

To learn more about gifting strate-gies and how they can play a role in your tax and estate planning, contact us to schedule a consultation. We’ll be happy to help.

Material discussed is meant for general illustration and/or informa-tional purposes only and it is not to be construed as tax, legal, or investment advice. Although the information has been gathered from sources believed to be reliable, please note that individual situations can vary therefore, the in-formation should be relied upon when coordinated with individual profes-sional advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Diversifica-tion does not ensure against loss.

Source: Financial Visions, Inc.

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Automotive News

The 2017 Cadillac XT5 is a signature vehicle that embodies brand’s stand in the luxury market, and it will help grow the transformation that ≠is taking place with

Cadillac. The company has made attempts before, but its competitors are relentless. Mercedes, Lexus, BMW, and Audi are dominant.

Crossover utility vehicles -- where the new XT5 will compete -- have captured the imagination and the wallets of U.S. buyers. In 2015, sales of sedans were down about 11 percent, while sales of trucks and SUVs soared. Total crossover sales increased by 15 percent year-to-date from February 2015, while large cars decreased almost 60 percent.

We drove the XT5 recently and duly noted its great driving dynamics, a design anchored in the front by a sculpted hood and elegant vertical LED headlamps and all-around excellent proportions. The interior roominess and comfort, the overall

craftsmanship heralded by the cut and sewn leather applications, and the open center screen that holds the navigation, technologies, and audio system amplify Cadillac’s seriousness about living up to the figure of speech it inspired: “It’s the Cadillac of....”

What we as consumers care about, in the end, is the product. Does it live up to expectations? Was the purchasing experience a black hole or a great customer experience? Do we love it once we own it?

As with everything, including the bones of this new Cadillac, it is the underlying structure that produces the desired end result. That goes for the structure of the XTS, as well as the company that builds it. The new XT5 is 278 pounds lighter than the current SRX, and 100 pounds lighter than the Audi Q5 -- despite the Cadillac being 7 inches longer. The new XT5 is more than 650 pounds lighter than the Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class, achieving this with no compromise to body rigidity and crash performance.

It is powered by a new 3.6-liter V-6 engine, which debuted earlier this year on the Cadillac ATS and CTS sport sedans and is featured on the CT6. This engine enlists cylinder deactivation technology, allowing the engine to seamlessly and automatically switch to a fuel-saving four-cylinder mode under low or moderate loads. It delivers 310-horsepower and 271 lb.-ft. of torque and is equipped with stop/start technology.

As for the company, there is testament that this will not be another grandstanding on the part of Cadillac that doesn’t meet its mark. We have already witnessed that Cadillac isn’t following the General Motors party line. Cadillac has moved its company headquarters from Detroit to New York City’s trendy, hip, Tribeca neighborhood. As a veteran reporter on the auto beat I want to imagine the discussions that went on in Detroit when that was proposed. In Tribeca, Cadillac is neighbor to some

2017 Cadillac XT5: Cross Touring

BY KATE McLEOD

major luxury brands, and its new headquarters in New York City are bold, contemporary, and built for the brand.

As for product expansions, look for a XT3 or XT7 to follow the XT5 in coming years, giving consumers a choice between compact and three-row choices. Cadillac hasn’t confirmed these new products, but has said it will introduce 11 new products by the end of the decade. Cadillac is also putting its nomenclature into a new arrangement: All crossovers going forward will be labeled XT and all cars will be CT (as with the new CT6). Except perhaps the one outlier, the Escalade.

The motivator behind these big moves is Johan De Nysschen. He has spent his career in the luxury market, recently at Audi and Infiniti. He intends to build a stronger foundation for Cadillac by building brand awareness.

“We aren’t going to build a

business by analyzing sales figures every month. We’re focusing on the quality of the brand,” he said.

Cadillac has already increased the transaction prices substantially on the CTS by more than $8,000. And ATS transaction prices grew by over $2,000. These increases represent

features the customer wants. It is an entirely different approach to the product than discounting by incentives. It creates a much stronger organization.

Another example of how the brand is getting stronger is that it has reduced its supply from 138 days to 48. That is in line with the luxury market and a huge improvement.

Cadillac may be the smallest brand within General Motors, but it is the one with the greatest name recognition. The company, the product group, the marketing group, the dealers are all being schooled in a measured, detailed approach to bringing Cadillac back to its original glory. The true test is when you, the

customer, enters the dealership and considers Cadillac, perhaps for the first time, or perhaps again after a long time.

