President's Report 2022

President’s Report

Special section

A record gift, a record class and God-Sized Dreams

I am delighted to greet you and share this wonderful news: Palm Beach Atlantic has received the largest single gift in the school’s history, igniting plans to build a new home for the thriving Marshall E. Rinker Sr. School of Business. On the cover of this magazine you see an architect’s rendering of the beautiful building, a six-story flagship structure to be placed directly behind the Warren Library.

Many of you know about the namesake of our business school, “Doc” Rinker, as he often was called. About 58 years ago, when PBA was only a dream, he provided our first donation: a check for $500. Multi-million dollar gifts from him and his family would bless the school in the years that followed. And now his son, John J. Rinker, has provided the pivotal donation to kick-start our drive for a new business building. So once again, Rinker generosity dramatically propels Palm Beach Atlantic forward.

a campus master plan to unleash infinite possibilities at Palm Beach Atlantic University. Turn to pages 18-19 to see the vision for these “God-Sized Dreams,” a multiphased campaign that we invite you to join.

We see enormous potential ahead, as PBA continues to grow in facilities, programs, impact and enrollment. Note (on page 10) that fall 2022 has brought us the largest incoming class of students in our history.

PHILIPPIANS 4:4

As we grow, we stand firmly committed to our mission: equipping students to grow in wisdom, lead with conviction and serve God boldly. Learn more about how that’s happening, in other stories grouped by our motto Enlightening Minds, Enriching Souls, Extending Hands. Watch for QR codes or web addresses that will take you to related video and other resources.

Beginning on page four of this annual report, you’ll find details about the planned building, along with much information about the Rinker School of Business, which is nationally and regionally accredited and has nearly 650 students. Page nine tells about one of the school’s powerful new programs: Business Data Analytics, while pages eight and 17 introduce you to two of our extraordinary recent business graduates.

And here’s even bigger news: The new home for the Rinker School of Business comes as the first initiative in

I thanked God as I reviewed the stories: Fulbright winners, grants from Lilly Endowment, outreach by our students and other rich blessings. My heart was glad, following St. Paul’s command proclaimed in banners as our theme verse for 2022-23: “Rejoice in the Lord always.”

Warmly,

Dr. Debra A. Schwinn, President

Rejoice in the Lord always.

Six-story ‘flagship’ building planned for the business school

The new building to house the Marshall E. Rinker Sr. School of Business will become the “crown jewel” of the PBA campus, predicted Dr. Brian Strow, dean of the business school.

“It’s going to be a very functional building, but also a very beautiful building,” he said. “It’s inspiring.”

An architect’s rendering of the six-story building graces the front and back covers of this President’s Report. The image on this page shows the dramatic, two-story atrium that will welcome visitors to the Rinker School.

“People from the business community will be drawn to the beauty of the building itself,” said Strow. “And they will be inspired to see how we’re going to be educating the next generation of business students.”

Strow heads a thriving school of some 650 students, with enrollment in the Introduction to Business classes jumping up 60 percent over last year’s number. By the time the new building is completed in 2025, Rinker School enrollment is projected to top 900.

That growth coincides with a flourishing business community in downtown West Palm Beach, which has attracted a number of Wall Street firms in the last couple years, Strow said. “These are top-end firms, looking for top-end talent,” he said, “and we’re right here, a couple blocks away.”

Business employers “are just enthralled” with the caliber of students coming out of PBA, he said. “I hear it time and time again.” After hiring Rinker School students as interns or full-time employees, local firms have been impressed by the knowledge, the integrity and the caring attitude these students demonstrate, Strow said.

The new building will allow the school to produce more “top-end talent,” using spaces such as these: a stock trading room, with professional terminals and stock ticker; a 400-seat, tiered lecture hall, great for hosting influential guest speakers;

expanded space for the Titus Center for Franchising, the Rinker School’s hugely successful Center of Excellence; room to develop more Centers of Excellence, perhaps in financial literacy, free enterprise or entrepreneurship; and special areas “built with entrepreneurship in mind, to energize your creative juices and help you think outside the box,” Strow said.

To be located behind the Warren Library, the business building will contain 125,000 square feet. After a “GodSized Dream Campaign” launch on Nov. 17, the project now heads toward expected plan approval from West Palm Beach officials in March or April 2023, followed by groundbreaking in August or September 2023 and move-in April or May of 2025. The total campaign for the Marshall and Vera Lea Rinker Business Building is $75 million.

Meanwhile the Rinker School of Business moves toward another milestone: accreditation by the AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business). That’s the global organization known as providing “the platinum standard for business education,” Strow said.

This spring, the Rinker School of Business will host the final site visit required to earn AACSB accreditation. “AACSB accreditation has been achieved by a mere 5 percent of global business schools,” said Strow.

“The Rinker School of Business is heading for incredible new heights,” said Dr. Debra A. Schwinn, PBA president. “By reinvesting in our campus and our students today, PBA will continue to inspire and launch the next generation of business leaders.”

Record Rinker gift drives plans for new business building

John J. Rinker remembers fondly when Palm Beach Atlantic broke ground for the first home of the Marshall E. Rinker Sr. School of Business in 1990. “This stands out because all three sons were there with our father, shovels in hand, and participated in the ceremony,” he said. “The fact that it was tied together with PBA makes it special.”

John J. and Sheila Rinker

Rinker’s father, namesake of the business school, founded the remarkably successful Rinker Materials company and became a key benefactor of Palm Beach Atlantic from its earliest days. Over the years, John Rinker and his wife, Sheila, have built upon Rinker Sr.’s legacy, contributing countless resources to PBA through the Marshall and Vera Lea Rinker Foundation. Their most recent gift, the largest single donation in the University’s history, anchors the campaign to build a new home for the Rinker School of Business.

“We are excited to launch the development of PBA’s transformative campus master plan first with the new Rinker School of Business building,” said Timothy S. Sotos, chairman of the university’s Board of Trustees. “We are very grateful for the generous gifts from John and Sheila Rinker and other friends of the university.”

When John Rinker is asked about his family’s generosity to Palm Beach Atlantic, he responds with “the students, the students. It’s all about the students. PBA is generating students who have integrity, moral strength and the ability to live by such principles. They are investing themselves in our community, and we are the better for it.”

The new structure will be called the Marshall and Vera Lea Rinker Business Building.

The investments John and Sheila Rinker previously made in PBA have given special attention to the areas of music, literature, arts and athletics. Major capital projects they led have included the following:

Vera Lea Rinker Hall, which houses the College of the Arts, and which is named after John Rinker’s mother.

The Marshall and Vera Lea Rinker Athletic Campus, located on Parker Avenue in West Palm Beach, 1.8 miles from the main PBA campus. It opened in 2014.

The John & Sheila Rinker Sports Center, dedicated in 2017, giving the athletic campus locker rooms, training rooms, coaches’ offices and other rooms, with a total of 32,342 square feet of space.

