Skip to main content

Georgia State Senator Ed Harbison to Speak at Turner College and TSYS School Commencement on Friday

Georgia State Senator Ed Harbison will deliver his insights on civic leadership and service to spring graduates of the Turner College and TSYS School at 9:00 am on Friday, May 15. Currently the longest-serving member of the state senate, Harbison will address all three of Columbus State’s spring graduation ceremonies, which are part of CSU's 131st commencement exercises. Since 1992, Harbison has represented Columbus and parts of the Chattahoochee Valley that encompass Georgia’s 15th Senate district. His prominence and reputation in the Senate have led to leadership roles, such as chair of the State Institutions and Property Committee and ranking member of the Banking and Financial Institutions, Insurance and Labor, Interstate Cooperation, Reapportionment and Redistricting, and Ethics committees. He is also vice chair of the Veterans, Military and Homeland Security Committee and holds ex officio membership on the Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee. As a veteran, former U.S. Marine, and Purple Heart recipient, he has a strong record of advocating for military service members and their families. Harbison works as a public relations and advertising consultant and has experience as a broadcast journalist. He previously shared his professional expertise as an advisory board member in CSU’s Department of Communication. Before being elected to the Senate, he served as the second vice president of the Muscogee County School Board and was a member of the Columbus Charter Review Commission. Additionally, he graduated from Leadership Columbus in 1990 and has served as an officer with the Georgia Association of Newscasters. Born in Prattville, Alabama, and raised in Montgomery, Harbison graduated from the Career Academy School of Broadcasting and attended Troy State University at Fort Benning. He has received numerous awards for news broadcasting and community service, including the National Infantry Association’s Order of Saint Maurice for his distinguished support of the Infantry, as well as induction into the Georgia Military Veterans Hall of Fame for his support of Georgia’s veterans. He is often called the “dean” of the state senate in recognition of his 34 years of elected service. Harbison announced in March 2026 that he will retire from his elected position at the end of this term.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

ABDC Releases 2025 Journal Review, Now Ranks Journal Edited by Phil Bryant

The long-awaited journal review being conducted by the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) has been released and there are a number of news items that relate to faculty in the Turner College. One of these is the ABDC's decision to now include  Compensation and Benefits Review in its journal rankings. This is big news for the Turner College as its editor, Phil Bryant , is a professor of management in the Turner College. The ABDC is proposing that the journal enter its system for the first time as a C-rated journal. Acting Turner College Dean Tesa Leonce sits on the journal's editorial board, while Turner College management professor Mark James has guest-edited an issue of the journal. Published by SAGE,  Compensation & Benefits Review is the leading journal for senior executives and professionals who design, implement, evaluate and communicate compensation and benefits policies and programs. The journal supports compensation and benefits specialists and academic ex...

New Butler Center Report Identifies Employment Gaps in the Columbus Area

Officials in the Turner College's Butler Center for Research and Economic Development recently put the finishing touches on an extensive report on trends in educational programs and occupations in the Columbus area. The report also includes data on business and technology trends.  According to Fady Mansour , Director of the Butler Center, there are several key takeaways from the report regarding 10 occupational gaps that currently exist in the Columbus area. First,  software development occupation exhibits the biggest labor shortage, with the report adding that the TSYS School has a bachelor's degree program in information technology along with a new AI track for the bachelor's degree in computer science, both of which can qualify students for this occupation. Other educational programs are in demand, such as computer programming and cloud computing. Second, there is a gap of 30 employees per year in general and operations management. This gap could be addressed by the Turn...

TSYS School, Jianhua Yang, Lixin Wang Each among Top Five in the World

New research by computer scientists in the School of Information Technology at Universiti Utara Malaysia that ranks institutions and individuals on the basis of scholarship in the area of stepping-stone attacks heaps praise on the Turner College’s TSYS School of Computer Science and two of its faculty – Jianhua Yang and Lixin Wang .   The article, published in the April 2023 issue of the International Journal of Research in Engineering and Science , provides a bibliometric analysis of both publication and citation data from 2000 to September of 2022 related to research on stepping-stone intrusion.   Among several results, it reports that Columbus State University ranks second worldwide, trailing only the University of Houston, using total publications on the subject as the basis of comparison.   A number of other U.S. institutions appear in the top 10, including third-ranked North Carolina State University, fourth-ranked University of Illinois, sixth-ranked Iowa State U...