Three alumni to speak at Florida State spring commencement ceremonies

Florida State University President Eric J. Barron this weekend will preside over his first commencement ceremonies since taking office earlier this year.

About 4,000 of 6,000 graduating students will participate in three ceremonies, which will be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 30, and 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday, May 1, at the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center. James L. Bacchus, principal shareholder and chairman of the Global Trade and Investment Practice Group at Greenberg Traurig; Max Mayfield, WPLG-TV hurricane specialist and former director of the National Hurricane Center; and J. Michael Pate, a consultant and former publisher and president of the Tallahassee Democrat, will be the commencement speakers. All three are Florida State alumni.

Bacchus will be the speaker at Friday’s ceremony for the graduates of the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Criminology and Criminal Justice, Human Sciences, and Medicine. Bacchus leads Greenberg Traurig’s worldwide practice on trade policies, remedies, negotiations, disputes, arbitrations and other international trade issues. The author of the book “Trade and Freedom,” he has been with the firm for 12 years and has been practicing law for almost 30 years. He served as a member of Congress from 1991 to 1995, representing the 15th Congressional District of Florida. He is a former member and chairman of the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization and a former special assistant to the U.S. trade representative. He earned a law degree from Florida State in 1978 and was named a “Grad Made Good” in 2005 and one of the university’s 100 Distinguished Graduates.

Mayfield will be the featured speaker at the Saturday morning ceremony for the graduates of the colleges of Communication and Information; Engineering; Motion Picture Arts; Social Sciences and Public Policy; and Visual Arts, Theatre and Dance. As director of the National Hurricane Center (NHC) from 2000 to 2007, his work was recognized with numerous awards, including the Government Communicator of the Year Award in 2006 and a Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Service from President George W. Bush in 2005. After a distinguished career at the NHC, where he began working in 1972 as a satellite meteorologist, he became the hurricane specialist for WPLG-TV in Miami where he won an Emmy for the station’s 2009 hurricane special. Mayfield, who earned a master’s degree in meteorology from FSU in 1987, has been named one of the university’s 100 Distinguished Graduates.

Pate will speak Saturday afternoon at the ceremony for the graduates of the colleges of Business; Education; Music; Nursing; and Social Work. He is the CEO of J. Michael Pate Consulting Services. He previously served as program director for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Tallahassee, following his tenure as publisher and president of the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper from 1997 to 2005. He also served as publisher and president at the Sun News in Myrtle Beach, S.C., from 1986 to 1997. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Florida State in 1968 and currently serves on the FSU Foundation’s Board of Trustees. He was inducted into the Alumni Association’s Circle of Gold in 2003.

Barron will be the keynote speaker at FSU’s Panama City Campus commencement, which will be held at 1:30 p.m. (CDT) Sunday, May 2, at the Panama City Marina Civic Center. About 206 of the 397 graduates are expected to participate.

Later in May, FSU’s colleges of law and medicine will hold graduation ceremonies:

* The FSU College of Law will hold its spring commencement for 240 graduates at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 8, at the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center. Mary S. Scriven, U.S. District Court Judge for the Middle District of Florida, will be the commencement speaker. The ceremony will be followed by a reception at the law school.

* The FSU College of Medicine will hold its commencement ceremony at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 15, at Christian Heritage Church, 2820 Sharer Road, for 94 students who will be receiving Doctor of Medicine degrees. Ten students will receive a new Master’s in Biomedical Sciences, Bridge to Clinical Medicine. Dr. J. Ocie Harris, dean emeritus of the College of Medicine and professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences, will be the speaker.

In other graduation activities:

* The FSU College of Nursing convocation will be held at 3 p.m. Friday, April 30, in Tully Gym. Professor Sally Karioth and Sarah Slagle, nursing class president, will be the speakers at the event in which 84 bachelor’s degree students and one master’s degree student are expected to participate.

* Florida State’s Air Force ROTC will commission 12 cadets at a 5 p.m. ceremony on Saturday, May 1, in the Askew Student Life Center Theater.

* Florida State’s U.S Army ROTC will commission 18 cadets at a 5:30 p.m. ceremony on Saturday, May 1, in Miller Hall, located in University Center, Building C.

* Florida A&M University’s Navy ROTC will hold a commissioning ceremony at 10 a.m. on Friday, April 30, at the Capitol Courtyard for nine students, including five from Florida State — four midshipmen and an officer candidate. Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations, will be the speaker.