Kate McLeod, Motor MattersCopyright, Motor Matters, 2016

“We aren’t going to build a business by analyzing sales figures every month. We’re focusing on the quality of the brand,”

The first-ever 2017 Crossover Touring 5 (XT5) is a comprehensively upgraded luxury crossover and the cornerstone of a new series of crossovers in Cadillac’s ongoing expansion. The XT5 is the next chapter in elevating the Cadillac brand: it is bold, distinctive, sophisticated with superb driving dynamics.

May/June 2016 meamagazine.com•Minority Enterprise Advocate 3736 Minority Enterprise Advocate • meamagazine.com May/June 2016

For 2016, Buick Enclave focuses on providing more connectivity than ever with the introduction on OnStar 4G LTE and a standard built-in Wi-Fi hotspot

that provides a mobile hub for drivers and passengers to stay connected all of the time. The hotspot allows passengers to connect up to seven personal devices such as smartphones, laptops and tablets to high-speed wireless Internet whenever the vehicle is on.

Signature design elements on the 2016 Enclave, such as sculpted styling and a black-chrome waterfall grille, are distinctly Buick. Complementary features including signature wing-shape LED lighting and monochromatic paint schemes accented with chrome, contribute to the Enclave’s premium appearance, along with large 19- and 20-inch wheel designs.

Inside the Enclave, high-quality materials and the intuitive technology of Buick IntelliLink set the tone for luxury. Rich, saturated tones and contemporary color combinations enhance Enclave’s sense of style. An exclusive Dark Plum interior color, for example, offers a higher degree of visual warmth. It is complemented by the soft feel of Nuance sandstone leather, with characteristics similar to leathers used in premium home furnishings.

Enclave finds its power in a 3.6L V-6 engine featuring fuel-saving direct injection technology and continuously variable valve timing, matched with a six-speed automatic transmission. Direct injection helps the engine produce 288 horsepower and 270 lb-ft of torque with good efficiency. EPA fuel economy estimates are very competitive with other three-row crossovers and utilities.

Base model estimated mpg: 17/24Estimated starting price: $40,000 Compiled by Motor Matters

Automotive News2016 BUICK ENCLAVE

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Automotive News

Once again, Hyundai is holding a winning hand with the introduction of its all-new 2017 Elantra

sedan. The previous-generation Elantra

surprised some when it was redesigned and won the “2012 North American Car of the Year” title, beating the Volkswagen Passat and Ford Focus. The Elantra was a fresh, youthful face in the competitive compact class with flowing body lines that Hyundai called “fluidic sculpture.” That, and a long list of amenities, propelled total sales to 913,042 from 2012 through 2015.

Now Hyundai looks to consolidate its winnings by offering a more mature looking, even mainstream design. Most striking, the new Elantra features a large, bold hexagonal grille, along with LED taillights and running lights.

It maintains compact dimensions.

The 2017 model is less than an inch longer than its predecessor and exactly an inch wider. But clever packaging results in a total of more than 110 cubic feet of interior volume, with 96 cubic feet for passengers and 14 cubic feet of trunk space. That classifies it as a midsize car according to the EPA, though it is marketed as a compact.

The interior room becomes apparent as soon as you get inside. There’s decent head and knee room in back for two 6-footers without infringing on the driver and front passenger. However, despite a nearly flat floor, the center rear passenger is relegated to a hard, high cushion.

Despite its intended audience of buyers with modest incomes, the 2017 Elantra -- starting at $17,150 -- delivers a host of available features usually associated with premium and even luxury cars. Among them:

-- Automatic emergency braking

from up to 50 mph with pedestrian detection.

-- Adaptive cruise control that maintains a preset distance from the car ahead.

-- Lane departure mitigation with steering assist.

-- Blind spot detection and rear cross traffic alert.

The base Elantra SE is the only model that offers a six-speed manual gearbox. There was no opportunity at the introduction to drive that version but if the stick shift is similar to the one on the previous Elantra, it’s a sweetheart.

The model tested for this review was the top-line Limited with a starting price of $23,185. With optional Tech and Ultimate packages, the tester topped out at $27,710. The level of equipment was not unlike that of a premium-priced car.

It included all of the aforementioned safety and

convenience equipment, plus leather upholstery, navigation system, Harman/Kardon audio system with satellite and HD radio, Pandora, Bluetooth telephone, Android and Apple car play, motorized sunroof, heated front and rear seats, lighted outside door handles, and memory settings for the power driver’s seat and outside mirrors.

