Illinois Speaker of the House Rep. Emanuel "Chris" Welch will deliver this year's Monmouth College Midwest Matters Lecture.

Welch will speak at 1 p.m. April 26 in the Hewes Library Studio Theater, which is on the lower level of Hewes Library. His talk is free and open to the public.

Welch, who has represented the 7th District in the Chicago area since 2013, was elected the 70th speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives in January 2021. The first Black to serve in the position, Welch has also served as chair of the House Executive Committee and before that chaired the Higher Education Committee.

As state representative, Welch has focused on improving classroom education, creating jobs, helping the state's most vulnerable residents, and streamlining state government. Welch was the chief sponsor of several pieces of historic legislation, including the law bringing cursive writing back into schools, the Historic Illinois Trust Act, which made Illinois a more welcoming state for immigrants, and the Homeless Bill of Rights.

A leading voice for adding people of color to the boards of publicly held corporations, Welch sponsored landmark legislation that requires Illinois corporations to annually disclose their board composition.

He has received several awards for his legislative record, including the prestigious Zeke Giorgi Award from the AFL-CIO and the Friend and Education Award from the Illinois Education Association.

Prior to being elected to the General Assembly, Welch served 12 years on the Proviso Township High School Board of Education, including 10 years as board chair. Welch led the Proviso School Board in the creation of the Proviso Math and Science Academy, a school recognized by Chicago Magazine and U.S. News & World Report.

A graduate of Proviso West High School, Northwestern University and The John Marshall Law School, Welch is a 2016 inductee into the John Marshall Law School Wall of Fame.

His chief of staff is 2012 Monmouth graduate Jaclyn Driscoll.