W&J commencement, baccalaureate services scheduled
Washington & Jefferson College will hold its annual commencement exercises at 10 a.m. May 18 in the James David Ross Family Recreation Center.
A baccalaureate service is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. May 17 at the Church of the Covenant, 267 E. Beau St., Washington.
Dr. Elizabeth Kiss, CEO of the Rhodes Trust, will deliver the commencement address, and the Rev. Dr. Mark Louis Johnson Sr., a 1994 graduate of W&J, will deliver the baccalaureate address.
As CEO of the Rhodes Trust, Kiss oversees the world’s oldest and most prestigious scholarship, the Rhodes Scholarship, as well as a number of other international programs.
Kiss also served as president of Agnes Scott College, an all-female institution in Decatur, Ga., for 12 years.
When Johnson graduated in 1994, he was the college’s first African American senior class commencement speaker. He is a member of the W&J Board of Trustees.
A licensed and ordained Baptist minister, he is a third-generation pastor.
Following a professional basketball career in Europe and South America, Johnson attended Princeton Theological Seminary, where he earned a Master of Divinity and a Master of Theology in Christian Education.
He previously served as executive director of youth and young adult ministries at the 5,000-member Metropolitan Baptist Church in Newark, N.J., and chaplain to the Cleveland Guardians Major League Baseball team.
He currently lives in New Orleans, and serves as a pastor, professor, college lecturer, researcher, and chaplain of the Miami Marlins’ AAA baseball team in New Orleans.