“In addition to the incredible financial gifts John and Sheila have provided, they also have given us much in time and leadership,” said Dr. Debra A. Schwinn, PBA president. John Rinker served as a trustee from 1999 through 2007, and Sheila Rinker serves on the Women of Distinction Scholarship Luncheon committee. “They are visionaries and wonderfully dedicated supporters of the PBA motto: Enlightening Minds, Enriching Souls, Extending Hands,” Schwinn said.

Outstanding grad shines at local accounting firm

The 2022 Outstanding Graduate of the Rinker School of Business has always loved numbers, but she has abundant patience with those who don’t. For four years Melina Willson taught a financial literacy course to middle and high school students, many of them coerced into the class by their parents. She achieved a 97.5 percent retention rate with her 75 students, many of them keeping in touch with her later to report their own financial successes.

“Melina just operates in such a winsome way that it’s pretty contagious to be around her,” said her pastor, Dr. Dale Locke, a 1984 PBA graduate. “She’s incredibly relationally intelligent. It’s been inspiring to watch her, because of who she is, and her own sense of God’s calling on her life.”

That calling now has taken Willson back to PBA to earn her MBA. “I’ve met so many great professors here,” she said. “I’ll always remember how they have made information come alive and be applicable to the business world; how they’ve connected with students outside the classroom; and how they related our studies to biblical principles.”

She graduated with a double major in finance and management and with a 3.9 GPA. She also worked

part-time in the office of Workship, PBA’s awardwinning community service program. “To work at a university that values serving the community just totally reinforces the idea that I’m so glad I’m here,” she said.

Willson is now an auditing intern at Templeton & Company, an accounting and management firm located just a block away from campus. John Templeton, a 2002 PBA grad, is CEO and executive vice president, and leads the firm’s Audit and Accounting Services division.

“I have been impressed with Melina’s work ethic, professionalism and drive,” Templeton said. “By and large, the PBA graduates and students at the firm are some of the most professional and capable people we have.”

Willson is unsure what path she’ll take after earning her MBA, but she wants to continue combining her passion for numbers with her heart for helping people. Eventually, she might pursue a doctorate. “Maybe I could even teach at PBA,” she said, “and just continue that snowball of kindness that my professors showed me so well.”

Melina Willson with John Templeton at accounting and management firm Templeton & Company

New Business Data Analytics program combines

In business, the manager’s job today is far different from the manager’s job of yesterday, said Dr. Madison Ngafeeson, professor of data analytics and director of the new Business Data Analytics program. While yesterday’s manager often relied on intuition to make decisions, today’s manager must know how to use powerful, sophisticated tools to dig deep into the massive amounts of data collected daily about every aspect of business and life.

“Data is the new oil,” said Ngafeeson. That’s why graduates of the new program will be so very employable. And a student can earn a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in business data analytics in just five years.

This relatively new field combines business, computer science, math and statistics. “We use advanced tools to look for trends and patterns in data,” he said. “And we come to see that the data is speaking a language that can help us do our business better.”

By collecting and analyzing data, companies can learn much, including where their customers come from and what those customers want. That drives a multitude of critical decisions about products, advertising, inventory and more.

Prospective students of business data analytics need a love for numbers, Ngafeeson said, and they need the curiosity to ask, “What’s really going on here?” as they study the numbers. It’s a continuously evolving field, so he concentrates on

teaching students how to learn, rather than teaching content. “I really want students to understand the method of scientific inquiry: how to ask questions that lead you to answers.”

Ngafeeson, a native of Cameroon, earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, and completed the Harvard Business Analytics Program. Before entering his path of business education, he considered going to seminary, but he sensed God saying, “Yes, I’ve called you into ministry, but your path is different.”

He joined the PBA faculty in August, eager to serve students in a Christ-first university, and to train them in data analytics applied through biblical standards. Given the pervasiveness and the power of data today, he said, “we need ethical business people who believe that money and profits are not the ‘be all and end all,’ and who will make the right decisions using the sensitive data placed into their hands.”

For more information on the Business Data Analytics program visit go.pba.edu/biz-data.

business, computer science, math and statistics

“We need ethical business people who will make the right decisions with the sensitive data placed into their hands.”

- Dr. Madison Ngafeeson, professor of data analytics

The Fall 2022 semester opened with the largest incoming class in PBA’s history: 844 new freshmen and transfer students. They hailed from 42 states and 37 countries. During Welcome Week they moved into their residence halls, met fellow Sailfish and participated in foundational PBA experiences, such as serving through Workship and practicing servant leadership.

See video: go.pba.edu/welcome

PA program to launch mobile medical clinics

The director of Palm Beach Atlantic’s new Physician Associate (PA) program envisions mobile medical clinics heading out from the University to underserved areas throughout the county.

Dr. Phil Tobin came to PBA in July 2021 to develop and direct a PA program, after having directed programs at Mercer University and Touro University in Nevada. From Touro, he sent PA teams out in three mobile units serving the homeless throughout the Las Vegas Valley.

At PBA Tobin plans a community medicine requirement

for PA students, where they will serve not only through a mobile unit, but also in such places as a domestic violence shelter and HIV clinic.

“We’ll have different experiences set up so students are reaching out and treating the most vulnerable people in our community.”

That outreach not only follows the biblical model of serving “the least of these,” but it has great impact shaping the mindset and habits of future PAs, Tobin said.

Physician associates are licensed clinicians who practice medicine after completing a specialized master’s degree program and passing a certification exam. They are seen as a key in filling critical healthcare needs across the nation.

PBA’s Master of Medical Science in Physician Associate Medicine program was approved in February by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. Tobin has been recruiting faculty, and plans to begin recruiting students in the fall of 2023, with classes to begin in fall 2024.

The program will offer an overseas elective, he said, “because PBA already has a great overseas medical mission emphasis,” through the School of Nursing and the Lloyd L. Gregory School of Pharmacy. He’s been meeting monthly with the deans of those two schools, talking about healthcare issues and ways to collaborate, including using a mobile clinic.

“If you’ve got a mobile health unit with students from pharmacy, nursing, PA and counseling, you’ve got a great team,” Tobin said.

Health science building planned

In Project Two of PBA’s Campus Master Plan (see page 18), the Physician Associate (PA) program would move to a new health sciences complex placed south of the Greene Complex for Sports and Recreation. This new health sciences complex will facilitate interprofessional education between pharmacy, nursing and the new PA program, as well as contain state-of-the-art undergraduate science classrooms/laboratories located next to the Gregory School of Pharmacy. Combined with a planned clinical partnership, these new facilities will provide an outstanding training environment for PBA students.

“Students will be treating the most vulnerable people in our community.”

- Dr. Phil Tobin, program director

70 undergraduate degrees and 18 graduate degrees now offered

Program Growth

49% 350%

Increase in number of degree programs since 2008

The College of the Arts’ newest degree, the Bachelor of Fine Arts, has become the standard higher education track for those who seek a profession in the visual, fine and performing arts, said Allen McCoy, Department of Theatre chair.

