The formal inauguration of New College President Patricia Okker will be an eight-day initiative from February 19 to 26—with an academic showcase, virtual mini-classes, a juried student art exhibit, a Black History Month symposium and a community service day.
The official inauguration event will commence at 4 p.m. Wed. Feb. 23 with a procession from the Academic Center down Dort Promenade to College Hall. The ceremony will be held outside College Hall and conclude with a lemonade toast on the bayfront. All events are open to the public.
Engaging Community: Academic Showcase, Mini-Classes and Reclaiming Wellness Symposium
Sat. Feb. 19
Mini-Classes
9:30 to 10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. to noon on Zoom
Juried Student Art Exhibit
10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Isermann Gallery
“The Roaring Girl” Performance
11 a.m. to noon on the College Hall bayfront
Marine Research Lab and Dock Open House
11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Pritzker Marine Biology Research Center
New Schools of Black Thought Symposium: Reclaiming Wellness
Interactive wellness activities and vendors: 3 to 4:30 p.m.
Health, wellness and healing panel discussion: 4:45 to 6 p.m.
Keynote address and poetry reading: 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Sainer Auditorium
Celebrating Community: Presidential Inauguration
Wed. Feb. 23
Dort Promenade Procession
Begins at the Academic Center at 4 p.m. and proceeds down Dort Promenade to College Hall
Inauguration Ceremony
Outside College Hall
Lemonade Toast
On the bayfront
Serving Community: NCF Day of Service
Sat. Feb. 26
New College students, faculty and staff will volunteer at Habitat for Humanity, Caples Waterfront, Limelight Community Garden, and the NCF Food Forest/Native Plant Restoration
About President Okker
Patricia Okker, Ph.D. was appointed president of New College of Florida on July 1, 2021. Prior to her arrival at New College, she spent 31 years at the University of Missouri, both as a faculty member in the Department of English and in a variety of leadership roles.
From 2017 to 2021, she served as dean of the College of Arts and Science, where she led efforts that improved student retention rates, increased the diversity of faculty and leadership in the College, implemented a College-wide initiative around career education, and successfully completed the College’s largest fundraising campaign.
Her teaching and scholarship focus on 19th-century American literature, particularly American periodicals and women’s writing. She is the author of two books and one edited collection: Our Sister Editors: Sarah Josepha Hale and the Tradition of Nineteenth-Century American Women Editors, Social Stories: The Magazine Novel in Nineteenth-Century America, and Transnationalism and American Serial Fiction. In 2003, she was awarded a William T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence.
Okker graduated from Allegheny College with a bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in religious studies. She earned a master’s degree in English from the University of Georgia, and a Ph.D. (also in English) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
For more information on the presidential inauguration week and to register for events, visit ncf.edu/about/departments-and-offices/presidents-office/inauguration.