INVETITURE Ceremony Program-SQ.qxp_Layout 1 2/28/17 11:37 AM Page 1 PresidentialINVESTITURE CEREMONY PALM BEACH STATE COLLEGE | MARCH 2, 2017 INVETITURE Ceremony Program-SQ.qxp_Layout 1 2/28/17 11:37 AM Page 2 The Investiture Ceremomy ich in tradition and protocol, an investiture is an academic ceremony that has R symbolized the pursuit of knowledge for centuries. It is defined as the “formal ceremony of conferring the authority and symbols of high office.” In addition to this historic purpose, today’s colleges and universities view investitures as opportunities to welcome a new era in the life of the institution and to celebrate as a community. A presidential investiture includes an academic procession of the institution’s own faculty as well as delegates from other colleges and universities. Marchers wear the colorful academic regalia of their own institutions. Interspersed with musical interludes, the event includes greetings from members of the college, the higher education community and government and others leaders. INVETITURE Ceremony Program-SQ.qxp_Layout 1 2/28/17 11:37 AM Page 1 THE INVESTITURE OF Ava L. Parker, J.D. FIFTH PRESIDENT of PALM BEACH STATE COLLEGE March 2, 2017 4:00 P.M. WATSON B. DUNCAN III THEATRE LAKE WORTH, FLORIDA 1 INVETITURE Ceremony Program-SQ.qxp_Layout 1 2/28/17 11:37 AM Page 2 PALM BEACH STATE COLLEGE Ceremony MUSICAL PRELUDE Greetings CALL TO ORDER COUNCIL OF PRESIDENTS Sydney Kitson, Chairman and CEO, Kitson & Partners Dr. Eileen Holden, President, Polk State College GOVERNMENT PROCESSIONAL Madeline Pumariega, Chancellor, Florida College System Commencement March Paulette Burdick, Mayor, Palm Beach County Bobby Powell, Jr., State Senator, District 30 INVOCATION Bishop Adam J. Richardson, Jr., 11th Episcopal STATE UNIVERSITIES District of the AME Church Dr. John Kelly, President, Florida Atlantic University PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES PRESENTATION OF THE COLORS Dr. William M. B. Fleming, Jr., President, Palm Beach Atlantic University Palm Beach State College Law Enforcement Academy BUSINESS Color Guard Mark Bellissimo, Managing Partner, Wellington Equestrian Partners LLC Chris Nielsen, Founder, Levatas NATIONAL ANTHEM Eric Silagy, President and CEO, Florida Power & Light Company Palm Beach State College Quartet ALUMNI Patrick Kolta Clarence E. Anthony, Executive Director, National League of Cities Michael MacMullen Carlos Marin Alma Mater & Panther Cheer Ryan McKenzie Led by Palm Beach State College students Patrick Kolta & David Hernandez STUDENTS David Hernandez, Student Trustee Welcome & Acknowledgments FACULTY Sydney Kitson, Chairman and CEO, Kitson & Partners Nicholas Larocca, President, United Faculty of Palm Beach State College DISTRICT BOARD OF TRUSTEES Charles K. Cross, Jr., Chairperson 2 INVETITURE Ceremony Program-SQ.qxp_Layout 1 2/28/17 11:37 AM Page 3 Investiture of the PRESIDENT DISTRICT BOARD OF TRUSTEES Carolyn L. Williams, Trustee Assisted by Trustees Charles K. Cross, Jr., Wendy S. Link, Barbara Miedema and Dr. Dennis P. Gallon, President Emeritus INVESTITURE ADDRESS Ava L. Parker,J.D., PRESIDENT Gift Recognition OF JAN WINKLER & HERMINE DREZNER CLOSING Yvonne Boice, Palm Beach State College Foundation Board z BENEDICTION Rabbi Cookie Lea Olshein, Temple Israel RECESSIONAL Reception immediately following the ceremony in the Campus Commons 3 INVETITURE Ceremony Program-SQ.qxp_Layout 1 2/28/17 11:37 AM Page 4 INVETITURE Ceremony Program-SQ.qxp_Layout 1 2/28/17 11:37 AM Page 5 PRESIDENT Ava L. Parker, J.D. Palm Beach State College President Ava L. Parker leads Palm National Bar Association. The South Florida Business Journal Beach County’s largest higher education institution with a has named her to its 2017 Power Leaders List, and she was strategic approach emphasizing innovation, student success, profiled recently in the Florida Leadership publication. and business and community collaboration. Parker is the first female president in the history of the institution, which Active in community organizations, Parker is on the board of opened in 1933 as Florida’s first public community college. directors of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach Under President Parker’s leadership, the College has opened County, the Economic Council, the Central Palm Beach a fifth campus, improved student success rates and increased Chamber of Commerce and the Palm Beach North Chamber support for the College from both public and private sources. of Commerce, where she also serves on the Strategic PBSC also has set enrollment records, with the highest fall Planning Committee. She is a member of the West Palm enrollment in the College’s history achieved in Fall 2016. Beach Chapter of the Links, and she was honored as a female leader by the Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church. In high An esteemed educational leader at the local, state and demand for her motivating and inspiring presentations, she national levels, President Parker serves on the Advisory has recently been the featured speaker for the Urban League, Committee of Presidents of the Association of Community Palm Beach County Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration, College Trustees. She also is the support councils liaison for Scholastic Achievement Foundation of Palm Beach County, the Association of Florida Colleges’ Council of Presidents. Executive Women of the Palm Beaches, American Association Before joining Palm Beach State, President Parker was of University Women, Women’s Chamber of Commerce of executive vice president and chief operating officer at Florida Palm Beach County, Leadership Palm Beach County and the Polytechnic University, the state’s first public university West Palm Beach chapter of the National Coalition of 100 focused on applied research in STEM (science, technology, Black Women. engineering and mathematics) fields. She served for more than a decade on the Florida Board of Governors of the State Earlier in her professional career, Parker was a partner in the University System, including serving as board chair; she also Jacksonville law firm of Lawrence & Parker, general counsel served on the University of Central Florida’s Board of Trustees for the 11th Episcopal District of the AME Church, assistant and was general counsel at Edward Waters College. general counsel for the state Department of Transportation, and assistant public defender in Miami-Dade County. Parker’s leadership extends beyond the educational realm. She is on the board of directors of Orchid Island Capital, a A native of Santa Rosa County in Northwest Florida, Parker publicly-traded specialty finance company. She is a member earned her B.A. and J.D. degrees from the University of of the Women’s International Leadership Forum and a Florida. She and her husband, Joe Gibbons, are the parents member of Leadership Florida Class XXI. She also served as of twins, Bailey and Parker. president of the Virgil Hawkins Florida Chapter of the 5 INVETITURE Ceremony Program-SQ.qxp_Layout 1 2/28/17 11:38 AM Page 6 ACADEMIC MACE The Academic Mace is a descendant from weapons in ancient and medieval times that were carried by bodyguards. Over time, the mace became a symbol of peaceful leadership, and academic maces represent the authority that has been invested in the president by the college’s Board. The mace is carried in processions by a high official or a representative of the Governing Board. At Palm Beach State College, the mace is carried at every commencement by the faculty member with the longest tenure at the College. The Palm Beach State College mace is a tinted glass flame. The College seal is embedded in this glass flame, symbolic of scholars igniting the quest for knowledge. At the base of the flame are golden pillars proclaiming various areas of study pursued at the College. 6 INVETITURE Ceremony Program-SQ.qxp_Layout 1 2/28/17 11:38 AM Page 7 MEDALLION In the Middle Ages, persons in leadership positions often wore Chains of the Office that they held. Many college and university presidents wear these specially designed presidential chains and medallions on ceremonial occasions, as a symbol of the embodiment of the power, authority and autonomy vested in them by the institution. The medallion created for the President of Palm Beach State College includes a cast of the seal of the College. Around the links holding the seal are platelets with the name of each former president of Palm Beach State College. At the moment during the ceremony when the new President is formally invested with the presidency, she will immediately don the medallion for the fifth president. She will continue to wear the medallion at commencements, academic convocations and any other ceremonial events requiring academic regalia. 7 INVETITURE Ceremony Program-SQ.qxp_Layout 1 2/28/17 11:38 AM Page 8 Academic into being to identify the various unadorned black robe. Those with the ATTIRE members’ individual affiliations. master’s degree also wear a hood lined with the colors of their college and The academic attire worn at today’s Universities gradually modified the trimmed with the specific color investiture ceremony is based on a history gowns, capes, hoods and caps into designated for their academic discipline of tradition which began in medieval distinctive forms to identify an area. The doctoral degree robe Europe. At a time when the general type individual’s level of academic additionally has three velvet bars on each of clothing worn was the robe or gown, achievement. In the 1890s, American sleeve, and the hood is more ornate. individual rank or wealth was indicated colleges and universities agreed upon a by colors and materials. As trades, somewhat uniform application of the Faculty and staff members wear the professions, guilds and universities academic regalia. Typically, scholars with traditional attire of the college or developed, distinctive variations came the bachelor’s degree wear the university that conferred their degrees. 8 INVETITURE Ceremony Program-SQ.qxp_Layout 1 2/28/17 11:38 AM Page 9 College HISTORY From its humble beginnings in 1933 with 41 students in a building next to Palm Beach High School, Palm Beach State College has grown to become the largest institution of higher education in Palm Beach County.