Atlanta-area Residents Elected to Mercer University Board of Trustees

MACON, GA. (11/22/2013)(readMedia)-- Mercer University's Board of Trustees elected three Atlanta-area residents to serve five-year terms on the institution's governing body during its annual meeting on Nov. 22. The new trustees are Heather Darden, Dr. Spencer B. King III and Zell Miller.

Additionally, the Honorable W. Homer Drake Jr., United States Bankruptcy Court Judge from Newnan, was elected as only the board's 11th lifetime member, while Richard A. (Doc) Schneider, senior partner with King & Spalding LLP, from Atlanta, was elected chair of the Board of Trustees, and Thomas William (Tommy) Malone, founder of Malone Law, from Sandy Springs, was elected chair of the board's Executive Committee.

Darden, of Atlanta, is corporate counsel at RaceTrac Petroleum. She earned her Bachelor of Science from Mercer in 1998 before earning her Juris Doctor from Florida State University. She is current president of Mercer's College of Liberal Arts Alumni Board of Directors and serves on the Mercer National Alumni Board of Directors. She is a member of the President's Club and a former Mercer Ambassador.

Dr. King, of Atlanta, is a physician, professor of medicine and director of the Andreas Gruentzig Cardiovascular Center at Emory University. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from Mercer's College of Liberal Arts in 1959, before earning his Doctor of Medicine from the Medical College of Georgia in 1963. He has previously served five terms on the Board from 2007-2012, 2001-2006, 1993-1998, 1987-1991 and 1975-1979, and is former president and a lifetime member of the President's Club.

Miller, of Young Harris, is a former United States senator, from 2000-2005; the 79th governor of Georgia, from 1991-1999; and the longest-serving lieutenant governor in Georgia's history, from 1975-1991. As an author, he has penned six books, three of which were published by Mercer University Press.

Outgoing Board of Trustees members from the Atlanta area include Dwight J. Davis, senior partner with King & Spalding, from Atlanta; and the Rev. Julie Pennington-Russell, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Decatur.

About Mercer University

Founded in 1833, Mercer University is a dynamic and comprehensive center of undergraduate, graduate and professional education. The University enrolls more than 8,300 students in 12 schools and colleges – liberal arts, law, pharmacy, medicine, business, engineering, education, theology, music, nursing, health professions, and continuing and professional studies – on campuses in Macon, Atlanta and Savannah – and four regional academic centers across the state. The Mercer Health Sciences Center, launched July 1, 2012, includes the University's medical, nursing, health sciences and pharmacy schools. Mercer is affiliated with four teaching hospitals – Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah, the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon, and The Medical Center and St. Francis Hospital in Columbus. The University also has educational partnerships with Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Warner Robins and Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta. It operates an academic press and a performing arts center in Macon and an engineering research center in Warner Robins. Mercer is the only private university in Georgia to field an NCAA Division I athletic program. www.mercer.edu