Louis Carr, president of media sales at Black Entertainment Television (BET), will serve as the keynote fall 2023 convocation speaker at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
The ceremony will take place at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 13, at the Desert Financial Arena in Tempe.
BET President of Media Sales Louis Carr. Courtesy photo
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Carr, who was recently inducted into the American Adversiting Federation (AAF) Advertising Hall of Fame, is an award-winning media executive who is credited with propelling BET Media Group to the No. 1 brand and choice for Black consumers. Under Carr’s leadership, the company has generated more than $10 billion in advertising sales while establishing strategic partnerships with global corporations such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever, McDonald’s, General Motors, Facebook and Apple.
The media company has cultivated the largest repository of information on Black consumers worldwide, which has enabled Carr to take a data-driven approach to creating content and messages that resonate with diverse audiences, enabling marketers to sell products and services while fostering corporate citizenship.
“Louis Carr is one of the most accomplished media executives and thought leaders in the industry. His leadership has allowed BET to become one of the most profitable networks in the country, and his service to the community has left an indelible mark on numerous professionals,” said Cronkite School Dean Battinto L. Batts Jr. “We’re excited to have Louis share his knowledge and experience with our students.”
Carr is also the founder of the Louis Carr Foundation (LCF), which promotes diversity in corporate America by providing paid internships to undergraduate students of color. The foundation has provided 270 paid internships, with 62 alumni securing full-time positions within the industry.
“I’m so excited to address the graduates at ASU on the day they receive the key to the stadium of life,” Carr said.
Carr works to inspire individuals striving for personal growth. He launched WayMaker, an initiative that aims to provide direction, wisdom and inspiration to individuals striving for personal growth and positive change.
The initiative includes the quarterly WayMaker Journal, WayMaker Men’s Summit and The Blueprint Connect Podcast, which aims to bring together high-profile thought leaders to educate and empower Black men in finance, health, careers, relationships and entrepreneurship.
Carr has written two books: “Dirty Little Secrets” and “Little Black Book: Daily Motivations for Business and Personal Growth.” His writings cover essential topics such as leadership, culture, strategy, vision, success and diversity.
In addition to being inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame earlier this year, Carr was awarded the Chicago Advertising Federation Silver Medal Award. He was recognized by theboardiQ, an organization that promotes the creation of inclusive boards and executive teams for businesses, as a Top 100 Hall of Fame African American. Savoy Magazine named him one of the Most Influential Black Corporate Directors.
Carr has served on the boards of the International Radio and Television Society (IRTS), the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB), the Advertising Council and the American Advertising Federation.
Carr attended Drake University on a full athletic scholarship and earned a Bachelor of Arts in broadcast journalism. He also serves on Cedar Fair’s Board of Directors, Drake University’s Board of Trustees and The United States Track and Field Foundation (USATF) Board.
Written by Carly Boots
When you think of the classics, the first things that probably come to mind are long literary works like the “Odyssey” and the “Iliad,” or perhaps the ancient Parthenon ruins; however, the field of study is so much more than that.
Studying classics not only helps us to understand the influence the ancient times still has in the modern era, but it can provide many skills important to a variety of careers. According to the career website Indeed, a degree in classics can hone skills in research, problem-solving, verbal and written communication, and critical thinking, and it can lead to such career opportunities as a journalist, museum curator, archivist, writer, translator or lawyer.
Professor Mike Tueller demonstrates to a group of students how to sacrifice a cow. Photo courtesy the School of International Letters and Cultures
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To demonstrate this, professors at Arizona State University’s School of International Letters and Cultures recently engaged K–12 students at the school’s annual Classics Fall Forum, an outreach event for students from the Phoenix area to learn exactly what studying the classics means.
The event gives students a taste of the ASU classics program by providing a handful of different experiences, including presentations, games, contests and other hands-on activities. This year, the fall forum hosted its largest group yet, with around 300 students.
Mike Tueller, professor and director of the School of International Letters and Cultures, wants students to know that the humanities classes they are currently taking really do matter.
“The study of the classics has been influencing the world for a long time. It’s also a really interesting disciplinary way to sort of organize your thinking and figure out why things are the way they are,” Tueller said.
“Usually they’re in Latin classes or Latin clubs in their high schools, and we just want to expose them to the larger world of learning about what Greco-Roman civilization is all about.”
Tueller feels that there is great value in learning about the classics and hopes that the fall forum is a fun way to both engage and excite students to want to keep learning.
Each year during the fall forum, Tueller leads a demonstration on how to sacrifice a cow in ancient Greek religion, which students always look forward to. The goal of the presentation is to get them into the mindset of what the sacrificial experience was like back then.
“The ritual can help us understand the different views that ancient Greeks had about that,” Tueller said.
Associate Teaching Professor Almira Poudrier, the main organizer of the fall forum, is in charge of finding people to do the different presentations. She also serves on the board of Arizona Humanities, where she has numerous contacts, one being Brenda Thompson, who this year volunteered to do a presentation about the power of words.
“That one was probably the biggest hit of this particular forum,” Poudrier said.
Thompson’s presentation showed students the different ways in which certain languages can be used or misused. She also let the students participate in a fun hands-on activity where they pulled a sticky note that had a specific number of words on it. The students then used that number of words to describe something important to them. They could also trade their words with other students if they had too many or needed more. Once everyone had chosen their word or phrase, each student had the opportunity to explain the reasoning behind what they chose.
The fall fourm also allows students to experience one or two college classes and tour some of ASU’s Tempe campus.
“We invite kids who are already taking Latin, sometimes even ancient Greek, in their high school. There’s more than you think here in the Valley, and we want them to come and sort of see what we do here in classics, specifically,” Pourdrier said.