PEMBROKE — Hilda Pinnix-Ragland, a senior Fortune 500 business executive and philanthropist, will serve as keynote speaker at spring commencement at UNC Pembroke.
The Graduate School will be held on Friday, May 13 and the undergraduate ceremony will be Saturday, May 14. Both ceremonies will be held on the Quad between Livermore Library and Old Main Pinnix-Ragland will speak at both ceremonies.
The ceremonies will be livestreamed on the university’s YouTube channel.
Pinnix-Ragland is well known for building best-in-class organizations that consistently achieve aggressive revenue and profit objectives. Most recently, she served as vice president of Corporate Public Affairs for Duke Energy and was the first African American woman to serve as a vice president at the company.
She previously served as vice president of Energy Delivery Services, vice president of the North Region and vice president of Economic Development for Progress Energy Inc. She was the first African American woman to serve as a vice president. She currently serves on the board of directors for RTI International.
Pinnix-Ragland earned an accounting degree from North Carolina A&T State University and a Master of Business Administration from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
She serves on the Advisors-8 Rivers Financial Capital board and is chair of the Board for N.C. Dental Services and vice chair of N.C. A&T State University Board of Trustees. Previously, she served as the national chair of the American Association of Blacks in Energy and on the Board of Trustees of the College Foundation of North Carolina.
