Media Contact:
Ms. Michelle Provan
Director of Marketing, Communications, and College Relations
Phone: 904-314-2295
Email:
[email protected] For Immediate Release
Edward Waters College President’s Distinguished Speaker Series Features: A Panel Conversation
Where Do We Go From Here? A Community Conversation Towards Action
Jacksonville, FL – June 10, 2020 – A specially scheduled Stay Woke: The Edward Waters College (EWC) President’s
Distinguished Speaker Series will be streamed live via Zoom and broadcasted via Facebook on Thursday, June 11, 2020 at 6:00 p.m.
This iteration of the speaker series will feature a panel of Jacksonville area African-American leaders and influencers that will share
their reactions and perspectives related to the recent local, national, and international unrest that has resulted from the killing of unarmed
and largely African-American males in our country. Even more, the panel participants will look to share their insights and explore
solutions and potential strategic actions that individuals and community organizations can take towards seeking to create and advance
public policy that will promote equitable quality of life outcomes for all of Jacksonville’s citizens and especially its communities of
color.
The conversation will be hosted by Dr. A. Zachary Faison, Jr., President and CEO of Edward Waters College, and moderated by
Jacksonville native Ms. Dawn Lopez, co-anchor of Action News This Morning and Action News Jax at Noon CBS/47 FOX/30.
“Edward Waters College has a long and storied history as one of Jacksonville’s most prominent proverbial public squares where the
academy and the community coalesce to engage the socio-political issues of our day in support of the conceptualization, development,
and implementation of meaningful active solutions for the citizens and communities in which we serve and live,” says Dr. A. Zachary
Faison Jr., President of Edward Waters College. “EWC is taking initiative, creating a platform, and giving an opportunity for genuine
change to take place here in our Jacksonville community.”
The speaker series is a student and campus-wide academic and experiential engagement initiative intended to present a robust and varied
collection of distinguished and scholarly speakers to the EWC campus community. This initiative, started in 2018, seeks to engage the
views, ideas, and espoused ideals expressed by international, national, and local thought leaders, authors, entertainers, activists,
advocates, athletes, educators, business leaders, and opinion shapers who will be featured as a part of the series.
The panelist for the conversation will include: Senior Bishop of the 11th District of the A.M.E. Church, Presiding Prelate Bishop
Adam J. Richardson, Jr.; Al Lawson, US Congressman, represents Florida's 5th Congressional District; Dr. Nathaniel Glover
‘66, EWC President Emeritus, retired Jacksonville Sherriff; Award-Winning Author Dr. Tommy J. Curry, Personal Chair
(Distinguished Professor) of Africana Philosophy & Black Male Studies, Department of Philosophy, The University of
Edinburgh, School of Philosophy and Language Sciences; Mr. Sam Newby ‘84, Vice President Jacksonville City Council,
Designee; Dr. Charles E. Moreland ‘03, Director of Community & International Affairs Office of Jacksonville Mayor Lenny
Curry; Dr. Richard Danford, President, Jacksonville Urban League; Mr. Rodney Hurst, Author/Historian; Mr. Darnell
Smith, President-North Florida Region of Florida Blue; Mr. Mandrake T. Miller, EWC Vice President for Student Success &
Engagement; Dr. Kenneth Davis, EWC Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice; Mr. Naim Brown, President of the NAACP
Edward Waters College Chapter; Mr. Chauncey Whaley, Vice President, NAACP Edward Waters College Chapter.
“At EWC, we encourage intellectual dialogue around issues facing the whole of our society and particularly those that impact the
African-American community given our historic mission and founding as the State of Florida’s first independent institution of higher
education and Florida’s first college or university established for the purpose of educating African-Americans” said President Faison.
“The speaker series supports our institutional vision which emphatically denotes our ‘Emerging Eminence’ as we continue our work
towards preparing students to be pioneering leaders, insatiable learners, critical thinkers, and agents for positive change in every sector
of our increasingly expanding society and world.”
The series will be broadcasted on facebook.com/ewctigers and will begin Thursday, June 11, 2020 at 6:00 p.m.
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About Edward Waters College
Edward Waters College (EWC), accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) and member
of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), is a private, historically black, urban college which offers a liberal arts education with a strong emphasis
on the Christian principles of high moral and spiritual values. EWC was established in 1866 and is an African Methodist Episcopal Church-related
institution of learning. It is the first private institution of higher education in the State of Florida.
