ISSUED: 27 February 2015
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — The Shepherd University Board of Governors approved the commencement speaker and honorees at its February 26 meeting.
Alumna Carolyn Malachi will serve as the speaker at Shepherd’s 142nd Commencement ceremony on May 9. Malachi, a member of the class of 2006, will receive an honorary degree.
Paul and Lisa Welch, of Shepherdstown, will be presented the President’s Award for their exemplary service to Shepherd and the broader community.
Carolyn Malachi, a Washington, D.C., native, is a Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter, social activist, and philanthropist. She has been described by MTV as “one of five R&B artists to obsess over” and one of her songs, “Fall Winter Spring Summer,” was named by NPR to its 10 Songs Public Radio Can’t Stop Playing list. She and her music ensemble will travel in March to Taiwan, China, and New Guinea as part of the American Music Abroad Program.
Malachi launched the #IAM Campaign which fuses technology, commerce, and music to address global access to education. While at Shepherd, she played on the women’s basketball team, served on Program Board, and was a member of the Multicultural Leadership Team.
Paul and Lisa Welch have established three funds with the Shepherd University Foundation to support a variety of cultural and academic endeavors. They include the Prestigious National Scholarship Program, an annually funded award to support students in pursuit of prestigious national scholarships such as Fulbright and Rhodes; the Paul and Lisa Welch Endowment, designated to support programs that engage the community in the intellectual life of the university; and the Paul and Lisa Welch Doctor of Nursing Practice Program, an annually funded award in support of the establishment of Shepherd’s first doctoral program.
The Welches are longtime members of the Scarborough Society of Shepherd University and regularly serve as a host couple at the Society’s annual gala fundraiser each summer. Lisa serves on the Scarborough Society’s board of directors and was instrumental in forging a partnership between the Shepherdstown Film Society and the Scarborough Society. She is active in Shepherd’s annual Relay for Life program. The Welches are patrons of the Contemporary American Theater Festival and Department of Music concerts.
The board was briefed on the progress of Shepherd’s website redesign. Shepherd is in the process of a web redesign that considers the growing use of mobile devices by students to access the web by creating a website that is mobile friendly. At the same time, the website is being transitioned to a WordPress content management system that provides greater flexibility and ease in editing web content. The web redesign is being completed in phases: the new homepage was implemented in September 2014 and the conversion of administrative and academic department pages is currently underway. The project completion target is August before the start of the fall semester.
The board approved a minor in aging studies in the Department of Psychology and heard an annual report on the Advisory Council of Faculty activities from Dr. Sylvia Shurbutt, ACF representative, and a presentation about student-athletes from Dr. Andro Barnett, faculty athletics representative.
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