McCoy quoted The Wall Street Journal’s report that those earning a BFA have “surprisingly high” income levels, job prospects and levels of job satisfaction.

OTHER NEW DEGREES INCLUDE: the Master of Medical Science in Physician Associate Medicine (see opposite page); a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in business data analytics (see page nine); the B.A. in Apologetics; the B.S. in Human Services; the B.S. in Mathematical Economics; and the B.A. in Christian Community Development.

Ian Gadapee, a third-year student in the theatre Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) program, enjoyed the title role in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. A BFA degree also is offered in cinema, dance and graphic design.

First Ph.D. graduate

Experienced pastor Shawn Allen became Dr. Allen on May 9, the first person to earn a Ph.D. at Palm Beach Atlantic University. He said his Ph.D. in Practical Theology will help him “lead Christians and inspire Christians to partner together on God’s mission.”

In his dissertation, Allen explained his research into the merger of three longtime passions of his: music, mission and education. He explored using an interactive worship experience to inspire people and send them out “on mission,” serving their communities. “As wonderful as worship is, and as important as teaching is,” Allen said, “these are parts of a bigger work that God is doing, and we want to join Him.”

“Shawn’s leadership in music and education has led him to develop a whole new theological focus,” said Dr. Bryan Froehle, director of the Ph.D. program. He hopes to see Allen’s research published. “It will surely make a difference in our all too often divided world and divided churches,” Froehle said.

Allen is senior pastor at Church in The Palms in Greenacres, Florida. He began his studies in practical theology in 2015, when the Ph.D. program was operating under Froehle’s direction at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, Florida. Several years later, Froehle, then on the St. Thomas faculty, was at his desk when that university’s trustees were voting to eliminate the program.

“I pulled out my cell phone,” recalled Froehle, “and I had this sense that I was called to make a call.” He telephoned then PBA Provost Dr. Randy Richards, leaving the message, “Our program is being ended, and if you’d be interested, I’d be delighted to speak with you.”

Richards indeed was interested. After much discussion, planning and implementation, PBA announced its own Ph.D. in Practical Theology program, accredited by the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) and approved as a new program by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). Froehle joined the Palm Beach Atlantic faculty, and many students in the St. Thomas program transferred their allowable credits to complete their degree at PBA.

“What a tremendous blessing that was,” said Allen, who had finished his Ph.D. coursework, but still needed to complete his dissertation when the St. Thomas program closed. “All the folks at Palm Beach Atlantic: Dr. Richards, School of Ministry Dean Dr. Jon Grenz, and many others, just stepped up and did truly an amazing job, getting the PBA program up and running.”

Today 49 students are working toward the Ph.D. in Practical Theology. They come from 16 nations and represent many different Christian denominations. For more information visit go.pba.edu/phdpt

HOMELANDS REPRESENTED IN THE PROGRAM

His research ‘will surely make a difference’

President Dr. Debra A. Schwinn celebrates Dr. Shawn Allen receiving his diploma.

10 have won prestigious Fulbright honors

Plus a new award for 2018 winner

“Innovators. Trailblazers. Fulbrighters.” That’s how the Fulbright Program describes the people it honors, a select group that now includes 10 graduates of Palm Beach Atlantic University.

The Fulbright Program, the flagship international academic exchange sponsored by the U.S. Government, appoints students, educators and researchers to serve and learn in other countries, seeking to foster mutual understanding between the United States and those countries. The latest PBA members joining that group of cultural ambassadors are recent graduates Anna Rose McIntyre and Morgan Hirchert, to teach English in Bulgaria and South Korea, respectively. Meanwhile, Esther Hagan, PBA’s first Fulbright winner in 2018, has earned a new honor, a Fulbright-Hays award to conduct research in the Philippines.

McIntyre, from Brookfield, Wisconsin, is an English and secondary education major. She is teaching Bulgarian students in grades eight to 12.

Hirchert, an elementary education major from Wellington, Florida, was honored in May as the Outstanding Graduate of the School of Education and Behavioral Studies. In January she will leave for her Fulbright Teaching Assistantship in South Korea.

Both Hirchert and McIntyre studied at the University of Oxford through the David and Leighan Rinker Center for Experiential Learning, and both are graduates from the Frederick M. Supper Honors Program.

English major Hagan became PBA’s Fulbright pioneer in 2018 with the help of the newly created Prestigious National Scholarship Program. Led by Associate Professor of English Dr. Carl Miller, the program encourages students to apply for the Fulbright and other highly-selective scholarships, and then supports them through the application process.

Hear more from Anna Rose McIntyre on her dreams to travel with the Fulbright program: go.pba.edu/fulbright-2022

Dr. Chelly Templeton, left, was promoted to provost, after having served as dean of the School of Education and Behavioral Studies. Dr. Marcia Bedasse, right, formerly an education professor, is the new dean of the school. Learn more in “New Provost, Ancient Proverbs and a Practical Routine,” a column by President Dr. Debra A. Schwinn, at go.pba.edu/new-provost.

Enlightening Minds

International development:

Student researchers have ‘opened up so many doors’ in Honduras

Four Palm Beach Atlantic international development students spent their summer in coastal Honduras interviewing hundreds of people to ensure that a proposed tourist resort brings the maximum benefit to the local population.

Sheridon Ouma, Kelsi Morgan, Ethan Fant and Andrew Benitez completed 10 weeks of intensive fieldwork around Trujillo, a colonial city on the Caribbean coast. They were invited by Charlie Biondolillo and Rick Reikenis, business partners on the tourism project.

Reikenis, a member of the LeMieux Center for Public Policy Advisory Board, teaches a business development class in the international development program led by Dr. Craig Hanson. Reikenis is a former West Palm Beach mayor and an engineer with decades of experience in international work.

“I was so impressed with the acumen, diligence and intelligence of his students that I said, ‘Let me tell you what I’m doing, and you pick it apart,’” Reikenis said. “That’s worked out beyond expectations. They ask great questions. They’re super smart. It’s a blast.”

Each student had a different research focus. Ouma gathered data for a formative assessment of Trujillo and its capacity for tourism. Fant examined the root causes of mass migration, with the hypothesis that there are too many skilled laborers and not enough skilled labor jobs. Benitez studied retention rates for education, interviewing approximately 200 students about their attitudes toward quitting school and coming to the United States.

Morgan’s research focused on creating economic opportunities for women. She conducted 35 structured interviews with women-owned enterprises, asking entrepreneurs about their motivation for starting a business, challenges they faced and opportunities for Trujillo and Honduras as a whole.

Biondolillo and Reikenis have set up the Marea Foundation/Fundación Marea so that locals begin benefitting from their tourism resort immediately, Reikenis said. “A lot of times [in Caribbean development projects], the larger socioeconomic benefit is an afterthought, if not left on the sidelines,” he said. In contrast, Reikenis called his project “capitalism with a soul.”

The four graduate students were tapped to continue the baseline study that other students in the program began last summer, Hanson said. Fieldwork is a foundational component of the Master of Science in international development.

