Parkland College 2022 Commencement Ceremony, May 12
Parkland College Commencement Exercises, Thursday, May 12
Dr. Stuart King, pain management specialist and anesthesiologist at Christie Clinic and University of Illinois trustee, will deliver the keynote address during Parkland College's 2022 Commencement Exercises, Thursday, May 12, at 8 p.m. in the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
Dr. King is a University of Illinois Trustee appointed in 2017. He is a lifetime member of the University of Illinois Alumni Association and has been or currently is a board member with the Parkland College Foundation, the Presence Hospital Foundation, the Carle Foundation, and UIUC’s MBA advisory board. He has served on Christie Clinic PC’s board of directors and is a diplomat for the American Board of Anesthesiology. In the past, he has been president of the Christie Foundation and the Champaign County Medical Society Board.
He began his career in 1987 with an associate’s degree at Parkland College in Liberal Arts and Sciences, and received a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He would continue his career with a doctorate from the University of Illinois’ College of Medicine at Peoria. He completed his residency in anesthesiology at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. He earned his MBA at UIUC in 2010.
Dr. King is a pain management specialist at Christie Clinic and head of the Department of Spine and Pain Management. In his military career, he was a major in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, and Captain of the 1/106th Aviation Battalion in the Illinois Army National Guard; he was also head of the medical section. He served at the McLeod Regional Medical Center and was on the Illinois State Medical Society’s Council of Economics.
He has worked as a clinical associate professor for multiple areas in the University of Illinois’ College of Medicine since 2013. He was also an interim associate dean for academic affairs for the College of Medicine for four years. In 2012, he was honored with Parkland College’s Distinguished Alumnus Award.
Parkland College's 55th Commencement will include a welcome from college administration and the Board of Trustees. The Parkland College Foundation will present the Distinguished Alumnus Award. Late trustee Jonathan Westfield will be commemorated with an honorary degree and Parkland student Ross Booker's family will be presented with a posthumous degree.
Student presenters will include honor student Angela Lustria Maligaya, tassel turner Sean M. Ealy, and student trustee Kha K. Nguyen. Nguyen is a High School of St. Thomas More graduate. Along with his role as student trustee, he is co-president of the Cobra Investment Society.
Ealy is a Cincinnati native and chose Parkland for the strong athletics program. He has been part of the Cobras basketball team for two years, and is pursuing a degree in communications.
Maligaya is a Parkland Pathway student and 2020 Centennial High School graduate. She has participated in many academic and student groups while in high school and on campus, including Phi Theta Kappa. After graduation, she plants to pursue global environmental sciences at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa.
The ceremony will also feature music selections by the Parkland College Wind Ensemble and an invocation and benediction by Pastor Willie G. Comer Jr. of Berean Covenant Church in Urbana.
This event will be in-person and livestreamed via YouTube and Facebook Live. Visit parkland.edu/commencement for more information.