Star's Diuguid to speak at university

Lewis Diuguid, editorial board member, columnist and letters editor at The Kansas City Star, will be the featured speaker for Northwest Missouri State University's Ploghoft Diversity Lecture, scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 8, in the Ron Houston Center for the Performing Arts.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Diuguid has been with The Star since May 1977 after graduating from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He earlier served as the newspaper's vice president for community resources and is a certified diversity facilitator with the Newspaper Association of America.

A columnist at the metropolitan daily since 1987, Diuguid's writing often focuses on education, social justice and diversity issues. He is the author of two books: "A Teacher's Cry: Expose the Truth About Education Today" and "Discovering the Real America: Toward a More Perfect Union."

The Ploghoft Diversity Lecture Series is funded through financial support from Milton and Zella Ploghoft of Athens, Ohio. Milton Ploghoft, a 1949 Northwest alumnus, is professor emeritus at Ohio University. Zella Ploghoft attended the Northwest's Horace Mann Laboratory School.