Biondolillo, who has lived in Honduras for 20 years, credited Hanson for his “profound” approach to teaching that produces such self-starting students. “To be as immersed into the culture as these students have done … He truly makes the students become independent. They are their own researchers,” Biondolillo said. “They have been able to open up so many other doors in the country.”

For more information on the Master of Science in international development visit go.pba.edu/msid

With host Charlie Biondolillo (center) are students Sheridon Ouma, Kelsi Morgan, Andrew Benitez and Ethan Fant.

Entrepreneur invests in PBA students

Entrepreneur and PBA graduate Hunter Durham employs some 50 people and owns several companies, including a business that delivered $100 million worth of furniture last year. In May, he came back to share with current students in the Rinker School of Business, recounting his marketing success with and beyond business giants Red Bull, Dell, Microsoft and Facebook.

“As God opens doors and opportunities, I just walk through,” he told members of Palm Beach Atlantic’s chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA), a chapter he founded as a PBA student.

The first “door,” a Red Bull internship, opened for Durham the summer after his freshman year. Next came a Dell internship, and by his senior year he was working full-time with Microsoft. Marketing major Durham graduated summa cum laude in May of 2017, and that October, he became an e-commerce account manager with Facebook in Austin, Texas.

“Facebook was everything you would expect,” he said, “everything you see in the movies”: free breakfast, lunch and dinner, and the culture and vibe of Silicon Valley. Durham managed accounts of $9 million per quarter. He was promoted quickly, but before long he left Facebook, seeking more of a challenge as an entrepreneur.

In 2019, he founded the company Impact Industry Marketing. In 2020, he purchased two logistics companies to form Furniture USA Distribution, serving many of the large furniture retailers based in the Carolinas. The pandemic and supply chain issues provided serious challenges, but Durham views big problems as big opportunities.

He credits PBA’s Frederick M. Supper Honors Program with helping him answer foundational questions: “How do I approach business? How do I approach life? How do I manage my time and focus on what’s important?” And he cherishes the lifelong relationships he developed at Palm Beach Atlantic. He married nursing

PBA friends.

As an example of the close relationships he formed with Palm Beach Atlantic faculty, he recounted that the evening before his presentation with the marketing club, he texted one of his professors: “Hey, I’m flying in at 5 a.m. Can I just come to your house?”

“You just don’t get things like that at a large university – those kind of relationships and that kind of community,” he said.

For this PBA alumnus, that sense of community extends easily to current students he’s never before met. “I’m an open book,” he told members of the AMA. “Feel free to ask me anything.”

MaryGrace Adamson, president of the AMA chapter, noticed that as Durham shared his business tips, he did more than lecture. “He got to know every student’s name, and asked what they were studying and what their aspirations were,” she said. “He wanted to help them unpack what they wanted to do.”

Durham reported later on his LinkedIn page: “Had a blast spending time with students at my alma mater today. Never be too busy to invest in those who come after you.”

Dreaming God-Sized Dreams… Campus Master Plan

The first priority of the God-Sized Dreams Campaign is a new, stunning, six-story home for the Marshall E. Rinker Sr. School of Business. This 125,000 square foot building is to rise directly behind the Warren Library. (See details on pages four to seven.) Next, the vision is to have concurrent activity on the remaining three projects:

New Health Sciences Complex

To Serve Students and the Community

A new health sciences complex is planned near the Gregory School of Pharmacy. This new complex will facilitate interprofessional education with PBA nursing, physician associate and pharmacy programs, as well as new undergraduate science facilities. Local partnerships with healthcare organizations, and several county organizations, will allow health sciences students to provide healthcare to the community, including mobile clinics that serve the vulnerable

populations. State-of-the-art simulation facilities are planned within the health sciences buildings to enable PBA students to have deep experiential learning prior to direct patient care and validate competencies before graduation.

A Performing Arts Center, and a Student and Alumni Welcome Center

A spacious performing arts auditorium with creative spaces and classrooms will become home to PBA’s fine arts programs. A Student and Alumni Welcome Center will provide a much-needed central space for students to relax, study and connect. It will be equipped with dining options, community game and hangout zones, study rooms and multi-use spaces for meetings.

Your gift matters: Develop your action plan to help build out the dream

Learn more: Schedule an in-person tour to learn more about the campus additions and explore naming opportunities.

Get creative: Learn about stock gifts and other options.

Help us spread the word: Request a PBA representative to share the master plan with your church or civic group, etc.

Don’t delay: Use the attached, post-paid return envelope to make your first investment in the Purpose, People and Possibilities involved in this bold plan.

Email advancement@pba.edu or call (561) 803-2007

“Palm Beach Atlantic University has a significant opportunity to dream God-Sized Dreams, expand our campus, and take new ground. And I’m convinced the time to move forward with boldness is now.”

- President Dr. Debra A. Schwinn

Pharmacy school professors and students honored in annual meeting

At the annual Florida Pharmacy Association meeting in July 2022, faculty and students of the Lloyd L. Gregory School of Pharmacy (GSOP) took home high honors, including the Pharmacists Mutual Companies Distinguished Young Pharmacist Award, won by Dr. Laura Rhodes, assistant professor of pharmacy practice.

Rhodes, an alumna of the Gregory School, won for her efforts with Community Pharmacy Enhanced Services Networks (CPESN) and Flip the Pharmacy, two national initiatives that promote innovation for pharmacy services.

Alex Shantiai, a fourth-year pharmacy student from Miami, received the Terry Gubbins Student Leadership Scholarship, which honors leadership and professional advocacy.

Other Gregory School honors included:

GSOP students sweeping the patient counseling competition. Anjali Talwar won first place, Alex Shantiai won second place and Josuah Tilus won third place.

Nicole DiMarco received the James B. and Patsey J. Powers Scholarship for her work with student professional organizations.

In her keynote address, American Pharmacists Association (APhA) President Theresa Tolle recognized the achievements of GSOP faculty and residents, including Drs. Amy Catherine Baggett, Jessica Bailey, Erin Dorval and Laura Rhodes.

GSOP was the only school whose students and faculty presented posters. Five faculty gave continuing education programming at the meeting: Drs. Erin Dorval, Laura Rhodes, Jordan Sedlacek, Jessica Bailey and Amy Catherine Baggett. Dean Dr. Dana Strachan delivered the Sunday morning message.

“Distinguished Young Pharmacist” Dr. Laura Rhodes, at work in the Prescription Shop of Stuart

LeMieux Center hosts former secretary of state

From left, are LeMieux, Pompeo, PBA President Dr. Debra A. Schwinn and Dean Dr. Robert Lloyd.

Mike Pompeo, 70th secretary of state and sixth director of the Central Intelligence Agency, became the latest high-level official hosted by the LeMieux Center for Public Policy. On Feb. 1, before an overflow crowd, he talked with former U.S. Sen. George S. LeMieux about brokering Middle East peace, a secret trip to North Korea and the ongoing challenges posed by China and Russia.

