Sullivan Showcase: 100 Years at Mercer University
There are anniversaries that are simply noted, and anniversaries that are understood more important milestones. The upcoming Sullivan Showcase, set for Friday, April 10, 2026, in Atlanta, belongs to the second kind. It is, on its face, an evening program with a reception, dinner, awards, and obligatory remarks. But it is also something older and more layered than that, a centennial moment of pause in a relationship between Mercer University and The Algernon Sydney Sullivan Foundation that has now stretched across a full century. The Sullivan Showcase is an annual Foundation event, but this year’s gathering will be held in recognition of Mercer University’s 100-year celebration of presenting the Sullivan Award, making it a special part of the Foundation’s broader centennial observance.
The Showcase will be held April 10, 2026, in Atlanta. Guests will gather in business formal attire for a 6:00 p.m. cocktail reception, followed by a seated dinner and awards presentation from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Host tables are full, and the event is by invitation. The evening will take place at the Piedmont Driving Club and will include a carefully planned program, beginning with welcome remarks from Steve McDavid and concluding just after 8:20 p.m.
A Century with Mercer
What gives this Showcase its significance is not simply that Mercer is being honored, but that Mercer stands at the center of a hundred-year story. This year’s evening celebrates 100 years at Mercer University and a tradition of recognizing students and leaders marked by character, service, and integrity since 1927.
The previous sentence is one that institutions sometimes write about themselves, but in this case it has been proven over time. One generation leaves campus, and another arrives. The names and faces change. However, the ideal returns, passed down through medallions, ceremonies, and memory, each year asking the same question: who among us has learned that leadership is not chiefly about status, but about service? At Mercer, that question has had a home for a very long time.
The Evening Begins
The formal program opens at 7:00 p.m. with welcome remarks from Steve McDavid, president of the Foundation. His opening will do what a good welcome should do. It will remind everyone why they are there. It will acknowledge trustees, partners, supporters, and regional host schools, and it will place the evening in the language that has guided this work for generations: service, character, and values-based leadership. The host schools represented in the evening’s program include Mercer University, Brenau University, Converse University, Oglethorpe University, Sewanee, and Wesleyan College.
McDavid’s opening is not merely ceremonial. The Sullivan Showcase is one of the Foundation’s signature annual gatherings, a place where alumni, Sullivan Award recipients, scholarship recipients, Fellows, and friends of the Foundation come together not only to celebrate, but to reconnect with the Foundation and with one another, and to continue this work together.
A Tribute to Mercer
At 7:15 p.m., the program turns directly to Mercer University in a segment titled “Mercer University Tribute: 100 Years of Partnership.” It begins with remarks from McDavid and moves into a brief video connecting the Foundation’s current programming with Mercer’s place in this centennial story.
This is where the evening moves beyond format and into reflection. We will mark this centennial not simply by looking backward, but by showing continuity, honoring a partnership that has endured because it has remained meaningful, recognizable, and alive across generations. At Mercer, the Sullivan tradition has continued to identify and honor a certain kind of life, one shaped not by display, but by humility, seriousness, and care for others.
President Elkins and a New Chapter
One of the evening’s most fitting details is that Mercer’s remarks will come from a new president at the start of her tenure. Penny L. Elkins, Ph.D., now serves as Mercer University’s president, and her presence in the program gives the evening an added sense of continuity and renewal.
In the Showcase agenda, Steve McDavid introduces President Elkins as an important partner in this shared work, and her presence in the program lends the evening both continuity and renewal. It reflects the strength of a relationship that has remained meaningful across generations of students, alumni, faculty, and leaders, a partnership sustained not simply by history, but by values that have continued to matter.
Honoring Leadership in Service
At 7:40 p.m., the Showcase moves into a recognition segment titled “Honoring Mercer Leadership in Service.” During this portion of the evening, President Elkins will recognize Governor Nathan Deal and Dr. Ha Van Vo, two individuals whose lives reflect different but complementary forms of service.
Governor Deal’s connection to Mercer is longstanding, and his public life has been marked by principled leadership and a deep commitment to the people of Georgia. His inclusion in the evening’s honors is fitting because the Sullivan tradition has always been interested not simply in talent, but in what talent becomes when joined to conscience.
Dr. Ha Van Vo’s recognition is equally fitting, though in a different register. As founder of Mercer On Mission, he has helped build one of Mercer’s most transformative service initiatives, linking students, faculty, and communities through work that is practical, compassionate, and deeply human.
Together, these recognitions give the evening more scope. Public service and educational service, state leadership and mission-centered teaching, both belong under the same roof because both answer the same question: what does it look like to use one’s position for others?
The Centennial Plaque
At 7:50 p.m., the program pauses for a commemorative plaque presentation to Mercer. In his remarks, McDavid presents the plaque not as a decorative object, but as a reminder to students and faculty of what service above self stands for.
Symbols matter because they help make values visible. The Sullivan medallion, the plaque, and the citation are obviously not the work itself, but they help preserve its meaning and pass it from one generation to the next. A plaque hanging in a campus building at Mercer may be a small thing in physical size, but it can serve as a lasting reminder of the character and service the Sullivan tradition exists to honor.
The Impact Prize and the Future
At 8:00 p.m., the Showcase turns toward emerging changemakers through the Sullivan Impact Prize. This part of the evening reminds us that our centennial is not simply a backward glance. The Impact Prize places the next generation in the room and underscores something essential to the Foundation’s mission: service is not merely inherited. It must also be invented again, adapted to the needs of the present, and carried into problems that did not exist a hundred years ago.
This is why the Impact Prize matters. It gives students and young alumni a platform to bring forward solutions with lasting community impact. It reflects our belief that character and contribution belong together, and that leadership is most meaningful when it moves beyond intention and into action.
The Luminary Award
At 8:10 p.m., the evening reaches what will likely be its most meaningful moment with the presentation of the 2026 Luminary Award. The award honors a past Sullivan Award recipient whose lifetime reflects the values of service above self. This year’s honoree is s of BeLoved Asheville, with the award to be presented by Julie Gehrki, president of the Walmart Foundation and last year’s Luminary Award recipient.
Amy Cantrell’s work through BeLoved Asheville reflects the Luminary Award’s spirit in the clearest possible terms. It is broad, practical, and rooted in community care, including support for housing, food access, crisis response, youth, and long-term rebuilding. It reflects a for of service that is practical, lasting, and personal.
What the Evening Is Really For
The printed agenda tells one story. Reception. Welcome. Tribute. Remarks. Honors. Prize. Luminary. Closing. But there is another story running beneath it, and it is the one that gives the Showcase its real shape.
Remember what has lasted. Recognize the people who have carried it. Give the future a place at the table. Then ask everyone in the room whether they are willing to help extend the work.
This is the deeper order of the evening. Not just celebration, but recommitment. Not just applause, but invitation. Not just a century remembered, but a century handed forward.
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