Gateway Technical College has named Nakeyda Haymer and Ronald Tatum as this year’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarians.
The college has also named Rev. Demetris Crum of the Second Baptist Church in Kenosha as keynote speaker for the 30th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration to be held noon to 1 p.m. Jan. 15 in HARIBO Hall of the Madrigrano Conference Center on the college’s Kenosha Campus, 3520-30th Ave.
The theme for this year’s event is “The Time is Now.” This year’s Humanitarians will also be recognized at the event. These are individuals who embody King’s work and message by serving others in their daily lives. The event will also be livestreamed on the college’s website.
Nakeyda Haymer
Nakeyda Haymer is the Wisconsin state director of Voices of Black Mothers United and is Racine's Violent Crime Reduction coordinator.
Haymer suffered the loss of her own brother who was killed in 2017 and has channeled that pain to be a support system to people in the community who have recently lost a loved one to violence. Some of the events she has organized or assisted with are Bigger than Basketball, a community event to honor lost loved ones, National Day of Concern - Student Pledge to Stop Gun Violence, Wear Orange Rally to End Violence and remembrance brunches during the holiday season in Racine for families who have lost a loved one to violence.
Haymer’s nominator says “she believes in healing communities from within instead of leaning towards a top-down solution to violence.”
Ronald Tatum
Ronald Tatum is the executive director at Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services, Inc. Tatum created a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee to work on ways to ensure KAFASI always is a workplace which embraces those tenets. Staff members say that his goal for staff at the agency is that they are better able to reach out to marginalized members of the community and provide them with service they need.
“He is a patient, kind and knowledgeable teacher/boss who helps open the hearts and minds of those he oversees,” say his nominators. “He looks for opportunities to help us all embrace the differences and unique qualities we bring to our roles. He celebrates us when we succeed and guides us through rough patches. He believes in peaceful resolutions to conflicts, always with an eye on how to increase our cultural awareness and inclusion.
“He exemplifies the meaning of ‘servant leader’ and has taken KAFASI into a new direction of diversion, equity and inclusion.”
