Speakers Announced for Baccalaureate and Commencement
Submitted on April 23, 2018
Speakers have been announced for Georgetown College’s spring 2018 graduation. It is expected that 168 undergraduates will participate in Commencement along with an eligible 99 Master of Arts in Education candidates.
President M. Dwaine Greene has tapped Dr. James C. Klotter, Professor of History at Georgetown College and the State Historian of Kentucky, as the speaker for Commencement on Saturday, May 12, at 10 o’clock on Giddings Lawn. The Reverend Dr. Debra Wallace-Padgett of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church has accepted an invitation to visit campus as Baccalaureate speaker the evening before on Friday, May 11, at 7 p.m. in John L. Hill Chapel.
Klotter has been on faculty at Georgetown College since 1998. Previously he was executive director of the Kentucky Historical Society. He has been Kentucky’s State Historian since 1990.
Dr. Klotter has served as president of the Kentucky Association of Teachers of History and was the secretary, then president of the Kentucky Civil War Roundtable. He has been a member of a number of other professional organizations, including the Kentucky Historical Foundation Board, Filson Historical Society, Muhammad Ali Museum Advisory Board, and the Southern Historical Association.
Professor Klotter is the author of several books, including A New History of Kentucky and Our Kentucky: A Study of the Bluegrass State. He has written for or served as editor of numerous publications and is frequently called upon by journalists and reporters across Kentucky and beyond to provide insight and perspective on matters relating to history.
He earned the Ph.D. as well as masters and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Kentucky.
Bishop Wallace-Padgett was elected a Bishop of the United Methodist Church at the 2012 Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference. As the time of her election, she served as Lead Pastor of St. Luke United Methodist Church in Lexington, KY – an appointment she served for eight years. Her previous service to the church includes six years as District Superintendent of the Prestonsburg District, with two years as Dean of the Cabinet of the Kentucky Conference, three years as pastor of Paris First UMC, and eleven years on staff at Lexington First UMC.
Additionally, she has served in a variety of roles in the Kentucky Annual Conference as well as Jurisdictional and General Conference levels. These include Board of Ministries, District Committee on Ministries/Local Pastors team chair, Methodist Home Board chair, Kentucky Conference Education chair, Kentucky episcopacy Committee chair, Primary Task Team, Children and Poverty Board, SEJ Episcopacy Committee member, and numerous others.
She holds degrees from Berea College, Scarritt College and Graduate School, Lexington Theological Seminary, and Asbury Theological Seminary. She is married to Rev. Lee Padgett, a deacon in the United Methodist Church who serves as Executive Director of Sumatanga Camp and Conference Center. They have two children.
The Baccalaureate service will include the presentation of Christian Service Awards sponsored by the Marshall Center for Christian Ministry. The Don and Chris Kerr Cawthorne Award for Excellence in Teaching, the school’s highest recognition for teaching, will be presented to a faculty member during Commencement.
