Ferrum College will celebrate the inauguration of its twelfth president, David L. Johns, Ph.D., on Friday, October 19 at 10 a.m. The ceremony will be held in Vaughn Chapel located on the College’s campus. Phyllis Karavatakis ’76, chair of the Ferrum College Board of Trustees, will install Johns. Beth Rushing, president of the Appalachian College Association, will bring the keynote address. The ceremony may be watched streaming live online here.
Johns became president of Ferrum College on January 1, 2018. Prior to arriving at the College, he served as vice president for academic affairs and dean of college at Union College in Kentucky.
To celebrate this historic moment, Ferrum College invites members of the College, community and Ferrum alumni to join in the festivities surrounding the inauguration. These events begin on Thursday evening, October 18, when the College hosts Rev. Anna Woofenden, visiting pastor of peace and spirituality at the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Mount Vernon, Ohio, as part of the Rev. Dr. Wasena F. Wright, Jr. ’60 and Mrs. Patricia G. Wright Endowed Lecture Series. She will speak about “Food and Faith: Conversations from the Soil and Around the Table” at 7 p.m. in the Panther’s Den located in lower Franklin Hall on campus. This event is free and open to the public.
Following the inauguration on Friday, October 19, the community is invited to participate in a family-friendly bike tour hosted by Ferrum Outdoors at 1 p.m. Also at 1 p.m., the 27th Annual Corron Classic Panther Open Golf Tournament will commence at Great Oaks Country Club in Floyd. Registration at www.ferrum.edu/homecoming is required for both events.
Community members are also invited to bring a lawn chair and enjoy the following outside events that are free and do not require registration: The Homecoming parade will process down Wiley Drive on campus beginning at 4 p.m., followed by food trucks and children’s activities, plus live music by Twin Creeks Stringband at 5:15 p.m. and The Blue Crawdads at 7 p.m. Fireworks over Adams Lake at 9 p.m. will conclude the evening’s events with s’mores immediately following outside Stanley Library.
Homecoming and Family Weekend festivities will continue on Saturday, October 20, with reunions, tailgating, and a 4 p.m. football game showcasing the Ferrum College Panthers versus the Washington and Lee Generals at W.B. Adams Stadium. Football game tickets are available at the gate for $10 cash only. The weekend festivities will conclude with a 9:30 a.m. worship service at Saint James United Methodist Church in Ferrum on Sunday, October 21.
For more information regarding Dr. Johns’ inauguration, Rev. Woofenden’s presentation, Homecoming events, and to register for events, please visit www.ferrum.edu/homecoming or call the Alumni Office at 540-365-4216.
For more information regarding Dr. Johns’ inauguration, Rev. Woofenden’s presentation, Homecoming events, and to register for events, please click here or call the Alumni Office at 540-365-4216.
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More information about Dr. Johns: Johns graduated from Malone University in Canton, Ohio in 1985, then earned an M.A. in Theology from the Earlham School of Religion, an M.L.S. from Kent State University, and a Ph.D. in Theology from Duquesne University in 1999. He taught at Wilmington College and the Earlham School of Religion; worked as a college chaplain and an academic librarian; lectured at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Puebla, Mexico, the Instituto de Jorge Fox in Ocotepeque, Honduras; and was a scholar-in-residence at the Centro de Estudios Ecuménicos in Mexico City.
On Monday, October 1, the Blue Ridge Mountain Room at Ferrum College filled with over 200 students, faculty, staff and community members, eager to participate in “Saving Ourselves: A Symposium on the Opioid Crisis,” which featured New York Times Best-Selling author, Beth Macy.
The program, hosted by Martha Haley-Bowling, assistant professor of social work, and Lana Whited, professor of English and director of the Boone Honors Program, began in the afternoon with a continuing education event for regional social workers. The education event featured two parts: “Ethical Lapse and Relapse” and “Virginia’s Behavioral Health System and Opioid Crisis.” Later in the evening, Macy gave insight to the research she completed while writing her newest book, Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America. Following a reading of excerpts from her book, Macy and a diverse panel from the community answered questions and discussed the opioid crisis and its effect.
“We’re estimating that about 270 people attended the event, and the momentum for change was palpable. I’ve seldom seen a larger gathering of our community’s human resources marshaled in one place: the president of Piedmont Community Services, the principal at Benjamin Franklin Middle School, a juvenile court judge, an assistant commissioner from the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health, our sheriff, the commonwealth’s attorney, the college president and vice president for academic affairs, representatives from Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital, parents who have lost children to opioid addiction, recovering addicts, mental and behavioral health professionals working every day with addicts in various stages of recovery, and a New York Times Best-Selling author, Beth Macy. Beth is fond of quoting the author James Baldwin: ‘Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed that is not faced.’ The purpose of this event was to confront, full-face, the opioid crisis, to ‘be woke’ to our capacity to initiate change,” said Dr. Whited, following the event.
Dr. Haley-Bowling stated, “It was amazing to see and hear the energy in the room last night as people talked about how the opioid epidemic has affected them personally and professionally. One of the keys for me is where do we go from here? We had an amazing dialogue but we can’t let it stop there. I know I will be looking for avenues to keep this conversation going.”
To see more photos of the event, visit here.
To read more about the event, click here.
