Marshall University’s annual Diversity Breakfast is 7:30 a.m. Friday in the Don Morris room of the Memorial Student Center.

The theme of this year’s Diversity Breakfast is “We Are the World.”

Associate Vice President of Intercultural Affairs Maurice Cooley said nearly 360 Marshall faculty, staff, students and guests of the community will celebrate the importance of diversity.

“It is important that the university continue to celebrate and educate, as well as to promote the spirit of thinking because we’re educational leaders,” Cooley said.

The Marshall Jazz Ensemble will play as attendees enter.

The event will start with prayers from three different faiths followed by the breakfast and more jazz music.

Eduardo Pino, medical director of clinical transformation and pediatric intensive care at Cabell Huntington Hospital, will speak after breakfast.

Pino, originally from Cuba, won four major awards in the field of medicine and won more than five chairs at the CHH and a position on the board of directors.

Cooley said these events are important to celebrate and embrace differences.

“Our environment, here at the university, consists of students and faculty from 59 different countries,” Cooley said. “Our family  is represented probably by all the primary religions, the colors and the races of the world.”

Caitlin Fowlkes can be contacted at [email protected].