The Elantra engine delivers 147 horsepower and 132 lb.-ft. of torque from 2.0 liters of displacement. Power travels to the front wheels through an easy shifting six-speed automatic transmission. With a slippery 0.27 coefficient of drag, the city/highway/combined fuel consumption is rated at 28/37/32 mpg.

Unusual in this car class are Eco, Normal, and Sport driving modes. In the normal and Eco modes, the Elantra delivers a comfortable ride. Eco maximizes fuel economy, and the Sport mode tightens the steering and adjusts transmission shifting to provide more power at low engine revolutions, as

well as more rapid acceleration. In the Sport mode, the acceleration

is not snappy but it is adequate for stoplight sprints and passing on two-lane roads. However, the Sport mode delivers tighter and more responsive performance on twisting mountain roads. The six-speed automatic also can be shifted manually.

Later, Hyundai plans to introduce two other Elantra models, starting with the Eco, which offers a new, 128-hp, turbocharged 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine mated to a seven-speed twin-clutch automatic transmission. A brief drive in a pre-production model demonstrated quicker mid-range throttle response than with the 2.0-liter engine.

An upcoming Sport model will feature a 200-hp, 1.6-liter engine with

the seven-speed dual-clutch automatic. With cars like the 2017 Hyundai

Elantra and the new 2016 Honda Civic, it’s easy to understand why the compact class is holding its own in the face of an onslaught from the popular compact crossover utility vehicle segment.

All-New for 2017: Hyundai Elantra

The all-new 2017 Hyundai Elantra features a bold aerodynamic design, a comprehensive suite of safety features, modern interior styling with class-above features, and a number of user-friendly technologies. It continues to be one of Hyundai’s all time best-selling models, known for its significant value advantage in a highly competitive compact car segment. Starting at $17,150 the new Elantra is priced $100 less than the award-winning model it replaces and offers two new efficient powertrains for enhanced fuel economy, a better ride quality and improved noise insulation.

By Frank A. Aukofer, Motor Matters

SPECIFICATIONS2017 HYUNDAI ELANTRA LIMITED

VEHICLE TYPE_____________5-passenger FWD midsize sedanBASE PRICE________________$23,185 (as tested: $27,710)ENGINE TYPE______________Atkinson 4-cyl. w/MPIDISPLACEMENT____________2.0-literHORSEPOWER (net)_________147 at 6200 rpmTORQUE (lb.-ft.)_____________132 at 4500 rpmTRANSMISSION_____________6-speed automaticOVERALL LENGTH__________179.9 in.TURNING CIRCLE (curb-to-curb) 34.8 ft.CURB WEIGHT_______________2,976 lbs.FUEL CAPACITY______________14 gal.EPA MILEAGE RATING________28 mpg city, 37 mpg highway

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USDA Invests $103 Million in Vital Watershed Projects

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that the U.S. Department of Agricul-ture (USDA) is investing

up to $103 million in post-disaster re-covery and the rehabilitation of aging dams in 19 States.

“The Emergency Watershed Protec-tion program is vital to communities repairing damage and making im-provements to reduce future damage from natural disasters,” Vilsack said. “Since 2009, USDA has invested more than $647 million to help local govern-ments restore watersheds and protect communities from the aftermath of devastating natural disasters like Hur-ricanes Irene and Sandy and fires and flooding in the Southwestern United States.”

Funding through USDA’s Natu-ral Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), was announced by Assis-tant Chief Kirk Hanlin at an event in Mother Neff State Park outside Temple, Texas. In 2015, excessive rains overwhelmed the drainage systems of many communities and threatened, damaged or destroyed culverts, bridg-

es and roads. NRCS will invest more than $21 million to help Texas com-munities remove debris and stabilize streambanks to better protect drain-age canals, utilities and roads from future damage.

Overall, NRCS will invest $93 mil-lion in Emergency Watershed Protec-tion (EWP) Program assistance to help state and local governments carry out much needed recovery projects to ad-dress damage caused by floods, hur-ricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters. Approximately $59 million will be used in recovery projects in some of the hardest hit areas in Texas, Mississippi and Utah. About $34 mil-lion will assist projects in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Minne-sota, Missouri, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington, and Wyoming. A summary of proj-

ects by state is available on the EWP website.

