Press Release: SBA Administrator Guzman to Address Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – July 22, 2023
SBA Administrator Guzman to Address Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc.
Iota Welcomes Biden Administration Official to 39th Biennial Conclave
(Baltimore, MD) – Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. will welcome the Honorable Isabella Casillas Guzman, the 27th Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) at the fraternity’s 39th Biennial Conclave in Atlanta. Administrator Guzman will address the fraternity on Friday, July 28 at the Crowne Plaza Atlanta Perimeter at Ravinia, 4355 Ashford Dunwoody Road, NE.
Administrator Guzman’s outreach to Iota Phi Theta comes as concerns over wealth generation in the Black community are rising. The gathering of one of the nation's largest organizations of college-educated Black men will convene in Atlanta next week in the face of attacks on affirmative action and rollbacks in DEI programs. According to the SBA, in 2018 Black business owners owned 3,239,551 businesses, employing almost 1.2 million workers. Most Black business activity is in the health care and social assistance sector, and professional, scientific, and technical services. One of the challenges that remain for Black business owners is access to capital. The U.S. Small Business Administration has signed a Strategic Alliance Memorandum with the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) aimed at facilitating small business development among members of the nation’s Black Greek-letter sororities and fraternities.
Administrator Guzman was born in Burbank, California, and is the fifth Latina woman ever to serve in the Cabinet of a presidential administration. The United States Senate confirmed Ms. Guzman as Administrator of the SBA on March 16, 2021. Before her appointment Administrator Guzman served as the Director of California’s Office of the
Small Business Advocate under the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, and as Deputy Chief of Staff for the SBA. Ms. Guzman was also an advisor to the founding chair of ProAmerica Bank. A child of small business owners, the Administrator earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.
During the fraternity’s Friday morning business session, Ms. Guzman will engage in a conversation with Iota Phi Theta Fraternity’s 23rd International Grand Polaris Dr. Sean D. Housen, Sr. and facilitated by the National Director of Programs and Initiatives, Brother Esset Tate, Jr. The conversation will cover a wide range of topics, including the SBA-NPHC Strategic Alliance and the agency’s Community Navigator program. This format is to allow a more free-flowing conversation and discussion for fraternity members in attendance.
Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. was established on September 19, 1963, on the campus of one of the nation’s premier historically Black colleges, Morgan State University (nee College). Founded just four days after the horrific bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama that claimed the lives of four little Black girls, Iota represented the enthusiasm of the burgeoning Black liberation movement. The fraternity’s founders were non-traditional students, older, military veterans, and family men coming of age on a college campus steeped in the civil rights movement. Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. expressed the 20th-century call for social change and community uplift. The organization’s founding aligns with other Black-youth movements of that era, including the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Black Panther Party, and the Freedom Summer Movement.
Members of the media should contact the Iota Phi Theta Fraternity Director of Communications regarding the media availability of Administrator Guzman.
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About the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC)
Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. is a member of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, a body representing nine traditionally and culturally Black Greek-letter sororities and fraternities. These organizations are Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., and Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc.
MEDIA CONTACT
Walter Fields, National Director of Communications
communicationsdirector@iotaphitheta.org
973 738-7876 – Direct
1600 N. Calvert Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
443 438-5691
www.iotaphitheta.org