Graduation season is upon us, and thus, Georgia Southern University has announced the speakers for the upcoming spring 2023 commencement ceremonies, which will take place in Statesboro and Savannah. Approximately 4,200 students across both campuses will graduate with associates, baccalaureate, master’s, specialist and doctoral degrees.
The Savannah ceremonies will take place on Saturday, May 13 at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. at Enmarket Arena. During the morning ceremony, students from arts and humanities, education, sciences and mathematics, behavioral and social sciences, business, engineering and computing colleges will graduate. Savannah Mayor Van Johnson will deliver the commencement address for the 10 a.m. ceremony.
Purpose, passion and people are the guiding principles that drive Savannah’s 67th mayor. A Southern transplant originally from New York, Johnson earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Savannah State University and Georgia Southern, respectively.
He advocates for Savannah nationally through his service on the board of directors of the National League of Cities, being just the fourth elected official from Savannah to do so. Recently, Johnson also served as the chair of the advisory board of the National League of Cities, becoming the first Savannahian to hold such an office.
He is known locally and nationally for his innovative leadership particularly in the areas of youth development and engagement, having served for more than 23 years as the director of the Chatham County Youth Commission.
Johnson has received broad recognition for his philanthropy and influence. He has been conferred the Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Savannah State University, and he served as the Savannah Martin Luther King Observance Day Parade Marshal. In 2017, he was honored by the Savannah Black Heritage Festival.
He has received several awards including the Association of the County Commissioners of Georgia Civic and Community Service Award and the King Tisdell Cottage Foundation’s James P. Simms Public Service Award. He is also a 2016 Savannah State University Fellow.
Johnson is a lifetime member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and the International Fraternity of Delta Sigma Pi and numerous other social and civic organizations.
The speaker for the afternoon Savannah commencement ceremony is Rebecca King. She will address graduating students from the colleges of health professions and public health.
King is a state lobbyist for the American College of Surgeons based in Washington, D.C. where she advocates on behalf of more than 75,000 surgeons and their patients throughout the country. In this role, she empowers surgeons to engage state legislators on an array of health policy issues like Medicaid expansion, surgical quality and safety, physician payment, medical liability reform, cancer screenings and prevention and state trauma system funding among others.
King is a Double Eagle, having earned two degrees from Georgia Southern, and she attributes much of her success to her professional involvement with Campus Recreation and Intramurals during her time as a student. Since graduating with a bachelor’s in public health in 2015 and a master’s in healthcare administration in 2017, she has had incredible professional opportunities that include optimizing a surgical service line of a $2.5 billion health care system and designing and implementing national patient health education programs.
Before transitioning to her career in governmental affairs, King managed an employee wellness program for a national cancer research institute in Bar Harbor, Maine, in addition to the National Health Service Corps program for a 9-hospital healthcare system in upstate New York where she first began as a healthcare administrative fellow.
Beyond her work with ACS, King is also actively involved with the premier networking organization, Women in Government Relations, where she completed the Judy Schneider Fellowship. She also serves as co-chair of the Georgia Southern D.C. Area Alumni Network.
For more information, visit georgiasouthern.edu/commencement/.
This article appears in Apr 1-30, 2023.