MLK Celebration Set for Kresge Auditorium Friday, Jan. 16

CINCINNATI—UC Health will host its 43rd annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration from 10 to 11 a.m. Friday, Jan. 16, in the University of Cincinnati’s Kresge Auditorium, 231 Albert Sabin Way.

The theme for this year’s celebration is, "What Are You Doing for Others?” The event is open to the public and will include a keynote address from O’dell Owens, MD, president, Cincinnati State Technical and Community College.

O’dell is a native Cincinnatian who attended Yale University Medical School for his MD degree. He also earned a master’s degree in public health from Yale and continued his studies at Yale as an intern, resident and chief resident in obstetrics and gynecology. He was awarded the Irving Friedman Award as the outstanding chief resident in the department of OB/GYN at Yale Medical School.

Owens served as clinical instructor in the OB/GYN department at Harvard Medical School and as a fellow in reproductive endocrinology and infertility for two years. He returned to Cincinnati in 1982 to establish the first division of reproductive endocrinology in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. 

Owens established an in-vitro fertilization program and achieved Cincinnati’s first successful conception and delivery.  After serving as Hamilton County coroner (2005-2010), he was named fifth president of Cincinnati State in 2010.

UC College of Medicine Interim Dean William Ball, MD, along with Richard Lofgren, MD, president and CEO of UC Health, and Lee Ann Liska, president and CEO of UC Medical Center, will also have remarks at the event. Clarence Pauley, senior vice president and chief human resources officer at UC Health, will oversee the presentation of humanitarian awards.

The invocation and benediction will be offered by Rev. Damon Lynch Jr., pastor of New Jerusalem Baptist Church. Music will be presented by the group SMOOOTH (formerly Anointed Sons of God).