Arkansas Tech University alumnus Virgil L. Miller Jr. will be the spring 2024 ATU Diversity Speaks Lecture Series guest of honor on Friday, March 8.
Miller, group Community Reinvestment Act director for Arvest Bank, will speak at 3 p.m. in Ross Pendergraft Library and Technology Center room 300, 305 West Q Street in Russellville. His appearance is hosted by the ATU Black Faculty and Staff Organization, the ATU Minority Mentorship Program and the ATU Office of Academic Affairs.
Admission will be free and open to the public. A reception will follow.
After graduating from Wilbur D. Mills High School in Little Rock, Miller enrolled at Arkansas Tech in 1971. He graduated from Arkansas Tech with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree in 1975.
Miller continued his education by earning a certificate of achievement (1979), diploma of merit (1981) and degree of distinction (1983) from the Institute of Financial Education. He is a graduate from the Broadway School of Real Estate and received his Arkansas real estate license in 1987.
He joined Arvest in 2013 as the continuation of a financial services industry career that dates back to 1977.
A member of 100 Black Men of Greater Little Rock, Miller represents ward one on the City of Little Rock Board of Directors and he serves on the board for Arkansas Capital Corporation.
Miller is a recipient of the Beverly Ann Lacefield Award, the Willie Oates Volunteer of the Year Award, the inaugural Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commission and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity), Fair Housing Award (Association of Real Estate License Law Officials), Award of Merit and Silver Beaver (Boy Scouts of America), Trustee Award (Arkansas Museum Association), Man of Distinction (Retired and Senior Volunteers Programs of Central Arkansas), Superintendent’s Citation (Little Rock School District) and Black Corporate Executive of the Year (NAACP Region VI Fair Share).
The ATU Diversity Speaks Lecture Series was established in 2019. Previous speakers have included Dr. Logan C. Hampton (2019), president of Lane College in Jackson, Tenn.; Adena Strickland White (2022), founder and chief storyteller for Blackbelt Media LLC; and Ronnie Williams (2023), author and retired administrator at the University of Central Arkansas. The event was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
