Coastal Carolina University will hold its 5th annual Constitution Day celebration at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17 in the auditorium of the University's E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration.

Holley Tankersley, Student Government Association (SGA) Professor of the Year, will address a key component of the constitution, separation of powers, in her lecture titled, "Who's in Charge Here? Executive-Legislative Relations and the Balance of Power." This annual event, which is free and open to the public, commemorates the anniversary of the signing of the Constitution, the document that established the American government.

Tankersley, assistant professor of politics, has been a member of University faculty since 2005. She earned a bachelor's degree in 1999 from Birmingham Southern College, a master's degree in public policy in 2002 from Georgetown University, and a doctorate degree in 2006 from the University of Georgia. Her work has been published in many journals, and she has presented at numerous conferences. In 2007, Tankersley was nominated for the William D. Anderson Prize, which is awarded for the best dissertation in the field of federalism and intergovernmental relations.

Tankersley worked as a government consultant for several years with Anderson LLP. Her areas of expertise are public policy, social policy (health, education, welfare and family), state and local government and politics, the U.S. presidency, judicial politics, service learning and civic engagement in liberal arts education.

For more information, contact Paul Peterson in the University's Department of Politics and Geography at 843-349-2627.