FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 26, 2019, 11:00 a.m. CDT
Contact Jason Hogue, Peru State College Marketing and Communications, 402-872-2429
Peru, Nebraska - Megan Phelps-Roper will present on the Peru State College campus as part of the
Distinguished Speaker Series. She became famous after her TED Talk, “I grew up in
the Westboro Baptist Church. Here’s why I left.”
Phelps-Roper’s presentation will be Tuesday, April 2 at 7 p.m. in the Performing Arts
Center. The presentation will be free and open to the public.
In 2012, Phelps-Roper and her sister fled the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas.
In her inspiring talk, Phelps-Roper advocates for a better, more empathetic way to
overcome disagreements—for engaged communication that not only heals wounds and forges
bonds but helps us expand our narrow perspectives.
Recently, Phelps-Roper has appeared on Sarah Silverman’s Hulu series, I Love You, America, and on the National Geographic series The Story of Us, with Academy Award-winner Morgan Freeman. Her inspiring, moving, and deeply human story of change is also the subject of an upcoming memoir, called Unfollow: A Journey from Hatred to Hope, to be released by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Megan Phelps-Roper
Peru State established the Distinguished Speaker Series in 2010 as part of a commitment
to student engagement and success. The intent of the Series is to bring diverse, nationally
and internationally recognized speakers to southeast Nebraska to enrich the educational
experience of students while also providing regional communities more opportunities
to engage in interesting and relevant topics.
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Ashton Peiman contributed to this release.