University celebrate MLK Jr. during worship service

Baldwin City, Kan. — Dawn Pleas-Bailey, vice president for student life and special assistant to the president for community outreach at Southwestern College in Winfield, Kan., will be the guest speaker at Baker University‘s annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration. The event, part of Baker’s first worship service of the spring semester, is set for 11 a.m., Thursday, Jan. 29, at the Osborne Chapel on the Baldwin City campus.

Pleas-Bailey coordinates year-round partnerships with middle schools, high schools, community colleges and nonprofit organizations in Wichita, Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Okla., to provide college preparatory training for students from first generation, ethnic minority and low socioeconomic backgrounds.

With a natural affinity for college students, she has served in various capacities at the college for the past 20 years, including roles as the dean of students, associate dean and assistant dean of students before being promoted to her current post. She has twice been named Southwestern College Student Government Outstanding Administrator of the Year.

Pleas-Bailey has spoken extensively regarding leadership development, conflict resolution, individual motivation, academic success, female empowerment and faith-based learning to organizations and educational institutions. She has done extensive research on the first African-American graduates of the college.

She earned her doctoral degree from the University of Pennsylvania in the higher education management. She received her master’s in education from Newman University in Wichita and bachelor’s degree from North Central College in Naperville, Ill.

Mungano, Baker’s student-run diversity organization, assisted in the planning of the MLK Jr. celebration.