Concordia College Alabama is set to hold its 89th commencement ceremony on May 9 at 10 a.m. in the Julius and Mary Jenkins Center located on Concordia’s East campus.

The graduating class of 2015 includes more than 50 students graduating in the fields of business administration, early childhood education, preschool education, general education and applied business management. Graduates from the Concordia University-Wisconsin Justice and Public Policy program will also walk during the ceremony.

Constance Smith Hendricks will deliver the commencement address. Hendricks is a graduate of Alabama Lutheran Academy (now Concordia College) and currently serves as president of Concordia’s National Alumni Association. She is a Charles W. Barkley Endowed Full Professor at the Auburn University School of Nursing,and is a tenured full professor with graduate faculty status.

Hendricks serves as the Auburn University School of Nursing Outreach Coordinator, where she currently has a community-based health promotion initiative funded by Auburn University Office of Outreach. She is a diamond life member of the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., as well as a life member of the Chi Eta Phi Nursing Sorority where she serves as regional director.

Dr. Hendricks is a certified life coach, a certified parish nurse and a member of the National Association of Parliamentarians. She is also the author of a published health promotional empowerment theory entitled The Hendricks Perceptual Health Promotion Determinants Model.

Hendricks has worked to establish several scholarships including the Dr. Constance Smith Hendricks Endowed Health Promotion Scholarship at Hampton University to be awarded to a graduate nursing student conducting health promotion research. She has also launched efforts to establish an endowed scholarship in her name at her nursing school, UAB, where, once endowed, will be the first scholarship in honor of an African American Nurse alumna as the Dr. Constance Smith Hendricks, RN Endowed Scholarship, which will provide scholarships for those from the Black Belt.