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COMP-Northwest welcomes new class

by Rodney Tanaka

July 31, 2013

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COMP-Northwest will celebrate its third Convocation and white coat ceremony Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013, welcoming 105 new students to its Lebanon, Ore. campus.

The ceremony, open to students, their families and invited guests, begins at 1 p.m. at Lebanon First Assembly of God Church, 726 West Oak St., Lebanon, Ore. The keynote speaker is Jim Willis, who retired March 1, 2013 as director of the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs after 48 years of public service.

While serving as Director of the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Willis was elected President of the National Association of State Directors of Veterans Affairs (NASDVA) for 2012-13.

Willis, a native Oregonian and decorated Vietnam veteran, was born in Portland and raised in Albany. Assigned as a security policeman, he served two enlistments in the United States Air Force, including his tour of wartime service in South Vietnam.

Following his military service, Willis served for 32 years as a police officer, retiring on Aug. 31, 2003 from the Oregon State Police at the rank of major. Willis is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, and while serving as a police officer was awarded the Oregon Police Medal of Valor. He is also the recipient of the Oregon Peace Officers Association’s L. Dale Morris award for lifetime achievement in service to Oregon law enforcement.

Convocation will be followed by the white coat ceremony, when students don their first white clinical jackets, symbolizing their new role as healers. The keynote speaker will be COMP alumna Katherine Fisher, DO ’83.

COMP-Northwest is the second medical school campus of the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific, which is part of Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, Calif.

The Convocation and white coat ceremony is part of the student orientation and welcome week for the campus that runs throughout this week. Fall semester classes begin Aug. 12. For more information about welcome week and a list of activities, visit http://www.westernu.edu/students-orientation-or.

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