Annual MLK breakfast will feature leader of interfaith youth movement
Eboo Patel, Ph.D., whose Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) organization is focused on building the interfaith movement on college campuses nationwide, will be the featured speaker at the 20th Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast hosted by Benedictine University and College of DuPage on Monday, January 19, 2015.
The breakfast will be held from 8:00-9:30 a.m. in the Main Dining Room of the Krasa Student Center on the campus of Benedictine University.
Patel, named by U.S. News & World Report as one of "America's Best Leaders of 2009," is the founder and president of IFYC. The author of several books, Patel is also a regular contributor to The Washington Post, USA Today, Huffington Post, NPR and CNN.
He served on President Barack Obama's inaugural Advisory Council of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and earned a Ph.D. in the Sociology of Religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship.
Patel serves on the Religious Advisory Committee of the Council on Foreign Relations, on the board of directors for the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, on the National Committee of the Aga Khan Foundation USA, and on the Department of Homeland Security's Faith-based Security and Communications Advisory Committee.
Both Patel and the IFYC were honored with the Roosevelt Institute's Freedom of Worship Medal in 2009, and he was recently awarded the Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize, which is given to an individual to enhance awareness of the crucial role of religious dialogue in the pursuit of peace.
The King Breakfast, which honors the legacy of the civil rights leader and celebrates diversity, is one of the largest events of its kind in the state. More than 500 community leaders and citizens attend annually. A portion of the proceeds benefits the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Fund.
The event is sponsored by Nicor Gas.
For more information and tickets, call the McAninch Arts Center at (630) 942-4000 or visit http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase?pid=7882739. Tickets are $25 each.