Mercer Board of Trustees Elects Gainesville's Coates to Five-Year Term

MACON, GA (11/21/2011)(readMedia)-- Mercer University's Board of Trustees elected Gainesville's The Rev. William (Bill) Coates Jr. as a trustee on Nov. 11 at its annual meeting at the University Center in Macon. He will serve a five-year term on the board.

Coates is currently senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Gainesville. He pastored four churches in South Carolina before beginning his work at the First Baptist Church in 1998. The First Baptist Church is a life member of the Mercer University President's Club. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Coker College, a Master of Divinity from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of South Carolina.

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 11 schools and colleges – liberal arts, law, pharmacy, medicine, business, engineering, education, theology, music, nursing and continuing and professional studies – on major campuses in Macon, Atlanta and Savannah and at three regional academic centers across the state. Mercer is affiliated with two teaching hospitals - Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah and the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon, and has educational partnerships with Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Warner Robins and Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta. The University 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. For more information, visit www.mercer.edu.