Georgia Southern Announces Fall Commencement Speakers

Georgia Southern University will hold its 22nd Annual Fall Commencement with three graduation ceremonies at Hanner Fieldhouse on Friday, Dec. 13.

Georgia Southern alumna and Chatham County District Attorney Meg Heap (‘96) returns to campus to speak at the 9 a.m. graduation ceremony for the Jack N. Averitt College of Graduate Studies, College of Science and Mathematics and College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS). Heap, recently named the CLASS alumna of the year, has been a longtime advocate of crime victims and was the first elder abuse prosecutor in Georgia.

Insurance industry executive Jack Jennings will speak at the 11 a.m. ceremony for the Jack N. Averitt College of Graduate Studies, Center for International Studies, Allen E. Paulson College of Engineering and Information Technology and College of Business Administration. Jennings is executive vice president at Willis North America and oversees a risk management practice group with the insurance broker.

Russell Toal, M.P.H., director of the Center for Rural Health and Research at Georgia Southern, will serve as the commencement speaker at the 1 p.m. graduation ceremony for the Jack N. Averitt College of Graduate Studies, College of Education, Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health and College of Health and Human Sciences. Toal also serves as the chair of the McIntosh County Board of Health and was the founder of the Georgia Cancer Coalition.

The commencement ceremonies on Dec. 13 will be streamed live at GeorgiaSouthern.tv.