Civil rights expert is featured MLK Week speaker

Lisa Flores, associate professor of communication at the University of Colorado, will speak about contemporary civil rights issues that reflect the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement in America at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 20, in Alumnae Hall, Haehn Campus Center, College of Saint Benedict.

This event is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Intercultural Directions Council at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University.

Flores will be in residence Jan. 20-21, visiting classes and meeting with students, staff, faculty and community leaders. She will also conduct a faculty development workshop and visit classes.

Flores received her undergraduate degree from Berry College and her master's degree from Northern Illinois University in 1989. She went on to earn a doctorate from the University of Georgia in 1994.

Prior to teaching at Colorado, Flores has taught at DePaul University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Arizona State University and the University of Utah.

The University of Maine honored Flores with the Visiting Libra Diversity Professorship in 2007. In the same year, she was the recipient of Honors Professorship and Faculty Fellow from the University of Utah. In 2004, Flores was an invited faculty leader at the National Communication Association Doctoral Honors Seminar. She was also awarded the Karl. R. Wallace Memorial Award, in memory of the late rhetorical scholar, Karl Wallace. This award is given annually to promote philosophical, historical or critical scholarship in rhetoric and public discourse.

Flores has written numerous journal articles, book chapters and reviews, manuscripts in preparation and encyclopedia entries throughout her career. She was also selected to present at several different professional meetings as well as the National Communication Association's conference in 2000.

Flores has also conducted a number of workshops that critically engage diversity and prepare teachers better to teach within academic communities structured by a variety of cultural, racial and gender differences.