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87th Delta Council Annual Meeting to be hosted at Delta State June 17

CLEVELAND, Miss.—Bestselling author, motivational speaker and Oxford native David Magee will be the keynote speaker for the business section of the 87th Annual Meeting of Delta Council, which will be held June 17 at Delta State University.

The meeting will be held at the Bologna Performing Arts Center (BPAC), located on Delta State’s campus in Cleveland.

David Magee

“We are delighted to welcome such an accomplished Mississippian to keynote our annual meeting,” said Delta Council President Patrick Johnson Jr. “David Magee’s personal and professional journeys are both remarkable and diverse, from a local business owner, a councilman in Oxford, to a bestselling author and regular guest on CNBC, all while fighting personal battles behind the face of success.”

Magee wrote the memoir “Dear William,” about intergenerational family addiction and recovery, and is an award-winning columnist, author and TEDx speaker. He has been a daily newspaper publisher, a small business owner and a regular guest on CNBC, and he once hosted a national cable TV program, “The David Magee Show.”

Magee has written several other bestsellers including “How Toyota Became #1,” “Turn Around: How Carlos Ghosn Rescued Nissan,” “The John Deere Way” and “Ford Tough.”

He is currently the director of institute advancement at the University of Mississippi, the role he started after helping create and launch The William Magee Center for Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) and Wellness Education at the university, named for his late son, who died of a drug overdose.

The Magee Center focuses on substance misuse education and support within the university, and the effort is about to grow beyond, into the university’s next standalone national institute, the Magee Institute for Student Wellbeing.

David and his wife, Kent, reside in Oxford.

The 2022 Delta Council Day will commence with the 19th annual Salute to Delta Honor Graduates event at 9 a.m., held outside the BPAC on the lawn. This will include a welcome for the graduates, their families and school officials and the presentation of certificates to the graduates.

The Delta Honor Graduate event is designed to recognize exemplary students from each of the high schools throughout the Mississippi Delta region, including public, parochial and private schools.

In addition, a $2,500 scholarship will be awarded to the Top Delta Honor Graduate as selected by higher education officials in the Delta. The Top Delta Honor Graduate will be recognized on stage at the Delta Council Annual Meeting during the 10:30 am Business Session.

At 10:30 a.m. in the auditorium of the BPAC, after the inaugural presentation of the colors and God and Country, the business session will proceed into the recognition of the 2021-2022 Good Middling Community Service Award and the tradition of the Wear Cotton contest, followed by a special message from David Magee.

A fried catfish luncheon and Achievement Awards Ceremony will wrap up Delta Council Day on the grounds of the Quadrangle on the Delta State University campus.