Houston Commencement 2019April 17, 2019 (Jackson, Miss.) - Belhaven University Houston will honor its graduating students on April 26, 10 a.m. at Christ Evangelical Presbyterian Church, 8300 Katy Fwy, Houston, TX.

Dr. Rick L. Upchurch, associate vice president of Belhaven University's regional campuses, will be the honored commencement speaker this year. Dr. Upchurch oversees the academic functions at Belhaven's eight campus sites and directly oversees the academic operations of the Jackson LeFleur, Madison, and Houston campuses for adult and graduate studies.

Before coming to Belhaven, he served at National American University, a for-profit, publicly-traded institution as executive vice president of institutional effectiveness. He has presented at several national and regional conferences related to leadership and higher education administration. Dr. Upchurch served two terms as president of ACCESS, a national Christian distance education association.

Dr. Upchurch has designed and implemented systemic improvements wherever he has served, demonstrating not only a grasp of system process and academic leadership, but also the ability to work collaboratively to achieve improvement. He has been married for 42 years, and he and his wife, Mary Margaret, have three children and four grandchildren.