Today’s announcement also in-cludes $10.4 million in Watershed Rehabilitation Program funding to help communities rehabilitate aging dams that protect lives, property and infrastructure like drinking water in rural communities downstream. Of this, $4.8 million will be used in Texas to complete the design and construc-tion of four watershed rehabilitation projects in Ellis and Williamson counties, and $3.7 million will be used in Utah for the construction of a dam project within the cities of Lehi and Highland. About $500,000 will be used to assess up to 25 aging dams nationwide this year.

USDA watershed projects provide an estimated $2.2 billion in benefits annually to local communities nation-

Government News

Programs to Protect Public Safety, Improve Critical Infrastructure in 19 States

wide. Since 1948, USDA has helped local governments construct nearly 12,000 dams in 47 states and Puerto Rico to help prevent flooding and erosion damage, provide recreation opportunities, improve water supplies for drinking and irrigation, and create habitat for wildlife.

Since 2009, USDA has invested more than $29 billion to help produc-ers make conservation improvements, working with as many as 500,000 farmers, ranchers and landowners to protect more than 400 million acres nationwide, boosting soil and air

quality, cleaning and conserving wa-ter and enhancing wildlife habitat. For an interactive look at USDA’s work in conservation and forestry over the course of this Administration, visit https://medium.com/usda-result

Pohick Creek Watershed Dam No. 3, Fairfax County, Virginia

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flow and management of water; and at the watershed and farm scales, tackle water issues related to agricultural production and environmental sustainability. Grants recipients include:

Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo., $2,400,531

University of Maryland, College Park, Md., $3,449,757

University of Montana, Missoula, Mont., $486,621

North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C., $484,990

Stockholm Environment Institute U.S., Davis, Calif., $484,764

University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Calif., $485,000

University of California, Riverside, Calif., $126,181

Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, Texas, $499,895

Pennsylvania State University, State College, Penn., $49,188

Universidad Metropolitana, San Juan, Puerto Rico, $50,000

Colorado State University

scientists will examine the impact of rapidly declining water levels of the Ogallala Aquifer in the Ogallala Aquifer Region and optimizing the use of groundwater to sustain food production systems, rural communities and ecosystem services. The University of Maryland will focus on the adoption of transformative on-farm solutions that enable the safe use of nontraditional water sources for irrigation water of food crops. More information about other projects can be found on the AFRI website.

Funded through the 2014 Farm Bill, the AFRI Water for Agriculture Challenge addresses critical water resource issues such as drought, excess soil moisture, flooding, water quality and related challenges in an agricultural context. Funding for this program will be used to develop management practices, technologies, and tools for farmers, ranchers, forest owners and managers, public decision makers, public and private managers, and citizens to improve

water resource quantity and quality.

NIFA’s integrated research and education programs, supporting scientists and extension personnel, have resulted in user-inspired, groundbreaking discoveries that are combating childhood obesity, improving and sustaining rural economic growth, addressing water availability issues, increasing food production, finding new sources of energy, mitigating climate variability, and ensuring food safety. Find out more online at www.nifa.usda.gov/impacts.

WASHINGTON, March 22, 2016 – In celebration of World Water DayThis

is an external link or third-party site outside of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) website., the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today awarded more than $8.5 million in grants that 10 universities will use to help communities improve water resource quality and quantity. In addition, the Department was tapped to serve as permanent co-chair of the National Drought Resilience Partnership, with the other co-chair rotating between six other agencies every two years; the Department of Commerce will serve as co-chair for the Partnership’s first two years.

“Access to a sufficient and safe supply of water is critical to our nation’s health and also to our economy, and we must act to protect this precious resource,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “The grants we are announcing today

are the latest of many steps USDA has taken to help communities who are struggling with water quality. Enhanced federal coordination through the National Drought Resilience Partnership will further support locally-led drought resilience projects to improve residents’ access to water and increase the effectiveness and sustainability of American agriculture.”

The National Drought Resilience Partnership (NDRP) was formalized by the Presidential Memorandum: Building National Capabilities for Long-Term Drought Resilience announced by the White House yesterday. NDRP builds upon the National Integrated Drought Information System and will better coordinate federal support for locally-driven drought-related efforts, helping communities reduce the impact of current drought events, and preparing for future droughts. Other NDRP agencies include the Departments of Defense, Interior, Commerce, Energy, Homeland

Security, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

NDRP is designed to help communities sustain and expand efforts to reduce their vulnerability to the impacts of drought. Drought affects millions of Americans and poses a serious and growing threat to the security and economies of communities nationwide. Responding to and recovering from past droughts has shown that focused collaboration across all levels of government and the private sector enables productive solutions that build regional resilience.

