AROUND CAMPUS
KAPOOR TO ADDRESS GRADS Kunal Kapoor ’97, chief executive officer of Morningstar Inc., will deliver Monmouth College’s Commencement address on May 15. Since joining Morningstar in 1997 as a data analyst, Kapoor has held a variety of roles at the firm, including leadership positions in research and innovation. He served as director of mutual fund research and was part of the team that launched Morningstar Investment Services, Inc., before moving on to other roles including director of business strategy for international operations and, later, president and chief investment officer of Morningstar Investment Services. During his tenure, he has also led Morningstar.com and the firm’s data business as well as its global products and client solutions group. Kapoor received Monmouth College’s Young Alumnus Award in 2005 and was the College’s Wendell Whiteman Memorial lecturer in 2017. After graduating from Monmouth with a degree in economics and environmental policy, Kapoor earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In 2010, Crain’s Chicago Business named him to its annual 40 Under 40 class, a list that includes professionals from a variety of industries who are contributing to Chicago’s business, civic and philanthropic landscape.
Center for diversity and inclusion to honor former slave Monmouth College will mark a milestone on April 29 with the dedication of a new campus center that will focus on addressing and celebrating issues of diversity and inclusion through special programming and support. Named in honor of a former slave who purchased his own freedom and settled in Monmouth, the Champion Miller Center for Equity, Inclusion and Community will be located in what is currently known as the Intercultural House at 727 East Broadway, across from the Center for Science and Business. The name for the center grew out of the Champion Miller 1860 Fund, which since 2021 has raised more than $27,000 for DEI programming and support. Born a slave in Kentucky in 1808, Miller was taught to read and write by a student at Monmouth’s Theological Seminary
of the Northwest between 1858–60. Miller was instrumental in the organization of the First African Church of Monmouth, which was founded by Monmouth College President David Wallace in 1865, and which later became Fourth United Presbyterian Church. After that congregation was disbanded in 1871, Miller attended First United Presbyterian Church, which was organized by the founders of Monmouth College in 1853. He and his wife, whose freedom he also purchased, are buried in Monmouth. A student research project to learn more about Miller and other early Black citizens of Monmouth is planned for this August through the College’s Summer Opportunities for Intellectual Activities (SOFIA) program.
SPRING 2022
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