"Northern didn't just educate me; it gave me the courage to believe I belonged in spaces where people like me weren't always welcomed, and that belief has driven everything since." Those words are from alumna Charlita Anderson White, keynote speaker for NMU's upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service luncheon on Monday, Jan. 19. She is a retired magistrate of the Lorain County Domestic and Juvenile Court in Ohio. She is also an NMU Alumni Association Advisory Board member, adjunct professor at Indiana Wesleyan University and founder of the Outside Circle Theater Project.

The Detroit native graduated from NMU in 1983 with a major in speech communications and a minor in theater. Anderson White appeared in several productions as a student, including Damn Yankees, Step on a Crack, The Excitable Gift, Godspell and Happy Ending by Douglas Turner-Ward. She said her academic experience equipped her with the foundational skills that defined her 38-year legal career. These include the ability to read a room, communicate with clarity and conviction, perform authentically under pressure and defuse tense situations.

"Personally, Northern transformed me from a timid kid who didn't believe I was smart into someone who thrived," she added. "The warmth and belonging I found in the Communications and Theater Departments-calling a professor 'Daddy Bear,', taking advantage of the open doors of Dr. Allbritten and Drs. Donald and Karyn Rybacki in the Speech Department, becoming family-showed me how supportive the NMU community could be.

"When I faced real adversity, such as getting evicted after my roommate stole my rent check, I discovered I had the fortitude to overcome obstacles, navigate conflict and advocate for myself. That experience built the confidence that eventually led me to law school."

Now residing in Oberlin, Ohio, Anderson White went on to earn a juris doctor and an MBA in healthcare management. Her professional career began in law, serving as a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Lorain County, and later as an Assistant Lorain County Prosecutor.

She was appointed as a Magistrate in Lorain County Domestic and Juvenile Court in 1999, where she presided over cases involving domestic violence, juvenile delinquency and drug addiction recovery. She retired from the bench in 2022, but serves as an adjunct professor of health care policy and procedure, leadership and business law at Indiana Wesleyan University.

Anderson White's Outside Circle Theater Project is dedicated to developing works focusing on justice, identity and friendship, and the lived experiences of women, girls and underrepresented voices. The idea was sparked by her first appearance on stage since her Northern days nearly four decades earlier. She played Deloris Van Cartier in a 2020 production of the musical comedy Sister Act.

"In that role, I was embodying a truth about what happens when the marginalized are given space to lead, when courage meets creativity and when you refuse to let fear silence you. I wanted to share that sentiment with my local community. Every single person in the Outside Circle Theater Project has that story inside them. The young girl who has never seen someone who looks like her on stage. The woman who's been told her voice doesn't matter. The kid who thinks theater isn't 'for them.' The LGBTQ+ writer who needs to be heard.

"Theater does something law strives to do. It asks us to literally step into someone else's story to see through their eyes and feel with their heart, even if just for a moment. Whatever role I was lucky enough to play, I felt trusted and valued and celebrated. No one celebrates each other like the hodgepodge of creative, wild misfits in the theater.

Anderson White described her planned remarks at NMU as "an urgent counter-narrative to today's polarized moment," when campuses are torn by conflicts over free speech and safety, national division has reached historic highs and trust in institutions has faltered.

"King's Beloved Community concept provides a third way beyond the false binaries dominating our conversations," she said. "The core message-justice, healing and hope-aren't sequential steps, but simultaneous practices. We don't choose between accountability and grace, between truth-telling and bridge-building, but hold both in creative tension. This is profoundly relevant because students are exhausted by conflict, paralyzed by fear of mistakes and hungry for a positive vision beyond mere resistance."

She added that her three fields of experience in the courtroom, classroom and theater prove this isn't abstract philosophy, but practical wisdom for "building something better right now, one relationship and one courageous choice at a time."

The MLK Day of Service luncheon is from 11-1 p.m. in the Northern Center Ballrooms. Tickets can be obtained at tickets.nmu.edu. It will be followed by a 1 p.m. early-access, curated tour of "Speaking Volumes: Transforming Hate"-the first national art exhibition hosted by NMU's Devos Art Museum-and hands-on service projects making crochet and knit hats from 2-5 p.m. in The Lodge. All activities are open to the public. Learn more about the activities here.