Dr. Menah Pratt is coming to Illinois Wesleyan University on her book tour for Blackwildgirl: A Writer’s Journey to Take Back Her Superpower. "THIS IS THE STORY OF A LITTLE BLACK GIRL (Blackwildgirl) who knew she was a queen and, in her innocence, shared her knowledge too soon. The world dethroned her, burying her spirit, expecting to asphyxiate her. But the world didn’t know that she was a seed (Pratt, 2024)."

Dr. Pratt is a world renowned scholar-activist who serves as Vice President of Strategic Affairs and Diversity and Professor of Education at Virginia Tech and is a NADOHE board member and award winner. Her story began in Bloomington Normal as the daughter of 2 ISU Professors in the 1970’s. Her Mother was a faculty member in Social Work and her father was a faculty member in nuclear physics and the first/only Black scholar in his department. However, he was not granted tenure in spite of his cutting edge international scholarship in an important stem field. In one of Dr. Pratt’s earlier books, she talks about how her father’s rejection by the academy haunted him his entire life and thus shaped the family’s trajectory. Nevertheless, Menah went on to become a prolific scholar and leader.