The Honorable Faye Sanders Martin, Lynne Weisenbach and Dick Escue will be the three speakers Friday during Georgia Southern's Fall Commencement exercises. There are three ceremonies to accommodate all of the graduates, with the first getting underway at 9 a.m. at Hanner Fieldhouse.
    Martin, a senior judge for the Superior Courts of Georgia, will speak at the 9 a.m. ceremony. Weisenbach, who currently serves as vice chancellor in the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, will speak at the 11 a.m. ceremony. And Escue, senior vice president and chief information officer for RehabCare Group, will serve as the speaker for the 1 p.m. ceremony.
    During her career, Martin has been a woman of “firsts."  She was the first female attorney in Bulloch County, the first woman appointed to the Georgia Superior Court bench and the first female chief superior court judge in the state. She also was the first mother to swear in her daughter as an attorney in Georgia. Her many honors and awards include the Amicus Curiae Award from the Supreme Court of Georgia, the Tradition of Excellence Award from the State Bar of Georgia and the Distinguished Alumni Award from Georgia Southern.
    Martin attended what was then Georgia Teachers College, graduating in 1955. She went on to earn her law degree and later an Honorary Juris Doctorate from Woodrow Wilson College of Law in Atlanta. Since graduation, she has created and endowed both the Judge Faye Sanders Martin Fund for the Office of Pre-Law Advisement and the Judge Faye Sanders Martin Honors Program Scholarship for Georgia Southern students.
    Weisenbach, who currently serves as vice chancellor for educator preparation, innovation and research at the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia (USG), is responsible for the USG's strategic goals on educator preparation, college access and completion and serves as the USG liaison with other state agencies and national partners in those arenas. She plays a leadership role in Georgia’s overall P-20 initiatives, including serving as USG lead on Georgia’s Race to the Top initiative and as the state’s liaison to Complete College America. She holds faculty rank at the University of Georgia and Georgia State University. Weisenbach has served in leadership roles at the national level for a variety of professional organizations across the P-20 spectrum. 
    Escue, senior vice president and chief information officer (CIO) for RehabCare Group, has been a healthcare CIO for more than 20 years, and has led IT teams as large as 600 and as small as 50.  In his current role, he leads an IT team that supports long-term acute care hospitals, nursing, hospice, assisted living and rehab centers across the country. Prior to joining RehabCare Group, he served as CIO at Sisters of Mercy Health System in St. Louis, Mo., and Baptist Memorial Healthcare Corporation in Memphis, Tenn.
    Most recently, Escue leveraged the use of cloud computing solutions, as well as consumer technology (primarily the Apple iPhone and iPad) to achieve industry leading IT efficiency metrics. He is frequently called upon as an expert speaker at conferences focused on cloud computing and mobility. 
    He is a graduate of Memphis State University with Bachelor of Arts in management information systems and a Master of Business Administration in marketing.
    Georgia Southern will make each ceremony available live online at www.georgiasouthern.edu.  Friends and family unable to attend the ceremony can view the webcast directly from GSU's homepage. The broadcast will begin a few minutes before the start of each ceremony.
    Commencement also will available in Statesboro to Northland Cable subscribers on Channel 99 and on Channel 90 on campus.  Channel 90 is accessible from any television that is located on the campus (including residence hall rooms, etc.).