Pompeo is the first person to have served as both CIA director and secretary of state and the first secretary of state to come to the LeMieux Center. The center has hosted former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and former presidential speech writer Peggy Noonan, among other notable figures.

Prior to his public remarks, Pompeo spoke with a group of high-achieving PBA students selected to participate in a Q&A session. He began by encouraging them to stay focused on their values and not fear hard work. They have a responsibility, he said, to use their

privilege to give back to others, whether in inner-city West Palm Beach or sub-Saharan Africa.

On Jan. 19 the LeMieux Center hosted FBI agent George L. Piro (at right). He spoke from his experience as special agent in charge of the bureau’s Miami Division and leader of the FBI team that interrogated Saddam Hussein.

The center continued its Freidheim Fellows Program, which annually selects two undergraduate students to conduct public policy research projects under the guidance of LeMieux. The 20212022 fellows are Sarah Kilpatrick, a senior politics major from Land o’ Lakes, Florida, and Shelby E. Braun, a senior psychology major from Sherwood, Oregon.

Watch Secretary Pompeo’s talk on public policy and foreign affairs: go.pba.edu/pompeo

Pompeo urges students to ‘give back’ by serving others

Enriching Souls

Student artists interpret the power of our words

Artist Daina Petit-Frere

The Wordship program launched its second year, calling upon the arts to help advance a counter-cultural way of speaking and writing.

“As we’ve seen in recent years, the word flies through space and time with the click of a mouse and hardly a thought about whom it might affect adversely,” said Dr. Stephanie Bennett, Wordship director. “What if we began to take the word seriously and use it as the powerful gift it is, speaking and writing worthily, wisely, and to bless anyone within earshot?”

Bennett, professor of communication and media ecology, said, “the arts can help us to imagine a world of racial harmony, of gender equality and overall respect for the other as one who is created in God’s image.”

‘We can change someone’s life by serving,’ says award-winning student-athlete

In addition to the four chapel services offered each week, Palm Beach Atlantic presents Christival, an annual celebration of faith, worship and learning. In that forum, Ethiopian native Birhanu van der Riet spoke of his journey of faith and challenges he’s faced.

“I was praying that God would lead me to a community that would encourage me and spur me to His love and to follow Him,” he said. “I’m so grateful for the PBA community, and ultimately I’m so grateful that God led me here to this place.”

He came to PBA in 2019, and earned a bachelor’s degree in intercultural studies. He’s now working on his master’s degree in international development. When he leaves with that degree, look for him to immerse himself in serving his new community, but not as an outsider thinking he has all the answers. Instead, expect him to learn from his new neighbors, “working with them to tackle the problems they have.”

Van der Riet has taken that mindset to an underserved community near PBA, and with it, he’s won both hearts and awards.

Find Birhanu van der Riet’s testimony from Christival here.

Rosemary Village as a freshman in 2019, joining other PBA students in the University’s Workship community service outreach. For his ongoing work at Rosemary Village, in April of this year, the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County and Palm Beach Atlantic University presented van der Riet the Tikkun Olam (repair the world) Young Leader Award. Later that month, van der Riet the athlete (he runs track) received the Clark Boetel Award, which honors student-athletes who represent the University with outstanding attitude, leadership and servant-hood.

go.pba.edu/birhanu

The first award, the Newman Civic Fellowship, came in 2020, citing van der Riet’s volunteer service with the Rosemary Village after-school program. That program draws many PBA students to serve a low-income community two miles from campus.

The fellowship recognizes and supports “communitycommitted students who are changemakers and public problem-solvers.” At Rosemary Village, it became apparent that description fits van der Riet to a T.

“The biggest thing I’ve observed about Birhanu is his caring spirit and his dedication,” said Joi Cardwell, director of the after-school program. “He comes every day with a smile on his face, mentoring the kids, being a big brother, being a leader.”

“I love the community,” van der Riet said, “and I’ve learned a lot from that place.” He began serving at

“We can change someone’s life by serving,” van der Riet believes, and he has experienced such change himself. His father died when van der Riet was young, and economic conditions in Ethiopia forced his mother to seek help. An American family now living in Orlando adopted van der Riet and his three siblings. That act of service made it possible for him to become a firstgeneration college student at PBA.

He now feels a vocational call to help bring holistic, sustainable help and healing to hurting people and communities. Reflecting back on his own childhood and poverty, he concludes, “If you want to transform a person’s life, it’s not preaching the Gospel only.”

His graduate work will include an overseas research project, and after he earns his master’s degree, he’d love to return to his homeland and work in holistic development. “But I’m open to everything,” he said. “Wherever God leads me.”

Center for Global Leadership starts freshmen into leadership track

A new scholarship opportunity birthed from the Center for Global Leadership allows a select group of students to hone their leadership skills – beginning three weeks before their regular freshman classes start.

Called PBA Lead, the program opened fall of 2021, drawing 40 freshmen for a unique experience of leadership development. By fall of 2022 the group had grown to 126 students, with many of them already taking on positions of leadership within the university community.

“We were thrilled to more than double the number of PBA Lead students participating in the program this year, imagining the impact these emerging leaders will have on the PBA campus and beyond,” said Dr. Dawn Barbee, director of the leadership center.

PBA Lead operates in partnership between the center and PBA Student Development, using materials from the organization Lead Like Jesus. Entering freshmen may apply for the program and the scholarship that supports it. Those selected come to live on campus three weeks early, to earn three credits in a class running 9 a.m. to noon daily.

“It’s extremely immersive experiential learning,” said Colleen Bray, program coordinator for the leadership center. “Rather than just lectures, there’s a lot of interaction and relationship building.”

“It was different from any other class I’ve ever taken,” said Isabella Bonvisuto, now a sophomore. “It’s been a transformative leadership experience, and the

relationships I have built are lifelong friendships.”

Students learn that the heart of leadership begins with following Jesus’ example and leading themselves. They also discover their personal strengths, passions and personality to begin developing a leadership strategy for life. Their PBA Lead scholarship is renewable for three years, allowing them to advance through three of those immersive leadership courses, all the while growing into leadership roles. For example, of the 40 freshmen signing up in 2021, nine now as sophomores have become resident assistants (RAs) in residence halls.

Phyllis Hendry Halverson, president emeritus of Lead Like Jesus, taught the freshman class. “These students were not only very bright, but insightful, serious, diligent, funny and highly engaged,” she said. “I have no doubt that these students are truly world changers.”

CENTER HAS A NEW NAME

Dr. Stephen Mansfield is executive director of the Center for Global Leadership, formerly called the Center for Biblical Leadership. “There is absolutely no intention here to move away from biblical distinctives in the kind of leadership the center champions,” he said. “The change is all about access around the world. The word Biblical in our former name limited access to governments and others in some parts of the world. This one-word change removed a barrier while making no change in our distinct mission.”

For more information visit www.pbalead.com

PBA Lead has grown to include 126 students.

Major grants help launch new ministry programs

Thanks to innovative partnership approaches and $6 million in grants from Lilly Endowment Inc., excitement rides high in two new School of Ministry programs.

