commencement speakers announced

Thu., May 28

Undergraduate Commencement ceremony

friday, may 29, 2009

 

connie chung ~
investigative reporter, news anchor

An award-winning investigative reporter and one of the most recognizable faces on American television, Connie Chung has been a powerful force in the news industry for more than 35 years.

She began her long career in TV news in 1969 in her hometown of Washington, D.C., where she worked at WTTG-TV Metromedia (now Fox), first as a copy person, then as a news writer, and later as a news reporter. She joined CBS News in 1971 as a national correspondent for the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. In 1976, she moved to Los Angeles, where she spent seven years as an anchor.

In 1983, she joined NBC News as a national correspondent and anchor. Her assignments included anchoring the Saturday edition of the "NBC Nightly News," "NBC News at Sunrise," "NBC News Digests," several primetime specials, and a news magazine. While at NBC News, Ms. Chung was a substitute anchor for "NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw." She was a floor correspondent at the 1984 political conventions and a podium correspondent during the 1988 conventions, and provided political reporting and analysis during the presidential campaigns and election nights in 1984, 1986, and 1998.

Ms. Chung rejoined CBS News in 1989 as an anchor and correspondent of "Saturday Night With Connie Chung" and also anchored the Sunday edition of the "CBS Evening News." In 1990, she became the anchor of the Emmy Award-winning CBS News primetime magazine program, "Face to Face with Connie Chung." During this time, Ms. Chung conducted a series of exclusive interviews, including the first and only national television interview of Joseph Hazelwood, the captain of the Exxon Valdez, and the first interview with Los Angeles Lakers star Magic Johnson after his announcement that he was HIV positive.

From 1993 to 1995, Ms. Chung was co-anchor of the "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and Connie Chung," and anchor and correspondent on "Eye to Eye with Connie Chung." During that time, she covered the historic Israel/PLO signing ceremony at the White House. She also obtained an exclusive interview with Chinese leader Li Peng on the five-year anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Ms. Chung was a floor reporter for CBS News during the 1992 national political conventions and provided analysis during election-night coverage in 1990, 1992, and 1994.

During 1997, Ms. Chung was a fellow at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In November 1997, she joined ABC News as co-anchor and correspondent on the ABC News primetime news magazine "20/20."

During the 1999-2000 "20/20" season, Ms. Chung was awarded the Amnesty International Human Rights Award for her report that revealed that young women in Bangladesh were being brutally burned with acid as revenge for turning down advances from men.

During that same season, Ms. Chung won several awards for "Justice Delayed," an investigative hour that uncovered new information in the 1966 murder of Ben Chester White, an African American from Mississippi. Her report led the U.S. Justice Department to re-open the case after more than three decades and to indite, try, convict, and sentence Ernest Avants for the murder.

In January 2002, Ms. Chung joined CNN to anchor "Connie Chung Tonight." She left on-air duties at CNN in March 2003.

The first Asian American and only the second woman to serve as nightly news anchor on a major TV network, Chung has received three Emmy Awards, including two for best interview/interviewer. In addition, she is the recipient of a George Foster Peabody Award, honors from American Women in Radio and Television, and an Outstanding Young Woman of America Award.

Ms. Chung graduated from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Science degree. She has been married to Maury Povich since 1984. The couple lives with their son, Matthew, in Manhattan.

 

 

graduate commencement ceremonies • thursday, May 28, 2009

Orlando L. Taylor ~

Vice Provost for Research, Dean of the Graduate School, and Professor of Communications, Howard University

 

afternoon commencement speaker

Orlando L. Taylor is currently Vice Provost for Research, Dean of the Graduate School, and Professor of Communications at Howard University. He has held many other positions at Howard, including Dean of its School of Communication and Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs. [photo credit: Howard University]

Prior to joining the Howard faculty in 1973, Vice Provost Taylor was a faculty member at Indiana University. He also has served as a Visiting Professor at Stanford University, Adjunct Professor at the University of Pittsburgh and Visiting Scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Dr. Taylor is a national leader in graduate education and within his discipline. He is currently or has served previously as a member of numerous national boards, including the Board of Directors of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), for which he served as Board Chair in 2001. He is also a Past President of the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools and the National Communication Association. He is a former member of the Advisory Committee of the Directorate for Education and Human Resources of the National Science Foundation and of the Advisory Council at the National Institutes of Health. He is also the former president of the Consortium of Social Science Associations and a current member of the Board of Trustees of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and the Oak Ridge Associated Universities Board of Directors. He chairs the National Advisory Board for the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning, a major NSF-funded center at the University of Wisconsin.

