NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Best-selling author, journalist and Marvel Comics writer Ta-Nehisi Coates will be this year's featured speaker at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' annual fall lectures series.

 

Also speaking this fall will be Emmy Award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa, and Galen Nelson, senior director of innovation and industry support at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.

 

Coates is a winner of the National Book Award and the NAACP Image Award and author of "Between the World and Me," a number-one New York Times bestseller in 2015, which was required or recommended reading at more than 400 colleges and universities across the country including at MCLA.

 

A former national correspondent for The Atlantic, Coates addresses audiences across the country on cultural topics including discriminatory housing policies, mass incarceration, deleterious interpretations of history, and his personal experiences growing up as an African-American male in the United States.

 

Coates has collaborated with illustrator Brian Stelfreeze since 2016 to write Marvel's "Black Panther" comic book series. His Black Panther story, "A Nation Under Our Feet," was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story. He also is working with illustrator Leinil Francis Yu on the next chapter of Marvel's "Captain America."

 

He will speak at the 8th annual Michael S. and Kitty Dukakis Public Policy Lecture on Thursday, Nov. 8, at 7 p.m. in the MCLA Campus Center Gym. The event is made possible through the generosity of the Ruth E. Proud Charitable Trust.

 

She also is the anchor and executive producer of the PBS show "America By The Numbers," the first national television series to examine the nation's dramatic demographic shifts, and "Humanizing America," a digital video series that deconstructs stereotypes about the American electorate. Her nearly 30-year career as an award-winning journalist includes reporting for PBS, CBS, WNBC, CNN, NPR, and anchoring the Emmy Award-winning talk show "Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One."

Nelson will present the Elizabeth and Lawrence Vadnais Environmental Issues Lecture on Thursday, Oct. 25, at 7 p.m. in Murdock Hall, in the Sammer Dennis Room (218). This annual lecture series is named for Professor Lawrence H. Vadnais and is sponsored by the Vadnais Endowment.

Nelson leads a team at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center focused on providing targeted, strategic, and timely resources to help clean energy companies and entrepreneurs develop technologies while moving closer to commercialization and market traction in established and emerging markets. His individual work focuses primarily on microgrids, energy storage, and energy resilience. 

 

Prior to joining the MassCEC, he led clean-energy business and green affordable-housing policy development efforts at the city of Boston. He has more than 10 years of experience developing programs and policies at the city and state level, often at the intersection of urban planning, economic development, and clean energy. 

 

All MCLA fall lecture events are free and open to the public.