William Carey University will award degrees during three commencement ceremonies May 12 and 13, 2017. All ceremonies will be held at Temple Baptist Church located at 5220 Old Highway 11 in Hattiesburg. The graduation services have been moved off-campus this year due to continuing repairs from the January tornado.
The schedule and guest speakers are as follows:
Friday, May 12 at 6 p.m. - Commencement for Hattiesburg campus master's degree students, specialists, and doctoral candidates. Guest speaker will be Dr. Neal Gregg, orthopaedic surgeon at Southern Bone and Joint Specialists. Gregg is a Hattiesburg native, a 1994 graduate of Hattiesburg High School, and he earned a Bachelor of Science from Carey in 1998. While at Carey he was a member of the baseball team and was recognized as NAIA Baseball All-America Scholar Athlete. Following graduation, Gregg was drafted in the 21st round of the 1998 amateur baseball draft by the New York Yankees organization. His professional career included stents in Oneonta, New York; Tampa, Florida; Staten Island, New York, and Greensboro, North Carolina. At the conclusion of his playing career, he received the degree of Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine from Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences in 2005, graduating Summa Cum Laude. He completed his residency in orthopaedic surgery from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, Georgia, in 2010. His practice at Southern Bone and Joint Specialists includes caring for student athletes at Hattiesburg High School and William Carey University. He also currently serves as an adjunct clinical professor for the WCU College of Osteopathic Medicine, where he performs as a preceptor for third- and fourth-year osteopathic medical students on clinical rotations. He and his wife, Elizabeth, have three daughters.
Saturday, May 13 at 9 a.m. - Commencement for the Hattiesburg campus undergraduate students. Guest speaker will be Charles (Chuck) Scianna, co-founder of Sim-Tex, L.P., a leading supplier of Oil Country Tubular Goods to the oil and gas industry. Scianna, a native of Bay St. Louis, is a 1971 graduate of Bay High School, a 1975 graduate of The University of Southern Mississippi, and a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps. He has served on the board of directors of the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, the USM Foundation, and the Boys and Girls Country. He is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, Bellville Council Knights of Columbus, St. Peter Catholic Church and St. Paul Catholic Church. He is a life member of the USM Alumni Association and a member of the USM Alumni Hall of Fame and the USM Circle of Champions. He and his wife Rita made a significant gift to Carey to assist in the recovery from the January tornado.
Saturday, May 13 at 1 p.m. - Commencement for undergraduate and graduate students from the Tradition campus. Guest speaker will be Adam Breerwood, vice president for Pearl River Community College Poplarville Campus and Hancock Center. A native of Waveland, Breerwood is a Carey graduate and earned a history degree in 1997 and a Master's in Education in 1999. He completed his Ph.D. in higher education administration from The University of Southern Mississippi in 2003. Breerwood has been employed at PRCC since 1997 when he was hired as assistant baseball coach. In 2002, he was named as PRCC's assistant director of recruitment and orientation and was promoted to director in 2003. He served as dean of student services for eight years before being promoted to vice president of the main campus in 2011. In July 2017, Breerwood will become PRCC's 11th president following the retirement of Dr. William Lewis.
For more information about commencement, please call the registrar's office at (601) 318-6195.