Sen. Fred Mills
LAFAYETTE – Sen. Fred Mills, CEO and President of FM Bank and pharmacist, will deliver the keynote address to graduates during South Louisiana Community College’s Fall 2021 graduation.
Graduation will be held Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021, in the Cajundome starting at 4 p.m. More than 750 students are candidates for graduation.
Mills is a community icon for the sustainability of his rural home region. Mills’ public service for the greater good of his communities through providing medication and medical product needs, community fundraising successes, civic and governmental leadership as well as numerable community and state service Board seats allow him a comprehensive understanding of Louisianians and their lives.
This type of community leadership success brings with it knowledge and foresight into the financial woes rural residents face daily and how to assist them toward success rather than failures. In short, he is the community bank leader who provides the solutions for which people need most to come from their locally sustained 88-year-old bank. His devotion to the improvement, betterment and development of his geographic leadership areas promotes pro business, industry and financial resilience. This type of devotion awards him a journey of leadership success from FM Bank Board member, where after two years he stepped in as President/CEO and has since doubled the bank’s asset size, to billion-dollar state funding management to Pharmacy leadership appointments and awards to garnering hundreds of thousands of dollars in volunteer community fundraising efforts and numerous award bestowals from his community in gratitude.
His financial aptitude, guidance, and leadership skills coupled with his communication, mediation, creativity and system navigation skills afford him appointments past and present as Louisiana Senate Health and Welfare Committee Chairman, State Senate Finance Committee; Local and Municipal Affairs; Retirement and Judiciary Committees seats.
As the small business owner of Mills Cashway Pharmacy for over 40 years, Mills’ goal is inherently the same across the board, allowing him to embrace St. Martin Parish’s rural population on a truly real personal level.
He’s been recognized with numerous awards including the 2012 St. Martin Parish Distinguished Citizen Award Recipient - Evangeline Area Council Boy Scouts of America; 2012 Special Recognition Award “Keep Louisiana Beautiful”; 2010 Louisiana Family Forum – Outstanding Family Advocate Award Recipient; 2008 Distinguished Citizen of the Year Award Recipient - Breaux Bridge Chamber of Commerce; 2010 Life and Liberty Award Recipient; 2010 LRHA (Louisiana Rural Health Association) - Rural Health Legislator of the Year Award Recipient; 2010 Southwest Louisiana Chamber Legis-Gator Business Champion Award Recipient; 2009 Louisiana Public Service Association’s Public Service Award Recipient; 2004 Governor’s Health Care Reform Panel Distinguished Member Award Recipient.
Mills earned a Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Louisiana at Monroe. In 2007, ULM’s College of Pharmacy named him Outstanding Alumni of the Year and in 2004, he graduated from the Executive Banking Institute/Graduate School of Banking at LSU/Southwestern Graduate School of Banking at SMU.
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