In support of this work, the 10 grants announced will support research, education, and outreach through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Water for Agriculture Challenge Area, administered by USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). The Challenge works with universities to develop regional systems for sustainable use, reuse,

USDA Awards $8.5 Million to Improve Communities’ Water Sources

Government News

Chrysler 300

Department Also to Serve as Permanent Co-Chair of the National Drought Resilience Partnership

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Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Announces Next Steps, Funding to Address Substance Abuse in Rural Communities

At the Operation UNITE Summit in Atlanta today, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a series of upcoming rural town halls as well as funding

rural communities can use to conduct health and safety outreach around prescription painkiller and heroin abuse. Opioids, including prescrip-tion painkillers and heroin, accounted for 28,648 deaths in 2014, and rural communities are affected at higher rates than urban communities. This is in part due to a lack of outreach and treatment resources available in rural communities, and this year USDA is expanding its Rural Health and Safety Education (RHSE) competitive grants program to give rural communities the opportunity to use funds for programs that will address the opioid epidemic.

In January, President Obama tapped

Secretary Vilsack to lead an interagen-cy task force focused on this specific challenge. Recent efforts have helped identify effective tools to reduce drug use and overdose, including evi-dence-based prevention programs, prescription drug monitoring, med-ication-assisted treatment and the overdose reversal drug naloxone.

“The opioid epidemic is a fast-grow-ing problem all across America, and we know that rural communities are facing an even higher burden than those in urban areas,” said Vilsack. “We’ve identified ways to use exist-ing resources to help rural towns and organizations address this challenge head-on and potentially save lives, and I look forward to meeting with community leaders to better under-stand how we can further support their efforts to create healthier, safer futures for families and individuals who may be struggling.”

Over the next several months, Vilsack will travel to New Hampshire, Missouri, Nevada, Mississippi and Appalachia to participate in town halls that will bring together local and state government partners, the health community, and other stakeholders to raise awareness of the issue and discuss possible solutions. Vilsack will encourage public and private organi-zations to commit to plans of action for their communities.

Additionally, USDA is making avail-

able $1.4 million through its Rural Health and Safety Education (RHSE)

Government News

competitive grants program. Admin-istered through USDA’s National Insti-tute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA), the program’s goal is to enhance the quality of life in rural areas through improved health and safety education efforts, including expanding the focus to address the critical challenges of substance abuse in rural communities across the nation. For the first time, USDA is encouraging ap-plicants to develop projects that specifically work to educate the public about opioid abuse and overdose. USDA will also consider projects that target other health outcomes.

Since 2009, NIFA has

awarded $10.6 million to the RHSE program for projects that support the health and safety needs of rural Ameri-ca. Fiscal year 2016 applica-tions to the RHSE program should focus on supporting projects proposing to scale-up existing, outcome-based extension programs in the area of individual and family health education to rural communities, state-wide or regionally across state lines. Programs that apply for RHSE funding in fiscal year 2016 can focus

on extension work in the realm of substance abuse, as well as nutrition and physical activity, healthy and safe homes, aging in place, as well as other behavioral health and human social topics.

Applications are due June 1, 2016.

More information is available in the online Request for Applications.

Past projects funded through the

RHSE program include an Oklaho-ma State University project that aims to improve healthy literacy among family and consumer sciences educa-tors, rural hospital discharge planners,

and family caregivers. A project from the University of Wisconsin seeks to increase cancer treatment education and access to services for rural resi-dents, while also forming coalitions to address rural health disparities.

Since 2009, NIFA has invested in and

advanced innovative and transforma-tive initiatives to solve societal chal-

lenges and ensure the long-term viability of agriculture. NIFA’s integrated research, educa-tion, and extension programs, supporting the best and bright-est scientists and extension personnel, have resulted in user-inspired, groundbreaking discoveries that are combating childhood obesity, improving and sustaining rural econom-ic growth, addressing water availability issues, increasing food production, finding new sources of energy, mitigating climate variability, and ensur-ing food safety. To learn more

about NIFA’s impact on agricultural science, visit www.nifa.usda.gov/im-pacts, sign up for email updates (link is external), or follow us on Twitter @usda_NIFA (link is external), #NI-FAimpacts (link is external).

“The opioid epidemic is a fast-grow-ing problem all across America, and we know that rural communities are facing an even higher burden than those in urban areas,” said Vilsack.

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Government News

products made by U.S. dairy compa-nies. We look forward to working with Secretary Vilsack and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to further explore this potential new market.”

Statement by Leigh Allen, Execu-tive Director, National Black Growers Council

“The National Black Growers Council (NBGC) is pleased that U.S. research & promotion boards will now be able to engage in an exchange with the Cuban growers and people to allow for dialogue and open information exchange. As an immediate neighbor of the United States of America, it is mu-tually beneficial that the strong agricul-tural industries in both countries share a common interest as it relates to food, fuel, and fiber of these commodities and their by-products. We commend the action and efforts of President Barack Obama, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and others such as the U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba for bringing this to fruition. I am encour-aged that the R&P boards, which in part has sustained American agricul-ture as a global leader, will now be able to be utilized by our counterparts in Cuba and vice versa. The NBGC looks forward to working closely with the R&P Boards and respective parties

within the Cuban Ag sector in the near future to achieve this goal.”

Statement by Roger Johnson, presi-dent, National Farmers Union (NFU)

“NFU fully supports the use of all tools available to normalize relations and fair trade with Cuba. As such, we appreciate AMS’ decision to allow checkoff programs to use their re-sources for the promotion of American agricultural products to a market of 11 million people just 90 miles away from American shores.”

Statement by National Grain and Feed Association

“The NGFA believes strongly in normalizing agricultural trade relations with Cuba, including arrangements under which Cuba can finance its pur-chases of U.S. agricultural products on normal commercial terms. While full normalization of trade ultimately will require congressional action, the steps announced today by Secretary Vilsack to promote cooperative research and information exchange activities with Cuba are another positive step forward along the journey to that ultimate des-tination.”

Statement by Brian King, Chairman

of the USA Rice Western Hemisphere Promotions Subcommittee

“The announcement today, like the White House announcements on liber-alized travel from last week, continues the momentum toward normalized commercial relations with Cuba. We are looking forward to a USDA presence at the U.S. Embassy in Havana.”

Statement by Devry Boughner Vor-werk, Chair, U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba (USACC)

“U.S. Agriculture Coalition is proud to be on the ground in Cuba in tandem with USDA continuing to forge indus-try to industry partnerships during President Obama’s historic visit. We applaud Secretary Vilsack for his lead-ership on advancing US-Cuba agricul-tural relations and are pleased that the two countries have signed a ground-breaking MOU in agriculture. We are especially pleased that farmer-funded checkoff dollars can now be used to facilitate relationships in country. USACC continues to support USDA’s efforts to place staff on the ground in Cuba.”

Food and Agriculture Groups Express Support, Optimism for New Opportunities in Cuba

Leaders from across the U.S. agriculture and food sectors are expressing support and optimism in new opportu-nities for collaboration with

their Cuban counterparts, announced during President Obama’s historic visit to the island. The two neighboring countries share common climate and agriculture related concerns, and the measures announced today in Havana will mutually benefit the Cuban people and U.S. farmers and ranchers.

While in Cuba with President Obama, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that USDA will allow the 22 industry-funded Research and Promotion Programs and 18 Mar-keting Order organizations to conduct authorized research and information exchange activities with Cuba. These groups represent U.S. beef, pork, corn soy and other commodities and are responsible for creating bonds with consumers and businesses around the world in support of U.S. agriculture. Following today’s announcement, they will be able to engage in cooperative re-search and information exchanges with Cuba about agricultural productivity, food security and sustainable natural resource management. Secretary Vil-sack called the announcement “a signif-icant step forward in strengthening our bond and broadening agricultural trade between the United States and Cuba.”

As food and agriculture groups con-tinue to review today’s announcement,

they expressed their support in the following statements:

Statement by American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall

“American-grown foods hold a clear competitive advantage in the Cuban marketplace, and the use of farm-er- and rancher-generated funds to promote and market U.S. farm goods fits the checkoff mission perfectly. This announcement by USDA represents a major boost in growing the Cuban mar-ket that sits just 90 miles off our coast. I want to personally thank USDA and Agriculture Secretary Vilsack for the support shown America’s farmers and ranchers in this matter.”

