Cultivating Women Leaders Speaker Series Brings Polo Reo Tate to OC March 3

Polo Reo Tate, author, actor and activist, will present as part of the Cultivating Women Leaders Speaker Series on Wednesday, March 3, from 1 to 2 p.m.

The speaker series is a program of the Olivet College Women’s Leadership Institute (WLI). The event is free and will be presented through Zoom. Registration is available at https://cwlss3321.eventbrite.com/.

A Lansing native and the great-great-granddaughter of automotive pioneer Ransom Eli Olds, Tate was eager to accept the challenges that awaited her as she headed to the U.S. Air Force Academy after high school.

Tate was not prepared, however, for the level of harassment or the physical, emotional and sexual abuse from her peers and superiors that greeted her arrival — a horrific personal journey of survival and resilience that Tate chronicles in her memoir, “DEEP DARK BLUE: A Memoir of Survival.”

She restarted her college education at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, playing volleyball for the Irish and graduating with a bachelor’s degree in film, television and theater. Today, Tate is an author by soul, actor by trade and artist at heart, working between New York City and Los Angeles.

Learn more about the Olivet College Women’s Leadership Institute and Cultivating Women Leaders Speaker Series by contacting Jamilia Johnson at 269-749-7667 or jamjohnson@olivetcollege.edu.