As Graduate Dean at Howard University since 1993, Vice Provost Taylor has played a significant role in assuring Howard's continued national leadership in graduate education. Howard, a richly diverse institution, produces more African American on-campus Ph.D. recipients than any research university in the United States. Vice Provost Taylor is a leader in several national initiatives involving graduate education. He has been a particularly vigorous advocate and spokesperson on topics and issues relating to access and equity in higher education.

Vice Provost Taylor has raised several million dollars in research, training and program development grants from federal and private sources during his career at Howard University. Currently, he serves as PI on major grants from the National Science Foundation to increase the production of minority Ph.D. recipients in science, technology, mathematics and engineering (STEM) and in the social, behavioral and economic (SBE) sciences; as well as from the U.S. Department of Education to develop collaborative academic and research programs between universities in Brazil and in four European Union countries with Howard University and several others in the United States. He is the author of numerous articles, chapters, and books.

Vice Provost Taylor has earned honorary doctorates from Purdue University, Indiana University, The Ohio State University, Hope College and DePauw University. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association awarded him its highest award, Honors of the Association, and the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan awarded him its Distinguished Service Alumni Award.ward.

Dr. Taylor received his bachelor's degree from Hampton University, master's degree from Indiana University, and Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan. 

 

 

michael bolton ~
singer, songwriter

 

evening commencement speaker

During the course of his extraordinary career, Michael Bolton - singer, songwriter, and social activist - has sold more than 53 million albums and singles worldwide, and has won, among his other numerous awards, two Grammies for Best Male Vocalist and six American Music Awards. A native of New Haven, Conn., he has earned a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame and sold out arenas worldwide. The dynamically diverse performer has also sung and recorded with such iconic talents as Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, and Ray Charles, played guitar with B.B. King, and had his music sampled by hip-hop superstar Kanye West (featuring megastar Jay-Z) and also on a CD/DVD by John Legend.

A prolific songwriter as well, Mr. Bolton has composed songs for legendary artists including Barbra Streisand, KISS, Kenny Rogers, Kenny G., Cher, Peabo Bryson, Patti Labelle, Joe Cocker, Marc Anthony, Greg Allman, Wynonna Judd, and many others. He has earned multiple honors as a songwriter, including BMI's Songwriter of the Year, Song of the Year, and Million-Air awards, ASCAP's Writer and Publisher Awards, and a Hitmaker Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He's one of a very few artists to have written with the incomparable Bob Dylan. Mr. Bolton has also collaborated with noted songwriters Diane Warren, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, Desmond Child, and Babyface. 

Mr. Bolton believes in giving back in his own way, too. A dedicated social activist, he established the Michael Bolton Foundation 16 years ago - now Michael Bolton Charities, Inc. (MBC) - to provide assistance, education, and shelter to children and women at risk from poverty, as well as physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Since its inception, the MBC has raised significantly more than $7 million in funding for local and national charities. The organization focuses its efforts in Connecticut and New York, with the goal to deepen and empower children's engagement in their own educations and futures and to develop educational support through scholarships, workshops, incentives, and internships. The foundation also collaborates with the corporate and business community, state and local governments, schools at all levels, and social services to develop outreach programs and employment opportunities for children across socioeconomic and multicultural lines.

Through the MBC, Mr. Bolton has also been deeply involved in, among other campaigns, the struggle to raise awareness about domestic violence. He is vice chair of the board of advisers of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) and, in May 2008, he served as co-chair of the 30th anniversary worldwide celebration of the violence against woman's movement.

Mr. Bolton served as executive producer for the Lifetime Network's documentary "Terror at Home: Domestic Violence in America," for which he wrote and recorded the song "Tears of the Angels," which was nominated for an Emmy Award. Mr. Bolton's organization has enabled him to testify before both houses of Congress, notably as a champion of The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and as an advocate for the safety of women and children generally. He believes that of all the opportunities that his career has afforded him, this is the most important.

Mr. Bolton has served as honorary chairman of Prevent Child Abuse America, national chairman for This Close for Cancer Research, and is a board member for the National Mentoring Partnership and the Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital. Among the philanthropic awards Mr. Bolton has received are the Lewis Hine Award by the National Child Labor Committee, the Martin Luther King Award by the Congress of Racial Equality, and the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations.