Campbell University will confer roughly 325 degrees at its Winter Commencement ceremony, scheduled for 10 a.m. this Saturday in the John W. Pope Jr. Convocation Center.
The ceremony will be the first overseen by Dr. William M. Downs, who took over as Campbell’s sixth president on July 1. Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law alumna and North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall will deliver the commencement address.
Tickets are not required for this weekend’s commencement, as seating will be on a first-come, first-serve basis. The event will also be live streamed via Campbell’s Vimeo channel.
About the speaker
North Carolina Secretary of State and 1981 Campbell Law School alumna the Hon. Elaine Marshall will deliver the commencement address on Saturday.
Marshall was the first woman ever elected to a state-wide, executive branch office in North Carolina when she first took office as Secretary of State in 1997. She has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in state and local politics. From 1993-94 she served as a senator from North Carolina’s 15 District and was the Harnett County Democratic Party Chair and president of the Democratic Women of Harnett County. She was also the National Secretary of the Young Democrats of America in the 1970s.
A former teacher, small business owner, attorney and state senator, she has led major advancements in e-commerce, investor protection, trademark enforcement and capital formation, while more than 2.3 million businesses have been formed in North Carolina.
Marshall has been recognized nationally for her leadership, including serving as President of the National Association of Secretaries of State and receiving the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the state’s highest civilian award.
She received an honorary doctorate from Campbell in 2008, was named Distinguished Law Alumna in 2014 and has earned numerous state and national honors, including the North Carolina Bar Association’s Public Service Award and the Women’s Business Center of North Carolina’s Person of the Year Award.
Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award
Sterling Ta’Bon had a servant’s heart when he arrived at Campbell University in 2014 to study kinesiology and exercise science. But it was his experience in Campbell’s Master of Public Health program — which coincided with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic — that shone a whole new light on his career path and the impact he can have.
In the program, Ta’Bon learned about North Carolina’s migrant farmworkers who lack access to proper protection from chemicals used in the fields. He learned about underserved areas hit hard by the pandemic and how professionals in the public health field could reach those populations and make a positive difference.
“These topics gripped me daily,” Ta’Bon said. “My experiences in the Campbell Public Health program equipped me with the necessary knowledge and tools to navigate a world that, since COVID-19, now knows the importance of public health to our society.”
After earning his master’s degree in 2020, Ta’Bon became a program coordinator for the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. The following year, he became the communities and care coordinator for that state’s Department of Health, and in 2023, he became the health schools manager and consultant for Cairn Guidance, which focuses on connecting with schools, nonprofits and health systems to enact change to advance the goals of health and learning in children.
Campbell will honor Ta’Bon with the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award on Saturday for his continued service to his community and to his alma mater. Since 1934, the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Foundation has taken as its primary mission the inspiring of young people to lead lives of integrity, characterized by service to the community through the recognition of citizens whose lives reflect the nobility of character exemplified in the life of Algernon Sydney Sullivan.