Washburn University Invites the Public to Celebrate Dr. King Jan. 22

Topeka, Kan. - Washburn University will celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 6 p.m. Jan. 22 in the Washburn Room of the Memorial Union, on the Washburn University campus. This will be a time of conversation and connection with keynote speaker Dr. Beryl New. Light refreshments will be served. This event is free, and the public is invited, they are just asked to RSVP via https://DrMLKCelebration2025.eventbrite.com.

"Dr. King inspired the world to reimagine the true meaning of humanity and equality," said Isaiah Bryant-Collier, director of the Office of Student Involvement and Development, Washburn. "This event will bring the Washburn and Topeka communities together to reflect on the progress we've made and the journey ahead to fully embrace the vision of shared humanity."

This event is part of Washburn University's WUmester 2025.

About Dr. Beryl A. New, Ed.D.

Beryl A. New, Ed.D., received most of her public education in Topeka Public Schools. She and her family moved to the community in 1961 from Lake Elsinore, California. However, the entire family ended up settling in Topeka, where she has lived ever since.

As a young child, she loved organizing activities that involved teaching others. This desire grew to become her passionate profession later in her life. After high school, she enrolled in secretarial college, but then married and began a family. When she had her first six children, Beryl enrolled in Washburn University where she graduated with high honors, earning her bachelor's degree in 1988. She then began her career doing what she had always felt a calling to do - teaching English at her alma mater, Topeka High School. Later, she earned her master's in educational administration from Washburn in 2001. Following that, she earned a Doctor of Education degree from the University of Kansas in 2007. During her administrative career, she also served for five years at Lawrence High School as an assistant principal and then the associate principal.

Nearly 30 years after beginning her education career, she is still passionate about making sure all her students do well. She instilled in her own eight children a love for learning, and many were early readers - reading before they entered preschool. She has supported an inspiring turnaround at the high school where she first served as an assistant principal from 2001 to 2005, then returned to serve as head principal in 2010, Highland Park High School in Topeka. In July of 2017, New moved to the Burnett Administrative Center to serve as the Director of Certified Personnel and the Director of Equity.

New also serves as a member of the KAAAC and Kansas Advisory Group on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency. She is on the board of directors for Midland Care Hospice, SENT and Keys for Networking Kansas. New also is a member of the NAACP, TABSE (Topeka Alliance of Black School Educators), Topeka Public Schools Equity Council, Topeka Public Schools Minority Leadership Academy, Included, Momentum 2022, American Association of School Personnel Administrators, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, School Superintendents Association and Faith Temple Church.

In 2022, New was selected to be the Chair of the African Affairs Commission for Kansas. And she was recently elected to the Kansas Board of Education for District 6.

About WUMester 2025

The spring 2025 Washburn's WUmester will examine the essence of our humanity, engaging academic disciplines from across campus and a diverse range of co-curricular programming. Washburn will tackle pivotal questions about the human condition amidst environmental shifts, genetic engineering, expanding knowledge of nonhuman animals and our connections to them, the ascent of artificial intelligence, the ongoing search for life beyond earth, changing demographics in the United States and beyond, and intense national and global debates surrounding citizenship and basic human rights.

WUmester 2025 invites us to reflect on our shared human qualities-empathy, creativity, morality-while we celebrate our diversity, contemplate our place in a more-than-human world, and craft more inclusive and sustainable ways of being human. Join the conversation during the Spring 2025 semester as we confront the centuries-old question: What does it mean to be human?

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For further information, contact:
Joy Bailes
Director of Internal Communications and Brand Management
Telephone: (785) 670-2153
Cell: (785) 230-1648
Email: [email protected]

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