Roane State Health Science campus is lunch topic

The League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge welcomes the community to hear about Roane State's new Health Science Campus over lunch March 5. Chris Whaley, president of Roane State Community College, will be the guest speaker at the event to be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church, 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike.

Whaley has a personal understanding of the college’s value to its communities, a college news release notes. His father, Lowell, worked at Roane State from the college’s early days, and Whaley began his college education at Roane State. He earned Roane State’s highest student award, continued his education at Middle Tennessee State University and earned his law degree from the University of Tennessee.

After three years in private practice as an attorney, Whaley returned to the college in 1997 as program director of the A.A.S. Paralegal Studies program, a position he held until 2010. Since then he has served in positions of successively greater administrative responsibility at the college.

Roane State students − many of them first-generation college students − gain access to opportunities that higher education provides, and the college drives economic development by working closely with employers to offer relevant programs that meet their workforce needs, the release says.

League members and nonmembers are welcome to bring their lunch or purchase a boxed lunch. Coffee and tea will be served. The presentation will begin at noon.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Roane State Health Science campus is lunch topic