24th annual Michael Davis Lecture to feature 'trailblazer' SEMO alumna

Today’s Southeast Missouri State University students didn’t know the late Michael Davis, who was killed in 1994 in an on-campus hazing incident. But through the annual lecture hosted in his honor, they might just catch a glimpse of who Davis could have been.

That’s the way Southeast professor of mass media and Michael Davis Lecture organizer Tamara Zellars Buck told it Thursday afternoon.

“Michael was well-liked by faculty, staff and students,” Buck said. “His death really made everyone who was here want to do something, and they thought that this lecture would be a nice way to memorialize him because it shows what his career could have been.”

At the time of his death more than 25 years ago, Davis was a Southeast student majoring in journalism. Like Buck, he was involved with the Arrow, the student-run newspaper at Southeast, and was “integral” to its production.

At the same time, Buck said, he was pledging the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and died as a result of “a lot of physical trauma” he sustained during a fraternity hazing ritual on campus at the [Abe Stuber Track Complex],” Buck said.

“The African American student community was small; we all knew each other,” Buck said of campus demographics in the mid-1990s. “And that made it more traumatic — the fact that we were a small community, and we were very close.”

As a tribute to Davis, the annual lecture highlights an African American professional working in public relations, TV or film, news and other media-related fields.

Asked whether she believed journalists of color face more adversity in the industry, Buck said, “Oh, absolutely.”

“That’s why so many journalists of color are not in the industry long, because they get ‘othered’ in the newsroom, their perspectives are different and sometimes they get shut down,” she said. “But they also have to go out into the world and still cover all these same stories, and it can be difficult to cover mainstream stories as well as stories in their community because those communities have been marginalized so much in mainstream media that there’s a lack of trust, even for a person of color.”

So while the lecture honors a man whose life was cut short by violence and tragedy, Buck said it is also meant to uplift the students who attend.

“It just gives us a time to be a tribute to [Davis],” Buck said. “And it’s not something sad. It’s something that ... provides hope, it inspires and it shows what his life would have been.”

‘An exciting career’

This year’s lecture, to be held Monday evening, features Southeast alumna Kyra Joiner, who now works for the world’s largest sports and entertainment agency, Octagon. Her company represents high-profile athletes such as Giannis Antetokounmpo and Wade Boggs, as well as members of the St. Louis Cardinals including Carlos Martinez and Miles Mikolas.

In her role with Octagon, Joiner oversees national partnerships across the NBA and WNBA as well as brand ambassador integrations for a client in partnership with NBA players Stephen Curry and Harry Giles, according to a university news release.

“Kyra is a trailblazer who exemplifies the spirit of this lecture,” Buck stated in the release, “and I know students from many different disciplines will benefit from hearing her speak about how she has merged her love of sports and media into an exciting career.”

After graduating from Southeast in 2006 with her bachelor’s degree in mass communication, advertising, Joiner went on to Lindenwood University where she earned a master’s degree in communications with an emphasis in promotions.

“[Emerging professionals] tend to connect more with the students; they’re just now starting to break through and that really inspires the students,” Buck said. “So, having someone like Kyra who has been out of school just 10 years or so and is really making her mark, that really inspires our students to know that they can do that also.”

Prior to her career with Octagon, Joiner was an activation manager of marketing partnerships with the Phoenix Suns basketball team, and before that, a corporate sales and marketing account executive with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Joiner’s success in the professional world echoed her time in Cape Girardeau.

While at Southeast, Joiner was a member of the Redhawks track and field team, which took the Ohio Valley Conference Track and Field Championship from 2002 to 2006, according to the news release. She was honored with the President’s Volunteer Service Award and was the recipient of numerous other awards, including a student ADDY Bronze Award from the Tri-State Advertising and Marketing Professionals, the McNair Scholarship Award and the OVC Commissioner’s Honor Roll.

A St. Louis native, Joiner now resides in Los Angeles and is an active member of Women in Sports and Events (WISE).

Buck said she hopes students who attend the lecture will be inspired to push through the cynicism they may face in their chosen fields.

“There is just a wall of negativity that mass media professionals face, and I want our students to be inspired to push through that,” Buck said. “ ... So when they get to, for one night, see that diversity does matter, that people from diverse backgrounds are excelling and there’s room for them in the industry, I think that’s the benefit of the lecture.”

The 24th annual free-to-attend Michael Davis Lecture — one of several Black History Month events at Southeast — will be held at 6 p.m. Monday in Rose Theatre, 400 N. Pacific St. in Cape Girardeau.