MAGNOLIA – Spring commencement exercises at Southern Arkansas University are scheduled to take place during three ceremonies on Friday, May 6. During the ceremonies, a total of 332 students are expected to receive degrees.
The Department of Nursing commencement will take place at 2 p.m. with America Farrell, chief executive officer of the Medical Center of South Arkansas, as the speaker. The School of Graduate Studies commencement will take place at 4 p.m. with Dr. David Ashby, professor of finance, as the speaker. Both of these ceremonies will be held in the Grand Hall of the Donald W. Reynolds Campus and Community Center.
All undergraduates (excluding nursing students) will participate in commencement during a ceremony at 7 p.m. on the University Mall. University Historian Dr. James Willis will be the speaker for this ceremony.
Willis taught full-time at SAU from 1969 to 2005, reaching the rank of professor. He received his bachelor’s degree from Southern State College and his master’s and doctorate degrees from Duke University. He is the author of Prologue to Nuremberg: The Politics and Diplomacy of Punishing War Criminals of the First World War (1982) and of the recent Southern Arkansas University: the Mulerider School’s Centennial History.
In 1983 he was named University Honor Professor at SAU. He was named University Historian by the Board of Trustees in 2008, the first such designation in SAU’s history.
Ashby is the Peoples Bank Professor of Finance at SAU. In addition, he is the director of the financial planning program and is a managing member of Mustard Seed Financial, LLC, a fee-only investment advisory firm.
Ashby is a previous recipient of the SAU Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching and the SAU Faculty Excellence Award for Research. He has served on numerous committees of the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards and currently serves on the CFP Board’s Council on Examinations. He has published papers in numerous professional journals and won the 2002 Article Award for outstanding paper presented by the CFP Board. He teaches courses primarily in the areas of retirement planning, estate planning, and personal finance.
Farrell began her career as a licensed practical nurse, after which she worked her way through school to become a registered nurse and critical care nurse. She completed her bachelor of science in nursing at age 40 and her master of business administration at 44. She has worked in large and small hospitals, in for-profit and not-for-profit arenas, as a corporate healthcare consultant, and in the organ transplant arena. She has been in hospital management and administration for over 15 years and has been a chief nursing officer and chief operating officer before becoming a CEO.
Farrell is active in the Arkansas Hospital Association, the American Hospital Association (serving as an alternate delegate to the Regional Policy Board, Region 7), and the Federation of American Hospitals. She has been a member of Sigma Theta Tau for over 20 years and keeps an active Arkansas nursing license. She has earned the Fellow distinction from her professional organization, the American College of Healthcare Executives, which only approximately seven percent of hospital administrators have earned.
