MORGANTOWN , W.Va.On Aug. 19, college and university educators from across the state will converge at the Bridgeport Conference Center to examine ways to enhance education in entrepreneurship and to foster creative ideas that establish businesses.

Sponsored by the West Virginia University Entrepreneurship Center at the College of Business and Economics , the business event will feature well-known entrepreneurship professor, Dr. Rebecca J. White.

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The event will also explore the U.S. Small Business Administration and the federal Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Our goal is to discuss entrepreneurship education on our campuses and find ways to collaborate,said Mindy Walls, director of the WVU Entrepreneurship Center.We are hoping to unite the states efforts in entrepreneurial education and, ultimately, to help West Virginias economic development.

White, who is the James W. Walter Distinguished Chair of Entrepreneurship at The University of Tampa, will speak onCollaborating for Success: Building a Sustainable Entrepreneurship Education Program.

White received an M.B.A and Ph.D. from Virginia Tech University and a bachelors degree from Concord University. She is the founder of the Fifth Third Bank Entrepreneurship Institute at Northern Kentucky University, the Womens Entrepreneurship Institute with The New York Times, RiskAware, LLC and adEsse, LLC .

White was a 2006 Athena Award finalist, 2005 Freedoms Foundation Leavey Award recipient and 2003 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award winner. Under Whites leadership, the NKU program was named one of the top 25 in the country by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazineand one of the Top 50 MBA programs by Women 3.0 and won awards for excellence and innovation from the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers and AACSB .