Zerlina Maxwell will present this year's Michael Davis Lecture at 6 p.m. on Feb. 15 in Glenn Auditorium.

Maxwell is the director of progressive programming at Sirius XM Radio, a political analyst, writer and former director of progressive media for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. She has contributed to a number of publications including EBONY and Essence and has been featured on CNN and in The New York Daily News and The Washington Post. Maxwell regularly appears on MSNBC and FOX News.

Maxwell is an avid social media user and consulted with the Department of State to promote the use of social media in the West Bank. In 2014, she was awarded the Social Media Community Activism Award at the Maggie Awards for her Twitter series #RapeCultureIsWhen. The same year, TIME magazine included her on the list of 140 Best Twitter Feeds.

As a public speaker, Maxwell focuses on issues pertaining to feminism, sexual violence and gender inequality.

The Michael Davis Lecture is celebrating its 21st year at Southeast Missouri State University. The lecture series began in 1997 to honor Michael Davis, a Southeast student who died following a hazing incident in 1994. The lecture is held by the Department of Mass Media every year in February in conjunction with Black History Month and recognizes the success of African-Americans in media. The event is sponsored by the College of Health and Human Services, College of Liberal Arts, Division of Enrollment Management and Student Success, Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity, Office of the Provost and the University Speakers Series.

"An Evening with Zerlina Maxwell" is free to all Southeast faculty, students and the public. Maxwell's lecture is titled "The Normalization of Hate and the 2016 Election."