Samford President Andrew Westmoreland named Alabama Humanities Fellow

Andrew Westmoreland

Samford President Andrew Westmoreland named Alabama Humanities Fellow

Samford University President Andrew Westmoreland is among nine Alabama Humanities Fellows who will be honored in The Alabama Colloquium Oct. 1 at Birmingham Museum of Art.

Following up on 2017’s highly successful inaugural event, the sessions will focus on powerful discussions by the Fellows on their roots, views and the underlying impact humanities has had in their lives.

“We are so looking forward to the second edition of The Alabama Colloquium with this impressive class of Fellows,” said AHF Executive Director Armand DeKeyser. “It is fitting that it is being billed as continuing the conversation because the 2017 conversation was so provocative and so memorable, it left us all with a sense of wanting more. With the expanded format, this certainly promises to be quite a powerful event.”

Westmoreland became the 18th president of Samford University on June 1, 2006. Founded in 1841, Samford is Alabama’s largest privately-supported institution of higher learning.

Westmoreland holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in political science and a doctorate in higher education administration. His career in higher education spans almost 40 years, including two college presidencies. In addition to his duties as Samford president, Westmoreland teaches courses in political science on a regular basis.

He serves as a member of many boards for charities and other entities, and he is an author and speaker. He is the past Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, which oversees accreditation for more than 800 colleges and universities from Virginia to Texas.

A native of Arkansas, he is married to Dr. Jeanna Westmoreland. They have one daughter, Riley, who is a graduate of Samford and of Vanderbilt University.

National Public Radio’s Michel Martin will moderate the Colloquium with an expanded format that features the Fellows in two lively conversational sessions.

In the expanded Colloquium format, Westmoreland and the other Fellows will be featured in morning and afternoon sessions.

In addition to Westmoreland, the 2018 Alabama Humanities Fellows are:

Nall Hollis, known as Nall, a Southern American artist with an international following.

Gina Locklear, founder of Zkano, an online retailer of organic cotton socks manufactured in Fort Payne that is revolutionizing the industry.

Bobby McAlpine, self-described architect, romantic, poet and entrepreneur.

Martha Bouyer, Executive Director of Historic Bethel Baptist Church Foundation, Bouyer developed and has served as project director for twelve “Stony the Road We Trod…” National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) sponsored institutes in Alabama.

Mary Margaret Pettway, a third-generation quilter and member of the Gee’s Bend Quilters Collective.

Margot Shaw, founder and editor of Flower Magazine, the only floral lifestyle magazine in the country.

Joyce Vance, former U.S. attorney in Alabama, professor at University of Alabama School of Law and regular contributor of political analysis on MSNBC.

Peggy Wallace Kennedy, daughter of former Alabama Gov. George Wallace and known across the country as a voice for peace and reconciliation.

Lunch will be served in between the two sessions, and attendees may attend one or both.

The morning session features Kennedy, Pettway, Vance and Westmoreland. Bouyer, Nall, Locklear, McAlpine and Shaw anchor the afternoon session. For more information or to order your tickets, go to: http://www.alabamahumanities.org/colloquium-tickets-2018/. (TAB)