Trisha Pollard, vice chairman of The Texas State University System board of regents, will be the keynote speaker for Lamar’s fall commencement at 9:30 a.m. Saturday,
Dec. 20, in the Montagne Center.
Graduation will proceed on schedule despite the 10-day closing of campus in September because of Hurricane Ike. Class times were extended, and class meetings continued into final-exam week.
Lamar plans to confer 667 degrees, including three doctorates, to graduates from 12 countries, 10 states outside Texas and 82 cities in Texas. The class includes 438 candidates for bachelor’s degrees and 222 candidates for master’s degrees.
Highlights will include presentation of the Plummer Award, recognizing the top academic graduates in the class of December 2008, and other honors graduates. President James Simmons will present introductions and student recognitions. Stephen Doblin, provost and vice president for academic affairs, will welcome graduates and guests and certify degree candidates.
Terri Davis, assistant professor of political science and president of the Faculty Senate, will lead the academic processional and recessional. Paul Hemenway, professor of communication, and Victoria Price, professor of modern languages (retired) will present the graduating class. The Lamar University Band, conducted by Scott Deppe, director of bands and instructor of music, will perform the processional, recessional and musical prelude. Angela Pickering, instructor of voice, will lead in the singing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and Lamar Alma Mater.
The commencement speaker is a businesswoman, lawyer and pioneer in the natural gas industry who has been a member of The Texas State University System Board of Regents since 2007, when Texas. Gov. Rick Perry appointed her to a term ending in 2013.
The TSUS board is the governing body of Lamar University and seven other institutions of higher learning in Texas.
A resident of Bellaire, Pollard is vice president and general manager of Pollard Development, L.P. She was born in the South Texas town of Premont and graduated from Sam Houston State University in 1974 with a bachelor of business administration in business education. Pollard began her career at Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp. and was the natural gas industry’s first female “gas buyer.”
Attending law school at nights and on weekends, Pollard graduated in 1980 from South Texas College of Law, completing her law degree in 3 ½ years.
During her 20 years at Transco, Pollard was manager for gas purchases and gas supply attorney. She then worked for PennUnion Energy Services as vice president for legal and human resources. In 1998, Pollard joined Kinder Morgan Inc. as assistant general counsel. She retired from Kinder Morgan in 2003.
Her appointment to the board culminated years of public service. Perry appointed her to a three-year term as a public member of the Texas One-Call Board in 2003. She has also served as a director of the Sam Houston State University Alumni Association, as foreman of the Harris County Grand Jury for three terms and as chairman of the Building and Standards Commission for the city of Bellaire. Pollard is a Presbyterian elder and a member of First Presbyterian Church of Houston. She also serves on Houston Bar Association committees, was chair of the Oil and Gas Section of that association and is a member of the State Bar of Texas.
Pollard met her husband of 34 years, Randy Pollard, CPA, when both were students at Sam Houston. They have a daughter, Jenny, a junior at Stephen F. Austin State University, and two sons, Matt, a senior at Texas A&M University and Jonathan, a high school sophomore.
