AMERICUS — Georgia Southwestern State University (GSW) host its annual MLK Convocation at 11 a.m. Jan. 18 in the Convocation Hall of the Student Success Center. The keynote speaker is Jerry L. Hardee, Ph.D., special assistant to the president (retired) of Life University, and lifelong educator. This year’s theme for convocation is “Realizing King’s Dream in the Urgency of Now.”
Hardee has spent the past quarter-century as an executive administrator at three University System of Georgia institutions. He served as the vice president for Academic Affairs at Albany State University, the assistant to the president for Equal Opportunity Programs and Multicultural Affairs and professor of educational leadership at Valdosta State University, and as director of Institutional Advancement at Fort Valley State University.
Hardee demonstrated his continuing commitment to education by coming out of retirement in 1999, to serve as the third president of Sherman College of Straight Chiropractic. He was the first African American to serve as president of an accredited chiropractic college.
Hardee holds a doctorate degree in education and a certificate of advanced study in educational administration from Northern Illinois University, a master’s degree in science education from Fisk University, a bachelor’s degree in mathematics with a minor in chemistry from Clark College and an honorary doctorate of chiropractic humanities from Sherman College.
He has been honored with the Georgia Distinguished Service Award from Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. and the Project Change-Valdosta Community Service Award. Hardee was invited by President Bill Clinton to receive the Ron Brown Award for Corporate Leadership on behalf of the Levi Strauss Foundation.
Most recently, Hardee was named to The Colloquium of Scholars by the Martin Luther King Jr. International College of Ministers and Laity at Morehouse College and the Candle in the Dark Honoree for 2015 by the Lowndes County Valdosta Martin Luther King Committee.
The MLK Convocation is sponsored by the Americus-Sumter Movement Remembered Committee, SABU, GSW Student Affairs, the GSW National PanHellenic Council, and the Student Government Association.
For additional information, call (229) 931-2037.