Georgetown University announced speakers for its two hundred and eighth commencement exercises, to be held the weekend of May 17-20, 2007.
"This year’s commencement speakers are exceptional individuals representing a diverse array of backgrounds and perspectives," said John J. DeGioia, Georgetown University President. "These men and women have devoted themselves to public service, teaching others and addressing critical global issues. They embody the many kinds of opportunities that await our graduates."
The 2007 commencement speakers are:
The Robert Emmett McDonough School of Business MBA Commencement Ceremony, Mr. John C. Bogle, Founder of the Vanguard Group, Inc. and President of Vanguard's Bogle Financial Markets Research
John C. Bogle created The Vanguard Group, Inc. in 1974 and served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer until 1996 and Senior Chairman until 2000. The Vanguard Group is one of the two largest mutual fund organizations in the world. Headquartered in Pennsylvania, Vanguard comprises more than 120 mutual funds with current assets totaling $1 trillion. Vanguard 500 Index Fund, the largest fund in the group, was founded by Mr. Bogle in 1975. In 2004, TIME magazine named Mr. Bogle as one of the world’s 100 most powerful and influential people, and Institutional Investor presented him with its Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1999, Fortune designated him as one of the investment industry’s four “Giants of the 20th Century.” In the same year he received the Woodrow Wilson Award from Princeton University for “distinguished achievement in the Nation’s service” and was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Fixed Income Analysts Society. Mr. Bogle is also a best-selling author. His most recent book, Battle for the Soul of Capitalism, was published by Yale University Press in September 2005.
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Bernard Bailyn, Adams University Professor and James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History, emeritus, Harvard University
Bernard Bailyn has taught at Harvard since 1953, becoming Professor in 1961 and Winthrop Professor of History in 1966, a position he held until 1981, when he became the first Adams University Professor. He served as editor-in-chief of the John Harvard Library from 1962 to 1970, as co-editor of the journal Perspectives in American History, 1967-77, 1984-86, and as Director of the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, 1983-1994. He is the author of numerous books, including The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (Pulitzer and Bancroft Prizes) and The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson (National Book Award), both published by Harvard. Dr. Bailyn also serves as a Senior Fellow in the Society of Fellows and is the Director of the International Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World.
Georgetown College, Reverend Jim Wallis, President and CEO, Sojourners/Call to Renewal
Jim Wallis is a bestselling author, public theologian, preacher, speaker, activist, and international commentator on ethics and public life. While at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois, Reverend Wallis and several other students started a small magazine and community with a Christian commitment to social justice that has grown into a national faith-based organization and network. In 1979, Time magazine named him one of the “50 Faces for America’s Future.” He is still president and CEO of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, where he also serves as editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine—whose print and electronic publication reaches more than 250,000 people—and also convenes a national network of churches, faith-based organizations, and individuals working to overcome poverty in America.
School of Nursing & Health Studies, Dr. Derek Yach, Director of Global Health Policy, PepsiCo
Derek Yach was appointed Director, Global Health Policy of PepsiCo, in February 2007. As an internationally recognized public health policy leader, Dr. Yach is responsible for setting the company's global health and wellness policy. His main focus is to establish productive relationships with non-government organizations and inter-governmental organizations such as PepsiCo's 2006 partnership with the William J. Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association to create a school policy offering healthier choices of beverages and foods/snacks in schools. Prior to his appointment to PepsiCo, Dr. Yach was the Representative of the Director General at the World Health Organization where he was responsible for developing the Health for All policy, adopted by all governments in 1998. He also successfully placed chronic diseases and injuries higher on the agenda of governments, non-governmental organizations and the private sector.
The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Dr. Jessica Tuchman Mathews, President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Jessica Tuchman Mathews was appointed president of the Carnegie Endowment in 1997. A graduate of Radcliffe College and the California Institute of Technology, Dr. Mathews began her public service career on the staff of the Energy and Environment Committee in the House of Representatives. She continued as director of the Office of Global Issues of the National Security Council, where she covered key foreign policy challenges such as nuclear proliferation, the spread of chemical and biological weapons, and human rights. Later, she returned to government as deputy to the Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs, an office which deals with matters ranging from democratization and governance to refugees and human trafficking. Dr. Mathews is a director of Somalogic Inc. and a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation, The Century Foundation, and the Nuclear Threat Initiative. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission.
