Melissa Harris-Perry, educator and author, will present the keynote address January 16 during Grand Valley's celebration of the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

Harris-Perry will give a presentation January 16 at 10 a.m. in the Kirkhof Center, Grand River Room. The event is free and open to the public. She is also the keynote speaker for the 38th annual West Michigan community celebration, set for January 15, 6 p.m. at Fountain Street Church. That event is presented via a partnership among Grand Valley, Davenport University and Grand Rapids Community College.

Harris-Perry teaches and conducts research at Wake Forest University as the Maya Angelou Presidential Chair in the Department of Politics and International Affairs, the Department of Women and Gender Studies, the African American Studies Program, and the Program in Environment and Sustainability. She is the founder and president of the Anna Julia Cooper Center, whose mission is to advance justice through intersectional scholarship and action. She is the author of the award-winning "Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought," and "Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America."

Harris-Perry earned a bachelor's degree Wake Forest University and a doctoral degree in political science from Duke University. She studied theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Harris-Perry previously taught at the University of Chicago, Princeton University and Tulane University.