In the latest program, Community Transformation and Chaplaincy, an interdisciplinary concentration within the Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree will prepare graduates for future employment in community leadership and other fields that overlap with ministry, such as hospital, hospice, military and corporate chaplaincy. A grant of $5 million over five years supports the effort, through Lilly Endowment’s Pathways for Tomorrow initiative.

The concentration integrates trauma-informed care and spirituality, organizational leadership and clinical pastoral education (CPE) training. The first students in the program have begun their studies, some taking the PBA graduate course Trauma, Body and Spirituality, and some beginning CPE training through Baptist Health South Florida. Baptist Health is a key partner in the program, along with the Urban Renewal Center, a Black-led, church-based organization in Norfolk, Virginia.

Dr. Ryan Gladwin, Community Transformation and Chaplaincy director and associate professor of ministry and theology at PBA, described the Urban Renewal Center as a think tank for urban transformation. “We’re going to learn from each other about what’s working in community transformation,” he said.

“The Community Transformation and Chaplaincy program prepares students not only to be pastoral theologians, like traditional theological education models,” said Gladwin, “but also empowers them to be instruments for social change, trauma healing and economic empowerment.”

Lilly Endowment’s Pathways for Tomorrow initiative is designed to help theological schools across the United

States and Canada as they prioritize and respond to the most pressing challenges they face to prepare pastoral leaders for Christian congregations both now and into the future.

JOINT VENTURE WITH FMU

Another Lilly Endowment grant, for $1 million, enabled PBA in February to launch the program Lift Every Voice, at Florida Memorial University, the only historicallyBlack university in South Florida. The program draws its name from the song “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the Black national anthem.

Lift Every Voice, which now has 30 students, gives students from FMU the opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree and a Master of Divinity degree in less time and at a lower cost than it typically takes. Current pastors, ministers and members of Black churches can also get an M.Div. through PBA at FMU at an affordable price.

PBA President Dr. Debra A. Schwinn welcomed FMU President Dr. Jaffus Hardrick and other FMU leaders for a program kickoff on Feb. 28, the concluding day of Black History Month. Read her joyous recount of the experience at go.pba.edu/voices

3.7 million hours of helping

A PBA-led ESL program that

Palm Beach County School District’s Family & Community Involvement Award.

Palm Beach Atlantic student Krista Entwistle led PBA student-teachers who spent their Friday mornings at Belvedere Elementary School working with parents who wanted English as a Second Language instruction so they could help their children with homework and be able to communicate with their children’s teachers. Started by a PBA alumna in 2016, the ESL program was adopted by students as a natural opportunity for Workship, the university’s signature community service program.

Workship volunteers have served more than 3.7 million hours since the program began in 1968. PBA students have served through a variety of partners, including Habitat for Humanity, local food banks and churches.

PBA student Krista Entwistle works with a mom in the Belvedere Elementary School ESL program.

helps parents of elementary school students create better lives for their families earned the

Business student leads thriving ministry to the homeless

As a freshman, Umberto Rosi loaded up leftovers from Einstein Bros. Bagels one January night and headed for Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach. There he handed out bagels to homeless strangers. Today, 2022 graduate Rosi is CEO of The Give Back Community, a nonprofit that has provided more than 10,000 free meals to the homeless. But to Rosi and the 500-plus volunteers who have helped, the homeless are no longer strangers. They are friends.

“Your job today is not just to give away the food,” Rosi tells new volunteers. “It’s to establish relationships and spread love and show these people that we care about them. Because not many people do.”

Rosi came to PBA from Italy, recruited to play tennis. “It was hard in the beginning,” he said. “My English was terrible. But the people here are very nice. They care about you, and you feel it right away.”

He and his friend Andrew Beckwith founded The Give Back Community. They secured donations of food from local restaurants, and recruited PBA students and others to go out and serve the homeless every Friday night. That consistency, going each week, is key, Rosi said, because it takes time to build trust and relationships with the homeless.

“What I learned from PBA is that you need to make it about God,” Rosi said. “You need to make it about love to establish a community.”

The organization expressed God’s love using more than free food. Give Back has provided 4,500 pieces of clothing and sleeping bags, and found jobs for at least 12 people. By involving the Community Health Center of West Palm Beach and PBA’s Lloyd L. Gregory School of Pharmacy, the outreach includes medical care as well.

Dr. Catherine Harrington, recently retired professor from the Gregory School, sits on Rosi’s board of

advisors. “Umberto is pretty amazing” with his gentle leadership, team building and consistency, she said. As she goes out helping pharmacy students in this mission, she sees how the experience helps the students grow. “We want them not to turn their heads away when a homeless person wanders into their pharmacy, but to show compassion, being the hands of Christ.”

Rosi was a business major, and has learned much from business mentors, including PBA Trustee Karl Watson Jr. and Dr. John P. Hayes, director of the Titus Center for Franchising, another Give Back board member. “It’s incredible,” grabbing coffee with mentors and learning about fundraising and about one’s relationship with God and business, Rosi said. “Something great about PBA is the people who are always available to develop relationships with students.”

The Give Back Community has grown to serve the homeless in five locations: Clematis Street, Currie Park and Royal Park Bridge in West Palm Beach; Lake Worth Beach, Florida; and Santa Monica Pier, California (where Rosi has a number of friends). In June Rosi began working as a salaried employee, with plans to work full-time, expanding the awareness about homelessness and producing more results, “because we’ve proven that the program works.”

“Debbie,” a homeless person who shares her story at thegivebackcommunity.org, points to the persistence of Rosi and volunteers as the reason for the program’s success. “They keep coming every week,” she said, “and they’ve helped so many people recover. I love them. They’re my family.”

Hear Umberto’s story here: go.pba.edu/umberto

Umberto Rosi gifts new shoes to a homeless friend.

Palm Beach Atlantic community agonized and prayed, longing to help the suffering there. Sarah Roulette and Michal Precikowski were among those who found open doors to serve in the region.

“I just felt this huge pull to it,” said Roulette, who prayed one day as she followed the war news on her phone. Two weeks later her friend and fellow alumna Cayla Metzger called, seeking a photojournalist to join her on a mission of mercy to war refugees in Poland.

“I prayed about it, and then God opened the door and it just all fell into place,” said Roulette. She recalled her former professor Dr. Mike Griffin’s advice to “put your ‘yes’ on the table and give it to God.”

Roulette and Metzger spent a week in April volunteering with a Nashville-based nonprofit serving in a Polish city an hour and a half from the Ukrainian border. Working with refugees there, Roulette said, “You could feel the weight of what was happening on these families, but they were overcoming that every day, to continue life as normally as they could.”

Precikowski, a student in the Rinker School of Business, is from Poland. He plays on the tennis team,

Ukraine relief ‘God opened the door’ for service to refugees

and through connections with tennis enthusiasts on Palm Beach he joined in an outreach to Ukraine. He made two trips to Poland, helping with a group supporting relief efforts with medical supplies and food.

