Nationally renowned Baptist minister the Rev. Rae Lewis Thornton will make presentations this month at Ottawa University, part of its annual Hostetter-DeFries Family Endowed Cultural Event.

The Rev. Thornton is scheduled to speak at 7 p.m. Feb. 28 and 11 a.m. March 1 in the university chapel, 1001 S. Cedar St., Ottawa.

In 1986, at the age of 23, Thornton learned that she was HIV-positive during a routine blood drive visit in Washington. D.C. Now living with full-blown AIDS, Rae travels the country to educate the nation’s youth and adult population about the disease, as well as common stereotypes and myths surrounding who and how one can become infected. She uses her own life experiences to demonstrate that AIDS is a nondiscriminatory disease, and she challenges her audience members to take control of their health.

Rae’s AIDS education efforts and unique story have earned her a voice on nationally syndicated news and entertainment programs, such as “Nightline” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” She also has been featured in stories in Emerge and Ebony magazines, appearing on the cover of Ebony’s December 1994 issue and being named one of America’s 57 Most Intriguing People by the magazine in 2002. In addition, Rae received an Emmy Award as a contributing editor for a series of first-person stories on living with AIDS featured on WBBM-TV, a CBS station.

Licensed as a baptist minister in July 2000 at Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago, Rae now serves as an associate minister with the church. She received a Master of Divinity degree from McCormick Theological Seminary in June 2003 and was the recipient of the Arthur Hays Fellowship in Church History. She is currently a doctoral candidate at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago.