1261 DEGREES TO BE AWARDED AT LMU WINTER COMMENCEMENT

December 5, 2008 - Harrogate, Tennessee — On Saturday, December 13, Lincoln Memorial University will welcome the families and friends of approximately 527 undergraduate and graduate students participating in winter commencement activities. Physician and international humanitarian Dr. Joe Frank Smiddy will be the featured commencement speaker and Educational Specialist degree candidate Beverly Parks will give the student address. The cemermony is set for 11 a.m. in Tex Turner Arena.

Smiddy, a renowned pulmonologist with a practice in Kingsport, Tenn., has traveled all over the world on medical missions. Yet his acts of humanitarian compassion are not limited to international missions. Smiddy has provided services free of charge to those in need from Southwest Virginia to the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast. He has outfitted his own tractor trailer as a mobile medical clinic and travels with it across Appalachia. Often his work is done in conjunction with the Knoxville-based Remote Area Medical (RAM) Volunteer Corps which provides free medical, dental, vision and veterinary care to the underserved of this nation. As a member of the LMU board of trustees, he was the driving force behind bringing the now annual RAM Health Expedition to Tex Turner Arena on LMU’s main campus in Harrogate.

Smiddy holds an associate degree from the University of Virginia at Wise and bachelor’s and medical degrees from the University of Virginia. He is a member of the UVA-Wise College Board. He and his father, LMU alumnus and board member Joseph C. Smiddy, regularly perform music together. Smiddy plans to move increasingly toward full-time volunteer and mission work. He has been very involved with LMU-DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine’s establishment of international rotations for its osteopathic medical students and its work with the Belize Foundation for Research and Environmental Education (BFREE).

Parks is an educational specialist degree candidate. She received a bachelor’s degree from Westfield State College in Westfield, Mass. After graduating, Parks went on to earn a master of education and administration degree with distinction from American International College in Springfield, Mass. She has 35 years of elementary education and administration experience and has spent the last 15 years in Georgia’s Cobb County School District. Parks is currently the principal at Nickajack Elementary School. She is a member of Phi Delta Kappa International and the Cobb County Association of Elementary Administrators. She has been married for 34 years and has two children and two grandchildren.

LMU will award 19 associate, 80 baccalaureate, 214 masters degrees and 948 educational specialist degrees during the annual December commencement program. This is the largest graduating class since the University was founded in 1897.

Lincoln Memorial University is a values-based learning community dedicated to providing educational experiences in the liberal arts and professional studies. The main campus is located in Harrogate, Tennessee. For more information about the undergraduate and graduate programs available at LMU, contact the Office of Admissions at 423-869-6280 or e-mail at admissions@lmunet.edu.

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