Rodney Ridley of Wilkes University's Allan P. Kirby Center for Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Honored as Educator of the Year
Wilkes-Barre, PA (01/22/2018) — Rodney Ridley, executive director and distinguished professor at the Allan P. Kirby Center for Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship at Wilkes University, was named a Pennsylvania Acceleration Educator of the Year by the Pennsylvania Acceleration Project. Ridley was honored for advancing technology, technology-infrastructure and workforce training across Pennsylvania. The award was presented at the first-ever Pennsylvania Accelerator Awards, held Jan. 18 at East Stroudsburg University.
This is the second recent honor for Ridley, who was named the 2017 Innovator of the Year by the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry.
Ridley is the founding director of the Allan P. Kirby Enterprise Center, the University's business incubator, and its technology transfer office. He also is director of the industry and community outreach office, the Kirby Scholars Program and the Allan P. Kirby Center's micro-grant fund. He is co-founder of the center's business mentor program.
Ridley teaches courses in the Jay S. Sidhu School of Business and Leadership and the College of Science and Engineering at Wilkes. He serves on many boards and committees, including CAN DO in Hazleton, Pa., the Northeast Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Center and the advisory board for Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeast Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania Acceleration Project is an implementation team speeding broadband, workforce and innovation initiatives across Pennsylvania. The Broadband Implementation team of Dellicker Strategies, Business Information Group and Lewis Strategic has completed nearly 100 regional broadband projects in Pennsylvania and surrounding states. Since 2003, industry-pioneer Dellicker Strategies has led broadband aggregation projects for schools, intermediate units, hospitals, doctors, corporations, agencies and communities. For additional information, visit www.PAaccelerationProject.com.
About Wilkes University:
Wilkes University is an independent institution of higher education dedicated to academic and intellectual excellence through mentoring in the liberal arts, sciences and professional programs. Founded in 1933, the university is on a mission to create one of the great small universities, offering all of the programs, activities and opportunities of a large, research university in the intimate, caring and mentoring environment of a small, liberal arts college, at a cost that is increasingly competitive with public universities. The Economist named Wilkes 25th in the nation for the value of its education for graduates. In addition to 43 bachelor's degree programs, Wilkes offers 25 master's degree programs and five doctoral/terminal degree programs, including the doctor of philosophy in nursing, doctor of nursing practice, doctor of education, doctor of pharmacy, and master of fine arts in creative writing. Learn more at www.wilkes.edu.
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