Mississippi College Sets December 2013 Graduations
A nursing leader, an award-winning professor and prominent Tennessee businessman will serve as keynote speakers at Mississippi College’s three commencements on December 20.
Dr. Lisa Eichelberger, dean of Clayton State University’s School of Nursing in Morrow, Georgia, will address 26 graduating MC student nurses. Ceremonies in Swor Auditorium on the Clinton campus will begin at 11 a.m.
Eichelberger served as dean of MC’s School of Nursing from 1987 to 1995. The leader of Clayton State’s School of Nursing since 2005, she’s a former assistant nursing dean at Auburn University.
A few hours later, David Miller, Mississippi College’s distinguished professor of the year, will speak at MC’s undergraduate ceremonies at 2 p.m. that Friday in the A.E. Wood Coliseum.
Miller is the former interim chairman of the English Department and leads the Christian university’s Honors Council. An expert in American and British literature, the Pennsylvania native joined the MC faculty in 1991 after teaching for a year at King College in Bristol, Tennessee.
Dr. Miller is a 1984 Summa Cum Laude graduate of Nyack College in New York, and earned a master’s and doctorate in English at Baylor University. The Clinton resident served as a London Semester professor on three occasions. He sings in the choir at Northside Baptist Church in Clinton and writes liturgies for special services.
“I feel blessed to be among such a devoted and hard-working faculty as we have at MC,” Miller said after receiving the Baptist-affiliated university’s top teaching award a few months ago.
Don “Papa” Jordan, a Memphis area businessman selected the 2011 Alumnus of the Year for the Mississippi College School of Business, keynotes the Graduate School commencement. It’s set for the A.E. Wood Coliseum at 7 p.m. that Friday evening. More than 200 graduate students will receive diplomas in the facility, home of the Choctaws basketball teams.
A 1951 MC graduate, Jordan grew up in Kosciusko and became the first MC graduate to attend Harvard Business School. In the early 1990s, he and his son, Trey Jordan, opened their own restaurant, Holiday Ham & Deli in Memphis.
This family-oriented restaurant operates several locations in Memphis and Knoxville. The franchise restaurant on the Clinton campus is called Pimento’s Café in light of the eatery’s signature pimento cheese.
The Graduate School commencement will spotlight the university’s first 29 physician assistant students to be awarded diplomas. The two and one-half-year P.A. program is based at the Baptist Healthplex. The program trains professionals to work under the supervision of physicians in a region with vast healthcare needs.
Working with the University of Mississippi Medical Center, federal clinics and other healthcare facilities, it is the only one of its type in the Magnolia State. MC School of Law students will also receive degrees that Friday night.
A total of 458 students have applied for the December 20 commencements at Mississippi College.
Sign-up For Our Newsletter
Get the latest news about Mississippi College delivered right to your inbox by subscribing to the Along College Street e-newsletter.
