Lonnie Wright ‘78, M.Ed. ’84, Ph.D. ’15
Biography
Lonnie G. Wright is the director of, and a professor in, the College of Southern Nevada’s hotel management program within the school’s hospitality management department. He is a native Las Vegan and the founder of Hospitality International Training Academy, a school that trains workers for the culinary industry.
Wright possesses more than three decades of gaming, resort, hospitality, teaching, training, and fundraising experience. After teaching hotel administration at UNLV for two and a half years, he was recruited by the American College of Singapore to develop a hotel college in that country. Some of the top hospitality companies and government agencies have asked Wright to train and counsel on a myriad of issues pertaining to hospitality and gaming, but his career in training has also led him to partner with the Salvation Army to provide the homeless with job skills and hospitality training as well as with TV celebrity chef and author Jeff Henderson to provide prisoners with work skills for the hospitality industry.
Wright founded a program to provide funding and academic support for student-athletes to complete college degrees. He was recognized for raising awareness of the plight of student athletes and raised more than $3 million in scholarships for the educational pursuits of more than 100 athletes who obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
Wright’s community service includes his position as the vice president of the Tri-State NAACP, serving Nevada, Utah, and Idaho. He is currently a member of the Dean's Leadership Council of the UNLV Graduate College.