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May 1, 2008

ULM Spring Commencement set for May 17

ULM alumnus Robert Barham, currently serving as secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, will speak at the ULM Spring Commencement Saturday, May 17 at 2 p.m. in Fant-Ewing Coliseum.

Barham served in the U.S. Army from 1970 to 1972. His public service began when he was elected mayor of the town of Oak Ridge in 1982. From 1973 through 1994, he supervised family farming operations in northeast Louisiana.

Barham, a life-long resident of Oak Ridge, served as a state senator for Louisiana’s 33rd District, representing Morehouse, Union, East Carroll, West Carroll, and parts of Claiborne and Ouachita Parishes from 1994 to 2008. In the Senate, he served as chairman of numerous committees, including the Homeland Security Committee, the Senate Agriculture, Forestry, Aquaculture, and Rural Development Committee, and the Senate Natural Resources Committee. He also served as chairman of the Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee for eight years.

He has received many awards through the years, including the Outstanding Legislator of the Year Award from the Louisiana Wildlife Federation and the National Award for Conservation of Natural Resources from the Daughters of the American Revolution. He was awarded the Outstanding Individual in Agriculture Award from the Louisiana Ag Council in 2000 and the Legislator of the Year Award from the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce in 2002.

Barham is a 2007 Inductee into the LSU Alumni Association Hall of Distinction. He has a bachelor’s of science degree from LSU, a master’s degree from ULM, and is a graduate of LSU’s Ag Leadership School.

He will be joined at the commencement ceremony by his wife Melba Pipes Barham, also a graduate of the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

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