Over a thousand Tallahassee State College students are set to cross the stage April 30 taking part in the spring commencement celebration featuring higher education executive Amelia Parnell. as the keynote speaker.
TSC’s spring commencement ceremony will take place at 6 p.m. at the Tucker Center, where 1,882 graduates will receive diplomas for their associate degrees.
“It is a privilege to be a part of our students’ educational journey,” TSC President Jim Murdaugh said in a prepared statement. “We are extremely proud of the students’ dedication and perseverance. We look forward to celebrating each of them and this significant milestone.”
As TSC’s commencement speake, Parnell – president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) since July 2024 – will be delivering a keynote address to the graduating class. NASPA is a leading professional association for student affairs administrators in higher education.
An alumna of the capital city’s universities, Parnell graduated from Florida A&M University with both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration in 2001 and 2003, and she earned her doctoral degree in higher education from Florida State University in 2010. Prior to serving as NASPA’s president and CEO, she was the association’s vice president for research and policy in 2015, where she led many of its scholarly and advocacy-focused activities.
Parnell is also a public speaker who frequently presents on topics related to higher education, student affairs, college affordability, student learning outcomes and institutions’ use of data and analytics at conferences in recent spaces such as Spelman College, Stony Brook University and Waukesha County Technical College. She’s been quoted in publications including The Wall Street Journal, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed and PBS NewsHour, according to NASPA.
In addition, Parnell formerly served on the board of directors for EDUCAUSE – a nonprofit association that has the mission of advancing higher education through the use of information technology – and she is also an accomplished author. She wrote the book “You Are a Data Person: Strategies for Using Analytics on Campus” in 2021 and is the co-editor of the book “The Analytics Revolution in Higher Education: Big Data, Organizational Learning, and Student Success,” which was published in 2018.
On top of Parnell being tapped to address the college’s graduating class, TSC Student Government Association President Bryan Bacallo – a native of Cuba and criminology major who plans to continue his education at FSU – will deliver student remarks.
TSC’s ceremony is open to the public.
Tarah Jean is the higher education reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat, a member of the USA TODAY Network – Florida. She can be reached at tjean@tallahassee.com. Follow her on X: @tarahjean_.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: TSC spring graduation will have higher ed executive as keynote speaker
Reporting by Tarah Jean, Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
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