The final event of Black History Month at Texas A&M University- Kingsville, the annual Black Heritage Awareness Banquet, will be held at 6 p.m. Monday, March 1, in the Grand Ballroom of the Memorial Student Union Building (MSUB). The keynote speaker is Gloria Smith, alumna and local motivational speaker. Tickets for the banquet are $10 and they are available at the information desk of the MSUB.

Smith is a native of Refugio and a graduate of Texas A&I University with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education with specialties in speech and journalism.

As a speaker, she helps her audience look inside themselves. She is a straight forward presenter who energizes audiences all over the country.

She is a 20-year professional in the public transportation industry. Smith began as a bus operator in 1985, but used her leadership skills to move into the dispatch office.

That was the beginning of her career that took her to Illinois, Maryland, Washington D.C. and around Texas.

Her role as a public transportation professional and a woman in a maledominated world has given her many of the topics she talks about to her audiences.

She also has volunteered in every community in which she lived. Transportation and advocating for children with disabilities and women are her passions.

Smith is a life member of NAACP and Kappa Alpha Sorority and she is a member of League of Women Voters, Blacks in Government, the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials and St. John Baptist Church in Corpus Christi.

She and her husband, Robert, have four children and six grandchildren.