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DIVINC CONTINUES TO SET THE EXAMPLE OF SHIFTING THE TIDES OF EQUITY AND JUSTICE IN AUSTIN. BY CY WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS BY JESSICA WETTERER
7 years After seven years as the president of Huston-Tillotson University, Austin’s first higher education institution, Dr. Colette Pierce Burnett is retiring from her position. She was the first woman president of the university since the Huston and Tillotson colleges merged in 1952. At DivInc’s fourth annual Champions of Change Awards ceremony, she was awarded the Legacy Award, the first of its kind for DivInc’s annual ceremony. The distinction will be named in her honor as the Dr. Colette Pierce Burnett Legacy Award for her tireless dedication to the education and uplifting of Black and Brown students not only in Austin, but from all over the country.
2016 Founded in 2016, DivInc is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is “to generate social and economic equity through entrepreneurship.” CEO and co-founder Preston James II says of his desire for DivInc’s impact, “In 10 years I hope there’s no need for DivInc. That’s the vision.”
20 | AUSTIN WOMAN | APRIL 2022
