Northwest Mississippi Community College has announced the speaker for the 2022 Fall graduation commencement ceremonies on Friday, Dec. 9 as Quentin Whitwell. The college will hold two ceremonies, career technical education and academic transfer graduates at 10 a.m. and the school of health sciences graduates at 1 p.m.

Quentin Whitwell is an attorney and entrepreneur licensed in Mississippi and the District of Columbia. As an owner of the Panola Medical Center, a rural Mississippi hospital,  Whitwell serves as the CEO and Chairman of the Board.

He is also the administrator/CEO of Quitman Community Hospital in Marks, which is a Critical Access Hospital. Additionally, Mr. Whitwell is the COO and Legal Counsel for Alliance Healthcare System, Inc., a hospital operating in Holly Springs.

In addition to his extensive healthcare experience in management and day-to-day operations, Whitwell has litigated in court and advocated in the halls of state capitols and the U.S. Congress on numerous issues facing providers and operators on healthcare matters.

He spent many years in service in Jackson as a City Councilman and founding member of the Parham Bridges Tennis Foundation prior to moving back to his hometown of Oxford.

Whitwell was the 2005 recipient of Mississippi Business Journal’s “Top 40 Under 40” award, is on the board of the William Magee Institute-a foundation dedicated to turning the lives of college students away from addiction-and is a member of the University of Mississippi Hall of Fame. He serves on the Board of Trustees for Oxford University United Methodist Church.

Whitwell has been married to his wife, the former Ginger Gordon, for 25 years, and they have two children. Their daughter, Davis, will graduate from Ole Miss in the spring and their son, Gordon, is an incoming freshman who recently signed as an Ole Miss men’s tennis player.