Southeast Missouri State University will host its 19th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Dinner on January 17.

This year’s theme is “Building CommUNITY Through Service.” Senator Brian Williams of the 14th Senatorial District in St. Louis and 2012 Southeast graduate is the guest speaker. Senator Williams served as assistant minority floor leader from 2020-2022 and is the first Black male to serve in the Missouri Senate in two decades. He was drawn to public service after studying government and public health policy, a passion that eventually led him to the U.S. Congress where he worked as a congressional staffer and oversaw Missouri’s rollout of the Affordable Care Act Marketplace under President Obama’s administration.

The dinner will take place Wednesday, January 17, at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau. Doors open at 5 p.m., and the program begins at 6.