Sikeston native Sonia Rucker will speak at MLK service Monday

SIKESTON -- The 32nd Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Celebration in Sikeston kicks off with a special musical presentation Saturday followed by the traditional events on Monday.

A musical honoring King will begin at 5 p.m. Saturday at Green Memorial Church of God in Christ in Sikeston. Then on Monday, the motorcade parade lineup will start 10:30 a.m. at Smith's Chapel, 201 Young St., in Sikeston followed by the official service at noon at Smith's Chapel.

Sikeston native Sonia R. Rucker will serve as the speaker during Monday's service.

Rucker, who is the daughter of Helen Rucker of Sikeston and late Norman Rucker, is the assistant to the President for Equity and Diversity Issues and the Dean of Students at Southeast Missouri State University.

Prior to the promotion to her current position in October, Rucker had served as the director of Institutional Equity and Diversity and the Title IX Coordinator at Southeast since April 2015.

Rucker grew up in Sikeston, graduating from Sikeston Senior High School in 1990. She received a Bachelor of Science in psychology from the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg and a master's degree in educational psychology with an emphasis in industrial/organizational psychology from Texas A&M University-Central in Killeen, Texas. She began her career as a social worker, serving in various capacities including working as a juvenile case manager and a child protective services investigator with The Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services in Austin, Texas.

From 1999 to 2003, she worked at Southeast Missouri State University serving as the tutorial coordinator for the TRIO program, Student Support Services, a campus-wide crisis response team member and finally as the assistant director of the Learning Enrichment Center.

After leaving Southeast in 2003, she relocated to Ithaca, N.Y., after accepting a position as the associate director of counseling and community outreach at Cornell University. Rucker spent nearly 10 years at Cornell serving as a university-wide crisis manager for the office of the dean of students, program manager for the Cornell ILR Graduate Programs Office and, finally, as the associate director of diversity and inclusion with the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell.

Rucker, who resides in Cape Girardeau, is a member of the American College Personnel Association; the Association of Title IX Administrators; the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education; the Missouri Diversity Officers in Higher Education Association; and the Society for Human Resources Management. In addition, she serves on the advisory board for the Greater Missouri Higher Education Recruitment Consortium and is member of the Cape Chamber of Commerce's Women's Networking Committee.