May 21, 2020
Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott to Speak at Wheeling University’s Commencement
Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott will serve as Commencement speaker at Wheeling University’s 62nd graduation exercises planned for Saturday, July 25.
Wheeling University postponed its May 2 Commencement until July due to the COVID-19 outbreak. This year, University President Ginny R. Favede will confer 124 undergraduate and graduate degrees during graduation ceremonies. The ceremony will take place at 10:30 a.m. and for the first time ever, will be held on Bishop Schmitt Field in order to comply with social distancing guidelines.
“I am honored to announce that Mayor Elliott will address the Wheeling University Class of 2020. As a Georgetown University Law Center graduate, he is Jesuit educated and understands the Ignatian principles that we provide our students at Wheeling University. The Mayor, as a public servant and through his work in the city, lives a life committed to serving others, which is at the heart of our University’s mission,” said President Favede.
Born and raised in Wheeling, Mayor Elliott is a 1990 graduate of The Linsly School and a 1994 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School with a Bachelor of Science in Economics. Following graduation, he served as legislative assistant for U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd in his Washington, D.C. office until 1999. In 2001, he graduated from the Georgetown University Law Center with a Juris Doctorate degree. He then joined the international law firm Baker Botts LLP in Washington, D.C., where he worked from 2001 through 2008 as a corporate lawyer.
Elliott returned to Wheeling in 2009, where he set up practice as an independent contractor attorney to assist local law firms whose clients had transactional needs beyond their area of practice.
In 2012, he turned his focus to revitalization and preservation efforts in downtown Wheeling, forming Market Street Now, LLC. His corporation purchased the historic Professional Building as a multi-year preservation/renovation project, which now houses four businesses. In 2016, Market Street Now, LLC added two contiguous buildings to its footprint (1306 and 1310 Market Street) with a 10-year rehabilitation plan for full occupancy.
Elliott opened Elliott Law Offices, PLLC at the Professional Building in 2015 to continue his legal practice, and in July 2019 he founded Route 40 Realty LLC.
In May 2016, Elliott was elected to Mayor of Wheeling. Since taking office, his administration, along with Wheeling City Council has focused on economic development initiatives aimed at diversifying the local economy and fostering quality-of-life improvements to attract and maintain a quality workforce. In particular, he has championed the need for greater downtown revitalization efforts along with enhanced walkability to help Wheeling compete against larger cities in the 21st Century economy.
In 2017, Elliott worked with the City Council to approve a Façade Improvement Program to provide matching funds to property owners making improvements to their Downtown properties. Additionally, Elliott has worked with officials from the West Virginia Division of Highways on a $25 million project to replace the existing streetscape—streets, sidewalks, signalization, and trees—on Main and Market Streets Downtown. The engineering for this massive project is under way with construction set to begin in late 2020 or early 2021.
In addition to serving as the speaker, Elliott will receive an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Wheeling University.