“For a really long time I had a problem understanding why God decided to bring me to the U.S.,” he said, “because it was so hard for me to leave my country, family and friends. But now, I’m seeing more clearly the purpose of God, and how He’s in control. I can see that He connected me with those people from Palm Beach to have a great impact on Ukraine and Ukrainian people.”

You can help

PBA’s International Student Scholarship is designed to provide financial assistance to international students who do not qualify for federal financial aid and are left with fewer options to pay their tuition bills. Because of generous donors, stories like Michal Precikowski’s become possible.

See go.pba.edu/international.

PBA alumna Sarah Roulette shows photos to a little girl who fled Ukraine.

Hear her testimony from her trip at go.pba.edu/realchange

Students scale Peruvian Andes, bringing Bibles

They adjusted to the thin air above 13,000 feet; they hiked for hours up and down the Peruvian Andes; they slept in tents – but then, said PBA senior Dylan Cunard, “Once we finally were able to see the kids we had been praying over for months, nothing else mattered.”

In October 2021 Cunard joined the mission team bound for Peru. In June, after training, praying and bonding as a team, nine students set out, led by chemistry lecturer Greg Rummo, a veteran of nearly 20 mission trips to Peru. They carried with them a powerful gift: Bibles translated into the local dialect.

The Quechua, “a people group that God loves as much as He loves you and me,” said Rummo, “had never seen a copy of the Word of God in their own, heart language.”

First, the PBA visitors played soccer with the locals, followed by dancing and dinner. And then the entire village came out to watch a translated version of “The Jesus Film,” followed by translated testimonies of faith. The program ended with PBA students handing out the precious Bibles.

“Watching their eyes light up as we handed them the Bible and said ‘Que Dios le bendiga’ (God bless you) was one of the most rewarding and spiritually encouraging things I’ve experienced,” said Cunard.

The team traveled to four villages, handing out some 450 Bibles and enjoying fellowship with the people, aided by translators from a local group, the Good News Association. The trip, Cunard concluded, reminded him “how good the Gospel is, how important it is to people and how transformative it is.”

Other summer mission trips took undergraduate PBA students to Greece, South Africa, Guyana and Germany. They worked with refugees, painted school buildings, taught English to children, hosted Vacation Bible School and served in a safe house for young girls. Meanwhile, pharmacy students traveled to Honduras, where they served 550 patients and filled 1,500 prescriptions, all in five days. About her long days on that mission trip, one student concluded, This is the training that I need Learn more at go.pba.edu/pharm-trip.

Serena D’Anna delivers translated Bible.

Hear students share about their mission trips around the world:

Developing Christian Game Changers

Sailfish riding high under balanced NCAA DII emphasis

In athletics, Palm Beach Atlantic University is committed to academic and athletic success, spiritual growth and serving others on and off the field. Coaches are selected for their ability to teach and mentor, in addition to their athletic knowledge. Training and playing on the PBA fields and courts encourages students to succeed in the classroom, in the sports they love and in life.

As proud members of the Sunshine State Conference (SSC) within NCAA Division II, the Sailfish compete in 18 varsity sports. They enjoy top-flight facilities in the Greene Complex for Sports and Recreation and the 76-acre Marshall and Vera Lea Rinker Athletic Campus. New developments included a $30,000 gift for the athletic training room from John J. and Sheila Rinker. NCAA Division II is all about balance. Students participate in highly competitive athletics, but their college experience includes much more than their sports. The balance of athletics, academics and community engagement helps student-athletes develop their full potential for their careers and as contributing members of their communities.

In 2021-2022 PBA student-athletes earned a department GPA of 3.10, with Women’s Tennis on top at a team GPA of 3.63.

In addition to the many student-athlete accomplishments noted on these pages, Sailfish staff earned numerous honors, led by Director of Athletics Courtney Lovely Evans, named DII Nike Executive of the Year by Women’s Leaders in College Sports. She also serves on the NCAA Management Council and Championships Committee, and as chair of the SSC Athletic Directors Council.

varsity sports

Key Team Achievements Individual Player Recognitions

Men’s Soccer: 2021 SSC Regular Season Champions; sixth straight trip to NCAA Tournament; hosted NCAA Regionals

Beach volleyball won the silver bracket at the AVCA Small College National Championship.

Women’s Soccer had its winningest season since 2012, earning first berth to the SSC Tournament.

Schmidt Volleyball Quenzi Huerman Men’s Soccer Michael Pahr Men’s Soccer

Will Lee became PBA’s first basketball player to win SSC Freshman of the Year.

JULES JASMIN, MEN’S BASKETBALL, BECAME THE DII-ERA CAREER

POINTS LEADER.

Cross Country

Women’s Cross Country had the best team finish at NCAA Regionals in program history.

Volleyball earned its first berth to the NCAA Tournament since 2018.

Will Hartford, Men’s Golf, notched the best individual finish at the SSC Championships in program history.

Andrew Riley, Men’s Golf, recorded the lowest single season stroke average in program history and became the first men’s golfer to earn an invite to the NCAA South Region Tournament.

Jazz

University Leadership

President’s Cabinet

Dr. Debra A. Schwinn, President

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Chairman Timothy S. Sotos, Vice Chairman Michael J. Stevens, Treasurer Steven G. Scalici ’95, Secretary Chandra Bill-Rabenecker, the Rev. Walter B. Arnold III, Ginger Bills, William Blodgett, William C. Bradford ’96 MBA, Cathleen Burk, Mark C. Campbell ’00, Wayne W. Cotton, Charles R. Dorsey Jr. (Trustee Emeritus), John P. Greene III (Trustee Emeritus), Dr. John M. Gregory, Daniel A. Hanley, Scott G. Hawkins, James C. Jenkins, James C. Johnston, R. Marshall Jones, Mami Kisner, Richard A. Krause, Patrick C. Koenig, John W. Little III, Thomas P. McCaffrey, Barbara Moore, Dr. Thomas R. Pledger (Trustee Emeritus), Gary Schroeder, Dr. James H. Scroggins IV, Robert W. Simpson (Trustee Emeritus), the Hon. W. Matthew Stevenson (Trustee Emeritus), Karl H. Watson Sr. (Trustee Emeritus), Karl H. Watson Jr. ’87

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President Jessica Ann Clasby ’13/’15 M.S., Vice President Josué Léon ’11 MBA, Nancy Albertz-Schmidt ’05, Aliza Beaulieu ’16, Jamie Bethel ’08, Jessica Moody Bruce ’14 MBA, Victoria A. Chouris ’97/’01 MBA, Alexandra C. Cook ’93/’94/’94 MBA, Britton Cotton ’10, Natalie Diaz ’11, Lamar Paul Fisher ’17, Richard Gaff ’08, Paul Giles ’94, Jeff Gordley ’97, Ryan Howerton ’09 Pharm.D., Matt McKee ’95, Zach McElroy ’02, Duane Miller ’13, Nicholas Mohnacky ’06, Kelli Roads ’96, Keith Rossin ’16, Don Sloan ’73, Mo Staples ’17, Ben Starling III ’92, Laura Titus ’16

