Commencement planned for May 13 and 14
Tony- and Emmy-award winners, a pediatric neurosurgeon, a psychologist and two judges will be among those taking part in the University's 176th commencement exercises May 13 and 14.
Approximately 756 baccalaureate degrees and 70 graduate degrees will be awarded May 14 at 2 p.m. in the Robins Center.
Commencement ceremonies for the School of Continuing Studies and Richmond School of Law will take place May 13 in the Robins Center at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., respectively. The law school will award 135 J.D. degrees, and SCS will present 122 bachelor's, associate's and master's degrees.
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Ben Vereen |
Jennifer L. Hyde, director of development for CNN Productions, will be the alumni speaker May 14. Student speakers for baccalaureate, the candlelight ceremony and commencement will be selected in April.
The Hon. F. G. Rockwell III, judge of the 12th Judicial Circuit and an adjunct faculty member of the School of Law, will speak at the law school commencement. Belle Wheelan, president of the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) and former secretary of education for Virginia, will speak at the commencement ceremony for SCS.
Award-winning actor, singer and dancer Ben Vereen will be among four honorary degree recipients May 14.
Others who will receive honorary degrees include Dr. Benjamin Carson, director of the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University; Dr. Deborah G. Kemler Nelson, chair of the Department of Psychology at Swarthmore College; and the Hon. Frederick P. Stamp, judge, U.S. District Courts, Northern District of West Virginia.
Dr. Michael Garbee, R'89, who was working as a neurology resident at Charity Hospital in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit, will receive the President's Medal, given for exceptional and meritorious service to the University, nation or world.
Dr. Len Goldberg, retiring vice president for student development, will receive the Trustees Distinguished Service Award, presented in recognition of unselfish dedication and meritorious service to the University.
Hyde is director of development for CNN Productions, the documentary programming unit of CNN Newsgroup and Turner Broadcasting. She is responsible for originating, developing and supervising documentary programming for two series that reach more than 1 billion people in 211 countries and territories worldwide. She has received more than a dozen major broadcasting and journalism awards, including the Peabody, two Emmys, and an Academy Award nomination. Prior to joining Turner Broadcasting in 1994, Hyde worked at NBC, the Virginia Film Office and in freelance production.
Rockwell is a 1979 graduate of University of Richmond School of Law and served as judge of the Chesterfield-Colonial Heights Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court from 1994-2002, when he was appointed judge of the 12th Judicial Circuit. He is on the adjunct faculty of the law school. He also is a member of the Judicial Liaison Committee with the Department of Juvenile Justice and is president of the Chesterfield-Colonial Heights Criminal Justice Board.
Wheelan holds a B.A. degree from Trinity University in Texas, a master's degree from Louisiana State and a doctoral degree in educational administration from the University of Texas. She has served as provost of the Portsmouth campus of Tidewater Community College and president of Central Virginia Community College and Northern Virginia Community College. In 2002 she became the first African-American female to serve as Virginia secretary of education. In July 2005 she took on her current role as president of Commission on Colleges of SACS.
Carson is director of the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery and professor of neurosurgery, oncology, plastic surgery and pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. His career includes the first successful separation of craniopagus (Siamese) twins joined at the back of the head in 1987 and the first completely successful separation of type-2 vertical craniopagus twins in 1997 in South Africa. President George Bush appointed him to serve on the President's Council on Bioethics. A graduate of Yale University and the University of Michigan, Carson was named by CNN and Time as one of the nation's 20 foremost physicians and scientists in 2001. The Library of Congress selected him as one of 89 "Living Legends."
Commencement at a glance
May 13 - School of Continuing Studies
9 a.m., Robins Center
Belle Wheelan, speaker
122 associate's, bachelor's and
master's degrees
May 13 - School of Law
2 p.m., Robins Center
The Hon. F.G. Rockwell III, speaker
135 Juris Doctor degrees
May 14 - School of Arts & Sciences, Robins School of Business, Jepson School of Leadership Studies
2 p.m., Robins Center
Jennifer Hyde, alumna speaker
756 bachelor's and 70 graduate degrees
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Nelson holds B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in psychology from Brown University. She has taught at Swarthmore College since 1978 and holds the rank of professor and chair of the department. She has been a member of the editorial boards of Cognition, Child Development and Developmental Psychology and has served on the Committee of Examiners, GRE in psychology for the Educational Testing Service. She has been an NSF predoctoral fellow and an honorary Woodrow Wilson Fellow. Her teaching interests include infancy, human intelligence, and nature and nurture.
Stamp is a graduate of Washington and Lee University and University of Richmond School of Law. An emeritus member of the University's Board of Trustees, he has been judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia since 1990. He was chief judge from 1994-2001. He received the University's Award for Distinguished Service and the law school's William Green Award for Professional Excellence. In 2004 he was judge-in-residence at the law school. Stamp is a member and past president of the West Virginia Bar Association and is a former president of Defense Trial Counsel of West Virginia Inc. and the Fourth Circuit District Judges' Association.
Vereen's impressive career has included starring roles on Broadway and guest spots and starring roles in television, as well as motivational speaking and humanitarian pursuits. He appeared on Broadway in Jelly's Last Jam, Sweet Charity, Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar and others. He won the Tony Award for best actor in a musical for his lead role in the long-running hit, Pippin. He also starred in a one-man show that earned him the highest honors awarded by the American Guild of Variety Artists, and he continues to headline on stages in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Lake Tahoe and throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Caribbean Islands. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for his part in the CBS mini-series Intruders: They Are Among Us and has had recurring roles in Webster and Silk Stalkings. His role in the docudrama Louis Armstrong-Chicago Style led to several widely acclaimed roles, including Chicken George in the Emmy Award-winning mini-series Roots. Vereen followed that with his own network special, which won seven Emmy Awards. As a humanitarian, Vereen served as chair of several organizations, including the American Heart Association and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Association. In 1991 Vereen spearheaded his own organization, Celebrities for a Drug Free America, which raised more than $300,000 for drug rehabilitation centers, educational programs and inner city community projects.
Garbee began working at Charity Hospital in 2005 as a neurology resident. On duty when Hurricane Katrina hit, he worked marathon shifts with other resident physicians for nearly a week waiting for help. Working with rationed food and supplies and without electricity, running water, clean sheets and diagnostic tools, he made rounds, doing what he could for patients. On the fourth and fifth days, Garbee helped evacuate patients down 12 flights of stairs. He later resumed his residency at Earl K. Long Medical Center in Baton Rouge, La. He is a sociology graduate of the University and earned his medical degree from American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine in British West Indies.
Goldberg has served as vice president for student development at the University since 1987. He previously was dean of educational services at Dickinson College, vice president for student affairs at University of Maine, Presque Isle, and dean of students at Roger Williams College. He has served in a variety of capacities for NASPA (National Association of Student Personnel Administrators), including regional vice president, chair of the Health Education and Leadership Program advisory committee, editorial board member of NASPA Journal and NASPA Monograph, and NASPA liaison to Inter-Association Task Force on AIDS. He has published articles on leadership development and AIDS on college campuses, and he made a presentation on AIDS in the college community on a live-interactive teleconference.
For more information on commencement, visit http://oncampus.richmond.edu/commencement.
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