Statement by Joel G. Newman, Pres-ident & CEO, American Feed Industry Association (AFIA)

“AFIA is pleased with Secretary Vil-sack’s announcement today that USDA will allow Research and Promotion Programs and Marketing Order activ-ities in Cuba. This is the first step to the U.S. industry better understanding the Cuban market and to sharing vital information and expertise with Cuba on agriculture production. Once exist-ing regulatory and financial hurdles and restrictions have been lifted, this foundation of knowledge sharing and relationship building will serve in pro-viding greater opportunities for U.S. feed and pet food products to Cuba.”

Statement by Richard Wilkins, Pres-ident, American Soybean Association (ASA)

“Today’s announcement is a big step forward in terms of expanding the Cuban marketplace for U.S. soy. The important thing to remember about checkoff funds is that they’re farmer dollars--they belong to producers to do with as best they see fit to grow their industries. Because this is the farmers’ money, it’s only logical that we as farm-ers ought to be able to use it to expand whatever markets we see as the most promising for our individual commod-ities.”

Statement by Daryl Cates, Chairman, Illinois Soybean Growers

“This is great news. We really ap-preciate everything Secretary Vilsack and the USDA staff did to make using checkoff dollars in Cuba a reality. Cuba is an important market for Illinois soybean farmers and the livestock producers who use our soybeans. It’s vital that we collaborate on exchang-ing information about our product with Cuban government and industry officials. We look forward to advancing two-way trade with the Cuban people and fostering relationships.”

Statement by Connie Tipton, Presi-dent & CEO, International Dairy Foods Association

“Cuba is a natural market for the

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack with President of the Farmers Cooperative Abelardo Alvarez and Agriculture Minister of Cuba Gustavo Rodríguez Rollero outside a local farmers market in Havana, Cuba on Nov. 13, 2015. USDA photo by Lydia Barraza.

May/June 2016 meamagazine.com•Minority Enterprise Advocate 4948 Minority Enterprise Advocate • meamagazine.com May/June 2016

Government News

U.S. Transportation Secretary Foxx Announces Notice of Funding Availability for Infrastructure Projects

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx today announced the availability of credit assistance for critical infrastructure projects

across the country through the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program. Secretary Foxx encouraged states and cities across the country to submit letters of interest for direct loans, loan guarantees, and standby lines of credit through TIFIA as a result of the recently enacted Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act).

“The TIFIA credit program has a strong record of success in stimulating local economies and bringing critical transportation projects to communities that need them,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “This year,

the added flexibility and streamlined review process should make it easier for a variety of applicants to take advantage of the funding opportunities, and to bring significant infrastructure developments to their neighborhoods.”

The FAST Act authorizes $1.435 billion in capital over five years for the TIFIA credit assistance program. Historically, one dollar of TIFIA Program funds supported a TIFIA loan of approximately 14 dollars and resulted in infrastructure investment of up to 40 dollars, when taking into account other state, local and private sector investments.

A wide range of surface transportation infrastructure is eligible for TIFIA credit assistance, including highways, passenger and freight rail, public transit, intermodal

freight facilities, and international bridges and tunnels. The FAST Act expands eligibility to include transit-oriented development and the capitalization of a rural projects fund within a state infrastructure bank.

In addition, for eligible small projects, the FAST Act allows TIFIA to reserve funding to offset the fees charged to applicants by TIFIA for financial and legal services. Because of the flexibility provided by the TIFIA programs, many qualified, small-scale and large-scale projects that might otherwise be delayed or shelved can move forward quickly, providing an immediate boost to jobs while laying a foundation for continued economic growth.

To date, the TIFIA program has provided $22.7 billion in credit assistance to support more than

$82.5 billion in transportation infrastructure investments to help build 56 major transportation projects around the country. Updated information regarding TIFIA’s loan portfolio is available here.

DOT’s Build America Transportation Investment Center (BATIC), which was announced in 2014, has expanded TIFIA’s ability to meet the needs of the nation’s transportation system. BATIC serves as a single point of contact and coordination for states, municipalities, and project sponsors looking to utilize federal transportation expertise, apply for federal transportation credit programs, and explore ways to access private capital in public private partnerships (P3s). Since BATIC’s formation, DOT has closed over $8 billion in financing to support $21 billion in projects.

