Best-selling author Star Parker to speak at Cal Lutheran

California Lutheran University will host Star Parker, a bestselling author, syndicated columnist and social activist, on Mon., Sept. 18 at 10 a.m. in Samuelson Chapel on the campus. Sponsored by the Artists and Speakers Series, Parker's lecture will focus on her progress from being on welfare to becoming empowered. Parker is the founder and President of CURE, the Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education, a nonprofit think tank that provides a national voice on issues of race and poverty, inner city neighborhoods and public policy.

As a social policy consultant, Parker has given testimony before the U.S. Congress and is a regular commentator on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News. She has debated Jesse Jackson on BET, fought for school choice on "Larry King Live" and defended welfare reform on the "Oprah Winfrey Show." Prior to becoming a social activist, Parker was a single welfare mother in Los Angeles. After becoming a Christian, she returned to college, received a degree in marketing and launched an urban Christian magazine. The 1992 Los Angeles riots destroyed her

business, yet served as a springboard for her focus on faith and market-based alternatives to empower the lives of the poor. The author's latest book is "White Ghetto: How Middle Class America Reflects Inner City Decay." She is also a syndicated columnist for Scripps Howard News Service, offering weekly op-eds to more than 400 newspapers worldwide. There's no cost to attend the lecture, but a freewill offering will be accepted.

For more information, call (805) 493-3151 or visit the website www.callutheran.edu.