PirateQ 
Pensacola State College graduation is at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 17, at the Pensacola Bay Center. Doug Bates, a Pensacola attorney and Pensacola State College alumnus, will deliver the commencement address.
Doug Bates, a Pensacola attorney and Pensacola State College alumnus, will be the keynote speaker at Pensacola State College’s fall graduation set for 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 17, in the Pensacola Bay Center.
A former Pensacola State standout baseball player, Bates is an attorney with Clark Partington, Attorneys at Law in Pensacola.
A Pensacola native, he is a 1998 PJC graduate – playing two years on the Pirates baseball squad. In 2020, he was inducted into the PSC Athletics Hall of Fame and is currently the chairman of the athletics fundraising campaign.
Bates earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Birmingham-Southern College and his Juris doctorate from the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law.
Bates is a member of the Business Law Section of the Florida Bar and serves on the section’s Executive Council. He is also a member of the Florida Bar Standing Committee on Student Education and Bar Admissions and numerous other local, state and national organizations.
An AV Rated Lawyer by Martindale-Hubbell, Bates was included in the Florida Trends Elite, Florida Super Lawyers, Chambers and Partners USA Leading Business Lawyers and Best Lawyers in America listings.
Doug Bates
In 2018, Bates received the Pensacola Chamber’s PACE Award as the city’s Emerging Business Leader of the Year. In 2019, he was named Member of the Year by the Florida Bar Business Law Section.
A staunch community advocate, he is a Pensacola Sports Association member, active with the Bill Bond Baseball League, First Tee of Northwest Florida and the American Cancer Society. Bates and his wife, Lisa, have four children and live in Pensacola.
The ceremony’s Grand Marshal will be Mark Hopkins, PSC Graphic Design Program Coordinator and a visual arts instructor.
Over his 23-year career at Pensacola State, Hopkins, who is retiring at the end of the Fall semester, established visual art student internships with Lamar Advertising Company, Duncan McCall: Advertising and Marketing, Navy Federal Credit Union and Pen Air Credit Union.
In 2010, he was instrumental in establishing the four-year Graphic Design Program. From 2014 to 2019, Hopkins organized a PSC Student Exit Exhibition at the National Naval Aviation Museum at NAS Pensacola.
Mark Hopkins
During his tenure, PSC graphic design students won an average of 60 local ADDYs annually. One year, the students won 102 awards. Graphic design students also won 10 District ADDY awards and 15 national ADDYs.
Michael Payne, the Business Department head, and Kenneth Phillips, the Performing Arts Department head, will serve as Faculty Marshals. Jennifer Hill Faron, dean of the Milton campus, and Karen McCabe, principal of Pensacola State College Charter Academy, will be Student Marshals.
Graduation will be livestreamed at www.facebook.com/PensacolaStateCollege for family and friends who cannot attend the event.