Tarana Burke is the founder of the #MeToo movement and American civil rights activist. She is known for being the first to use the phrase "Me Too", in 2006, to raise awareness of the pervasiveness of sexual abuse and assault in society. The phrase has since developed into a broader movement. Time named Burke, among a group of other prominent female activists dubbed "the silence breakers", as the Time Person of the Year for 2017. She is currently Senior Director at Girls for Gender Equity.

Burke’s visit is sponsored by College of Arts & Letters; College of Communication Arts and Sciences; College of Education; College of Music; College of Natural Science; College of Social Science; Honors College; University Outreach and Engagement.

Burke's visit also was made possible by the generous support of the co-sponsors of the Transformative Justice Speaker Series. Those co-sponsors include the College of Arts & Letters, Department of Philosophy, African American and African Studies, Lyman Briggs College, Decolonial Feminist Collective, American Indian and Indigenous Studies, Chicano/Latino Studies, Center for Gender in Global Context, Peace and Justice Studies, the Timnick Chair in the Humanities, and the MSU Womxn of Color Initiatives.