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Pensacola State College graduation is at 5 p.m. Friday, May 10, at the Pensacola Bay Center. Rick Byars, senior external affairs manager at Florida Power and Light, will deliver the commencement address.
Nursing pinning ceremony is May 9 at First Pentecostal Church in Pensacola
Rick Byars, senior external affairs manager at Florida Power and Light Company, will be the keynote speaker at Pensacola State College’s spring graduation set for 5 p.m. Friday, May 10, in the Pensacola Bay Center.
Byars’ career in the energy industry began at Entergy, where he worked for over 18 years. He joined the Southern Company’s Gulf Power in April 2007, where he held several posts ranging from Community and Economic Development General Manager to Regional Manager, Corporate External Affairs.
In January 2022, Florida Power and Light merged with Gulf Power.
Active in the community, Byars has served as board president of the Child Abuse Prevention Center and on Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwest Florida and the University of West Florida Foundation boards of directors. He is also the past chairman of Florida’s Great Northwest Board of Directors.
Byars earned his Master’s of Business Administration degree from Millsaps College and a bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of Louisiana Monroe. He studied accounting at Mississippi College and attended the University of Oklahoma’s Economic Development Institute.
The ceremony’s Grand Marshal will be Kathy Van Dyck, Humanities and Social Sciences Assistant Department Head.
Michael Payne, the Business Department head, and Kenneth Phillips, the Performing Arts Department head, will serve as Faculty Marshals.
Rick Byars
Jennifer Hill Faron, dean of the Milton campus, and Karen McCabe, principal of Pensacola State College Charter Academy, will be Student Marshals.
The graduation ceremony will be livestreamed at www.facebook.com/PensacolaStateCollege for family and friends who cannot attend.
Allied Health Pinning Ceremonies
Physical Therapist Assistant, Veterinary Technology and Dental Hygiene pinnings will be held at 9 a.m., 11 a.m., and 3 p.m., respectively, on Wednesday, May 8, in McMillan Auditorium on the Warrington campus. McMillan Auditorium is in Building 3700 on the campus, located at 5555 West Highway 98, Pensacola.
Nursing Pinning Ceremony
Eighty-four registered nursing graduates will be pinned at a 3 p.m. ceremony on Thursday, May 9, at First Pentecostal Church, 6485 Pensacola Blvd. Dr. Julie Zemaitis DeCesare with HCA West Florida Healthcare will be the guest speaker.
A Pittsburgh native, Dr. DeCesare earned her RN/BSN from Catholic University of America in 1994 and graduated from Eastern Virginia Medical School in 1998. She completed her residency at the University of Florida-Pensacola Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Program in 2002.
She is board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and a Fellow in the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She also serves as a board examiner for the American Board of OB/GYN.
Dr. Julie Ann Zemaitis DeCesare
She is currently a professor, Residency Program Director and Department Chair at the University of Central Florida Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Program at HCA West Florida Hospital in Pensacola.
Dr. DeCesare’s husband, Dr. Steven DeCesare, is a gynecologic oncologist specialist. The couple has three children.
The pinning will be livestreamed at www.facebook.com/FirstPentecostalChurch for family and friends who cannot attend.
If you can’t attend
For family and friends who cannot attend, the events will be livestreamed at Nursing Pinning ─ http://www.facebook.com/FirstPentecostalChurch and PSC Graduation ─ https://www.facebook.com/PensacolaStateCollege.