BATIC has also increased the number of non-traditional DOT credit program applicants, most significantly TIFIA-eligible inside-the-gate port projects. BATIC has facilitated interdepartmental coordination for mega-projects that need to access multiple DOT credit programs. It is also providing project finance capacity building resources for states and municipalities in conjunction with the BATIC Institute: An AASHTO Center for Excellence, which includes best practices papers, a P3 case study webinar series, and peer to peer exchanges on finance and development.

Additional information about the TIFIA program is available at http://www.transportation.gov/tifia.

FAST Act Increases TIFIA Program Flexibility

50 Minority Enterprise Advocate • meamagazine.com May/June 2016

Black History Heroes

©2015 Alzheimer’s Association. All Rights Reserved.

New problems with communication is 1 of the 10 warning signs of Alzheimer’s disease. Recognizing the symptoms is the first step toward doing something about it. For more information, and to learn what you can do now, go to alz.org/10signs or call 800.272.3900.

Lillian E. Fishburne (1949- ) Born in Patuxent River, Maryland, she is the first African-American woman to become a Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy. She was appointed by President Bill Clinton. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Lincoln University in 1971. She received a M.A. degree in management from Webster University in 1980 and M.S. degree in telecommunications systems man-

agement from U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in 1982. In 1994 she became the Chief of the Command and Central Systems Support Division for the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon.

Cathay Williams (1842-1892) A former slave, she was born in Independence, Missouri. She passed as a man using the name William Cathay and became the first woman to enlist in the Union Army on November 15, 1866. She was a Female Buffalo Soldier during the Civil War. She served as a cook and laundress during the war. She received a medical discharge in 1868. She relocated to Trinidad, Colorado and resumed living as a woman working as a nurse, cook and seamstress.

Helen Grey Edmonds (1911-1995) Born in Lawrenceville, Virginia, she received a Bachelor’s degree in 1933 from Mor-gan State University, in 1938 she earned a master’s degree from Ohio State. She was the first African-American woman to earn a PH.D. from Ohio State. She was a scholar, historian and a Repub-lican. She was the first Black woman to second the nomination for a candi-date for President of the United States,

Dwight D. Eisenhower, during the National Convention in San Francisco in 1956. She held various prestigious posi-tions in government and educational organizations.

Louis Lomax (1922-1970) Born in Val-dosta, Georgia, he was a journalist and author. He was the first African-Amer-ican television journalist. He earned a PH.D. in 1947 from Yale University. His career started as a journalist for Baltimore Afro-American and the Chicago Defender. He interviewed Malcolm X for a documentary on the Nation of Islam. He had a television show “The Louis

Lomas Show” that ran on KTTV in Los Angeles from 1964-1968. His show focused on controversial topics like Black

Panthers, Nation of Islam, the black power movement, and the Vietnam War.

Vernice Armour (1973- ) Born in Chicago, Illinois. She is the first Afri-can-American female naval aviator in the U.S. Marine Corps and the first Af-rican-American female combat pilot in the U.S. Armed Forces. She was a Cap-tain in the Marine Corps. She served in two tours in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. She is a member of the Mathe-matics Honor Society. She was ranked #1 in her class in 2001 as a pilot.

Philip B. Downing (1871-1961) Born in Ontario, Canada. He designed a metal box with four legs patented in October 27, 1891, called a street letter box, a present-day mailbox. He also patented an electrical switch for railroads allow-ing power to be shut-off on the trains. He moved to Madison, Wisconsin where he served as a Republican member of the Wisconsin State Senate in 1948, was

re-elected in 1952.

Samori Touré (1830-1900) Born in Milo River Valley, present day Guinea. He was a warrior king and empire builder. He resisted the French colonization of West Africa and fought the French. He had excellent military skills and had a very skilled Army. He became a mon-arch in 1874, where he established his kingdom in what is present day Gam-bia. He was the leader of the Muslim

empire from 1883-1887. He defeated the French between 1885-1889 and later made peace treaties with the French.

Sarah Parker Remond (1815-1894) Born in Salem, Massachusetts from a promi-nent black family. Her mother was born free and her father was from the West Indies. Her family was a very econom-ically secure people who owned hair salons and catering services in Canada. Her entire family were avid abolition-ists. She became a lecturer as early as age 16. Her speeches were on anti-slav-ery issues. She delivered a speech in

Liverpool, England in 1859 and later in Ireland and Scot-land. She was an agent for the Anti-Slavery Society. She settled in Italy in 1868 and was a trained physician. She never returned to the United States and is buried in Flor-ence, Italy.

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