WOMEN OF DISTINCTION COMMITTEE

Chair Frances Fisher, Cathy Flagg, Denise Hanley, Evelyn Mahanes, Penny Murphy, Sheila Rinker, Katherine Shenaman ’97

Dr. Chelly Templeton Provost and Chief Academic Officer

Laura C. Bishop Executive Vice President for Advancement

Dr. Steve Alderman Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel

Scott Barnes Vice President for Information Technology Services

Dr. Stacie Bowie Chief Financial Officer

Dr. Nancy Brainard Vice President for Enrollment Management

Dr. Bernie Cueto Vice President for Spiritual Development and Campus Pastor

Courtney Lovely Evans Director of Athletics

Dr. Bob Lutz Vice President for Student Development

Cara Wald Vice President for Human Resources

CENTER FOR GLOBAL LEADERSHIP

Christine Auker, Scott Auker, Jon DeGaynor, Phyllis Hendry Halverson, Roland Heersink, James William Inglis, Grace Kurian, Brad Oaster, Rob Rabenecker, Sandy Rogers, William Traywick, Phillip & Lisa Wardell, Karl Watson Jr.

PARENTS COUNCIL

Co-chairs Dan and Kendra Pearson, Dale and Becky Armstrong, John G. and Lynn Barbar

GREGORY LEADERSHIP COUNCIL

Founding Co-Chair Dr. John M. Gregory, Founding Co-Chair Dr. Joseph R. Gregory, Dr. William E. Ballough, Mary Ann Blessing, Dr. Jason Carlson, Dr. Rena Coll, Terry Gubbins, Paul Leone, Raj Mantena, Dr. Cristina M. Medina, Greg Nazareth, Dr. Wesley Rohn, Dr. Damien Simmons, Dr. Michele Weizer, David Wright

SCHOOL OF MINISTRY ADVISORY COUNCIL

Dr. Robert Norris, Steve Browning, Gregory Hazle, Ashley Sink, Justin Sink, Patrick Moody ’76, Amy Moody, Margarita Gonzalez, Dr. Ray Underwood, Dr. Gerald Wright, Kathy Wright, Dr. Dale E. Locke ’84, David O’Malley

MARSHALL E. RINKER SR. SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ADVISORY BOARD

Gary Adkin, Jorge Cabrera, Alan Crowetz, William Roger Cummings, David Light, Chris and Christy Markgraf, Brian McPherson, Ryan Morgan, Patrick Nickler, Scott Roads, Richard Michael Sothen, Nancy Tallent, Steve Templeton, A.J. Titus, Adriana Willmutz, Melina Willson

SCHOOL OF NURSING ADVISORY BOARD

Priscilla Bartolone, Gloria Bays, Mary Bishop, Jennifer Chiusano, Mary Cleary-Ierardi, Amy Dean, Lois Gackenheimer, Carol Hacker, Robbin Lee, Dr. Charles O. Lobdell, Geralyn Lunsford, Angela Prestia, Al Ricketts, Steven Seeley, Dana Sheehan, Donna Small

LEMIEUX CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY ADVISORY BOARD

James Burns, James Donnelly, Mary Jo Finocchiaro, Frances Fisher, Mitzi Freidheim, Dru Hammer, Margie Helmholdt, James Holton, James C. Jenkins, Joshua Kellam, Sen. George S. LeMieux, Michele Merrell, Mario Murgado, Joe Negron, Beth Neuhoff, Dr. Robert O’Neil, John Radtke, Richard Reikenis, Brad Saft, Karl Watson Jr.

TITUS CENTER FOR FRANCHISING ADVISORY BOARD

Erik Amick, Mark Andrews, Cheryl Babcock, Scott Barrett, Shay Berman, Rick Bisio, Paul Bosley, Red Boswell, Alan Burger, John Clancy, Daniel Collins, Victor Daher, Richard Davies, Elizabeth Denham, Janet Deverso, John Diep, Dan Dubell, Kathryn Dye, Martina Echevarria, William Edwards, Tom Epstein, Monica Feid, Ron Feldman, Megan Filoon, Gary Findley, Rocco Fiorentino, Sheila Fischer, Lorne Fisher, Lane Fisher, Brad Fishman, Tony Foley, Gary Gardner, Matthew Gourgeot, Nancy Halverson, Al Harlow, David Hawash, Cory Hibbard, Jonathan Hill, Laura Lee Holmbo, Peter Holt, Ken Hutcheson, Madison Jobe, Robert Jones, Charles Kim, Stacey Leuliette, Warren Lewis, Steve Lieber, Brian Maciak, Brandon Mangual, Brian Margolis, Patrick McGee, Butch Mogavero, Rob Morris, Guy Norberg, Tom Portesy, Jake Rankin, Eddie Rodriguez, Ellen Rohr, Corey Saban, Thomas Scott, Geoff Seiber, Tipton Shonkwiler, Charlie Smith, Jonathan Thiessen, Ray Titus, A.J. Titus, Austin Titus, Frank Toral, Lenny Valentino, Scott White, Steven White

The power of the right book

When the Warren Library offered an African American Read-in during Black History Month, it had especially deep meaning for Associate Librarian Dr. LaKeshia Darden. She recalls an eyeopening turning point, when as a child she read Mildred D. Taylor’s “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.”

“It was so well written,” she said, “and I knew these people. I saw people like this in my family. Before then, all these great stories I read didn’t have people who looked like me.”

Oh, thought the young Darden, we do exist in books, too.

“And that’s why it’s so personal for me today,” she said. “It’s just very important for me to find the right book for black children, for brown children, for all children.” Darden now leads a new emphasis to ensure the PBA library has a “good, diverse collection of award-winning children’s literature.”

“Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry,” published in 1976, earned the Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King (CSK) honors. Darden has expanded the library’s collection with more Newbery and CSK titles, as well as books honored by the Christian Book Award, the Caldecott, Pura Belpré and Schneider Family Book awards.

Darden served on the Coretta Scott King Book Awards jury from 2017 to 2019 and was jury chair from 2019 to 2021. “She is a recognized expert in the field of Children’s Literature,” said University Librarian John Doncevic. “We are blessed to have her join the Warren Library team.”

Associate Librarian Dr. LaKeshia Darden shows off award-winning books.

PBA

Palm Beach Atlantic University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) to award the following degrees: bachelor’s, master’s, doctor of pharmacy, doctor of nursing practice, and doctor of philosophy. For questions about the accreditation of Palm Beach Atlantic University, contact the Commission on Colleges at: 1866 Southern Lane Decatur, GA 30033-4097 (404) 679-4500 or www.sacscoc.org

Persons wishing to review documents related to the accreditation of Palm Beach Atlantic University should contact the Director, Accreditation and Assessment/SACSCOC Liaison at (561) 803-2059.

901 S. Flagler Drive West Palm Beach, FL 33401 561-803-2000 www.pba.edu