DSCC to Release Virtual Ceremony to Celebrate 50th Commencement Exercises
Dyersburg State Community College (DSCC) has announced that its 50th annual commencement will recognize 455 candidates for graduation in a virtual prerecorded ceremony June 11. The virtual event is being held in lieu of its traditional in-person ceremony held each May. The College plans to offer graduates the option to attend a future in-person ceremony once it is deemed safe amid COVID-19 concerns.
The ceremony will be held at the First Citizens National Bank Auditorium inside the Campus Activities Building on the Dyersburg campus. The virtual recording will be released on the College’s Facebook and YouTube pages.
Commissioner Tony Parker, Department of Corrections and 1993 DSCC alumnus, will serve as commencement speaker. Parker, once recognized as the youngest warden in the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC), has more than 33 years' experience in the field of Corrections. He began his correctional career at the Lake County Regional Correctional Facility in 1983. Parker served in the position of correctional officer at Lake County for approximately three years. He was promoted to correctional corporal, correctional sergeant, correctional lieutenant, correctional captain, associate warden of security at the West Tennessee High Security Facility, deputy warden at Northwest Correctional Complex, and was eventually appointed warden at the Northwest Correctional Complex from 2003 until 2006. From 2006 until 2008, Parker served as the warden of the West Tennessee State Penitentiary in Henning, Tennessee. In 2008, Parker again served as warden of Northwest Correctional Complex until he was promoted to correctional administrator of the Tennessee West Region effective April 2011. In September 2012, Parker was promoted to the position of assistant commissioner of prisons where he supervised TDOC prison operations and was responsible for oversight of the department’s security operations as well as offender management. In June 2016, Governor Bill Haslam appointed Parker to the position of commissioner of the TDOC. Governor Bill Lee reappointed Parker as correction commissioner in January 2019.
Parker serves as president-elect of the American Correctional Association (ACA), the national organization of corrections professionals. He earned an associate degree in Criminal Justice from DSCC, a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Tennessee at Martin and a Master of Arts degree in Security Studies with an emphasis in Homeland Security from the prestigious Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, California. Parker resides in Union City with his wife Misty and their three children, Madison, Mia and J’Coy.
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Tony Parker, Commissioner, Tennessee Department of Corrections, and 1993 DSCC alumnus, will serve as commencement speaker during DSCC’s virtual prerecorded commencement June 11.