Press Release

May 25, 2007

Elite honor society taps Lamar State College-PA administrator

Story and photo(s) by Bobby Summers, Coordinator of Public Information

J.D. Taliaferro, chair of the Industrial Technology Department at Lamar State College-Port Arthur

J.D. Taliaferro, chair of the Industrial Technology Department at Lamar State College-Port Arthur, recently was inducted into Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society at Lamar University, where in May he received a doctorate degree in Educational Leadership.

Founded in 1897, Phi Kappa Phi is the nation’s oldest, largest and most selective all-discipline honor society with chapters on nearly 300 campuses in the United States, Puerto Rico and the Phillipines.

Membership is by invitation only and requires nomination and approval by a chapter. Only the top 10 percent of seniors and 7.5 percent of juniors with at least 72 semester hours are eligible for membership. Graduate students in the top 10 percent of the number of candidates for graduate honors also may qualify, as do professional staff and alumni who achieve scholarly distinction.

Taliaferro, a Port Neches resident, previously earned a bachelors degree in Economics from Lamar University, a bachelors degree in Accounting from Lambuth University, and a masters degree in Accounting from the University of Tennessee.

Taliaferro oversees the operation of Lamar State College’s Industrial Technology Department, which awards two-year associate degrees in air conditioning/heating/refrigeration, automotive technology, child development/early childhood, cosmetology, cosmetology instructor and instrumentation.

The department also awards one-year certificates-of-completion in nine career specialties.