I am currently the National Director of the National Business League’s National Black Supplier Development Program (NBSDP). Prior to this I was an Associate Professor of Marketing and a Professor of Entrepreneurship, Emeritus from Michigan State University. Throughout my academic career I have published numerous articles, authored two books, and was the Faculty Director for the Burgess Institute of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and the special advisor to the Provost on Michigan State University’s outreach efforts with southeast Michigan. I was part of a small team that took entrepreneurship at Michigan State University from being non-existent to being the fifteenth rated program in the country a decade later when I retired. I helped shape the nationally recognized NBSDP from its beginning, and now direct its growth. My course on Entrepreneurial Mindset has successfully run on the Coursera platform for six years. As founder and CEO of Carter & Associates Strategic Marketing I have consulted with numerous Fortune 500 companies, as well as small businesses, and worked with hundreds of minority and women entrepreneurs across mid-Michigan and the Midwest in the areas of market research for new product development, business model innovation, and customer creation models. My research in analytical methods for new product development was awarded by the Marketing Science Institute and the Academy of Marketing Science. I have also been awarded the Pillar award for Education by the Michigan Black Chamber of Commerce and the Richard J. Lewis Quality of Excellence award by the Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. Across my forty-year career I have devoted myself to teaching, inspiring, and assisting job creators and community builders.