The Road to Someplace Better From the Segregated South to Harvard Business School and Beyond

The first black woman Harvard MBA tells the remarkable story of how she achieved the American dream. This story encompasses business, history, and an incredible display of personal triumph against the odds.

Lillian Lincoln Lambert was the first black female Harvard MBA (1969), who in 2003 received Harvard Business School's Alumni Achievement Award, the highest award the school bestows on its alumni. For twenty-five years, she was president and CEO of Centennial One, Inc., a building maintenance company she founded in 1976 in her garage with a few thousand dollars. She grew the company to $20 million in sales and hired more than 1,200 employees. Lambert is the recipient of numerous other awards, including Black MBA Association's Entrepreneur of the Year, and Small Business Person of the Year in the State of Maryland. She has been featured on Good Morning America and in Time, the Washington Post, and Entrepreneur.

Rosemary Brutico is a freelance writer and principal of Quintessence Communication, a public relations firm. She is a former managing editor of MIT's Sloan Management Review.