Danville Regional Foundation (DRF) President & CEO Clark Casteel will deliver the commencement address in Averett University’s Winter Commencement ceremony on Saturday, Dec. 11. The outdoor ceremony, which begins at 1 p.m., will be held at the University’s E. Stuart James Grant North Campus in the Frank R. Campbell Stadium, 707 Mt. Cross Rd. in Danville.

Averett will confer the degrees of more than 135 students between the Averett Online and traditional programs this commencement, including approximately 94 who plan to walk across the stage on December 11. The graduating class of 2021 includes seven veterans and six international students from Finland, Sweden and Spain. Nearly two-thirds of are adult learners through Averett Online, and graduates were born between 1958 and 2000.

Graduates will hear from Casteel, who leads the work of DRF, a place-based funder designed to support regional partners in the City of Danville, Virginia, Pittsylvania County, Virginia and Caswell County, North Carolina as they work to improve the education, economic vitality, health, financial stability and civic capacity for all citizens of the Dan River Region. Since 2005, DRF has made over 500 grants totaling more than $160 million, including more than $7.6 million in funding to Averett.

Clark grew up in Floyd County, Virginia and graduated summa cum laude from Radford University in Radford, Virginia. He received his master’s degree from the University of Mississippi and holds certificates in economic development from the University of Oklahoma′s Economic Development Institute and entrepreneurship from the Tayloe Murphy Center at the University of Virginia′s Darden School of Business. Clark is also an alumnus of the Southeastern Council of Foundations Advanced Leadership Institute.

He is currently the secretary and treasurer of the Virginia Funder’s Network and a member of the Future of the Piedmont Foundation. He resides in Danville with his wife and two sons.

The ceremony will include all appropriate health and safety protocols for graduates, families, faculty, staff and special guests. Each graduate can bring up to five guests.