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Watch it LIVE May 11 on PCTV or online.***
Parkland College will hold its 45th Commencement Exercises on Friday, May 11, at 8 p.m. at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in Urbana. Nearly 1,100 candidates for graduation will be earning an associate's degree or certificate this year. Keynote speaker for the event will be University of Illinois Vice President and Chancellor Phyllis M. Wise.
Prior to her appointment at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2011, Dr. Wise served as interim president of the University of Washington in Seattle, where she had also served as executive vice president and provost (five years) and as professor of physiology and biophysics, biology, and obstetrics and gynecology.
Dr. Wise earned a bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College in biology and a doctorate degree in zoology from the University of Michigan. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a member of the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine. She continues an active research program in issues concerning women's health and gender-based biology.
Other honored guests during commencement will include Murray R. Wise, CEO of Murray Wise Associates LLC, who will receive an honorary associate's degree, and Dr. Stuart King, MD, MBA, of the Department of Spine & Pain Management at Christie Clinic, who will be honored with the college's distinguished alumnus award. Mr. Wise served as founder, chairman, and CEO of the Champaign-based Westchester Group, Inc., one of the country's leading agricultural asset management companies, which he sold in 2010. Dr. King, a specialist in painful disorders of the spine and back, is also a clinical assistant professor of surgery at the University of Illinois' College of Medicine and a past chair of anesthesiology for Gibson Area Hospital in Gibson City, Illinois.
Parkland College's commencement will also include remarks from college President Thomas Ramage, Board of Trustees Chair James L. Ayers, and graduating student M.C. Neal, president of Parkland's Phi Theta Kappa international honor society chapter and All-USA Academic Team nominee. Father John F. Cyr of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Tolono will provide the invocation/benediction, and the Parkland College Wind Ensemble will perform several selections.
A reception will be held in the Krannert Center lobby after the recessional. Tickets are required.