The School of Continuing Studies, Mrs. Catherine B. Reynolds, Philanthropist and Founder of the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation
Catherine B. Reynolds is the Founder and Chairman of Loan to Learn, an EduCap Education Loan Program committed to providing privately-funded educational financing as an alternative to governement student loan programs. In only one decade, Mrs. Reynolds creative approach to private educational financing revolutionized student lending and spawned a multibillion-dollar industry of 65 lenders offering more than 200 financial products. In addition to her work at Loan to Learn, Mrs. Reynolds devotes her time and abilities primarily to philanthropic pursuits as the creator and chairman of one of the largest foundations in the nation. The mission of her foundation is to help educate young people, to inspire them to believe in their power to make a difference as individuals, and to motivate them to reach their greatest potential as citizens and productive members of society. Mrs. Reynolds was selected by Business Week as one of the 50 most philanthropic living Americans and the first self-made woman ever to make their list.
The Robert Emmett McDonough School of Business, The Honorable Paul Volcker, Former Chairman of the Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System
Paul Volcker served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve System under Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan during a time of stagnation and inflation. His leadership played a vital role in returning the nation's economy to properity. Later he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Wolfensohn and Company, L.L.C where he continued to be a respected commentator on the nation’s financial affairs throughout the 1990s. In 2003, he lead the Commission on the Public Service, recommending sweeping overhauls of the organization and personnel practices of the Federal Government. The following year, he was asked by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to chair the Independent Inquiry into the United Nations Oil for Food Program. Honorable Volcker is currently serving as Professor Emeritus of International Economic Policy at Princeton University, from which he received his undergraduate degree, and has been the first Henry Kaufman Visiting Professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University.
Georgetown University School of Medicine, Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Francis Collins has served as the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health since 1993. Under Dr. Collin's leadership, the Human Genome Project was completed in 2003, a full two years ahead of schedule. He attended the University of North Carolina School of Medicine as a Morehead Scholar and earned an M.D. In 1981, he returned to Yale as a Fellow in Human Genetics where he developed innovative methods of crossing large stretches of DNA to identify disease genes. After joining the faculty of the University of Michigan in 1984, he developed a gene-hunting approach called positional cloning. This technique allowed researchers to identify disease genes without first knowing the functional abnormality underlying the disease. This new method allowed Dr. Collins and his colleagues to identify the genes responsible for cystic fibrosis and Huntington’s disease, among others. His recent work on the Human Genome Project has given geneticists an invaluable tool in their quest to uncover the genetic causes of heart disease, cancer, mental illnesses, and other diseases. He has also been an advocate for protecting the privacy of genetic information and been particularly vocal on the issue of gene-based insurance discrimination. He is the author of a recent book entitled The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.
Georgetown University Law Center, Ms. Nina Totenberg, Legal Affairs Correspondent, National Public Radio
Nina Totenberg is National Public Radio's award-winning legal affairs correspondent. Her reports air regularly on NPR's critically acclaimed newsmagazines,
All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and
Weekend Edition. Ms. Totenberg's coverage of the Supreme Court and legal affairs has won her widespread recognition. She is also a regular panelist on,
Inside Washington, a weekly syndicated public affairs television program produced in the nation's capital. Ms. Totenberg was named Broadcaster of the Year and honored with the 1998 Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcasting from the National Press Foundation. She is the first radio journalist to receive the award. In 1991, her ground-breaking report about University of Oklahoma Law Professor Anita Hill's allegations of sexual harassment by Judge Clarence Thomas led the Senate Judiciary Committee to re-open Thomas' Supreme Court confirmation hearings to consider Prof. Hill's charges. NPR received the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award for its gavel-to-gavel coverage -- anchored by Ms. Totenberg -- of both the original hearings and the inquiry into Anita Hill's allegations, and for Ms. Totenberg's reports and exclusive interview with Prof. Hill.
Georgetown University holds individual commencement ceremonies for each undergraduate and professional school after a series of awards ceremonies and celebrations on campus beginning with senior convocation on Thursday, May 18.
