MARYVILLE, Mo. – Northwest Missouri State University announced its 2016-17 Distinguished Lecture Series. 

According to a news release, the schedule features The Onion’s co-founder, the first openly transgender employee of an Orthodox Jewish institution and a Roman Catholic nun.

The series begins Wednesday, Oct. 12, with co-founding editor of The Onion Scott Dikkers.

The Onion’s longest-serving editor-in-chief is the godfather of its unique comedic vision and best-selling author whose work has won the Thurber Prize for American Humor, a Peabody and more than 30 Webby Awards. 

“To have someone of Dikkers’ stature here, and especially so shortly before the General Election, presented an opportunity we simply couldn’t pass up, especially when he offered to take time during the afternoon to conduct a master’s class for our creative writing students,” Kenton Wilcox, the chair of the Distinguished Lecture Series Committee and an English instructor at the University said.

The series also includes Dr. Joy Ladin, the first openly transgender employee of an Orthodox Jewish university, and Sister Helen Prejean, an American advocate for the abolition of the death penalty.

Ladin will speak on Tuesday, Oct. 25. Her memoir, “Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between Genders,” was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award, and she was named to the 2012 Forward 50 list of influential or courageous American Jews. 

Sister Helen Prejean will speak Wednesday, Feb. 15. From 1985 to 1995 she served on the board of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and was chairperson of the Board from 1993 to 1995.

Her book, “Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty,” was No. 1 on The New York Times Best Seller List for 31 weeks. In 1996, the book was developed into a major motion picture starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. 

All lectures are free and open to the public and begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Charles Johnson Theater at the Olive DeLuce Fine Arts Building on the Northwest campus.