More than 40 Johns Hopkins staff members crowded the
O'Connor Recreation Center's
conference room on a Wednesday afternoon late last month
for the final commencement and
graduation committee meeting. Joining them there were
representatives of P.W. Feats, the special
events/marketing firm that orchestrates most of the
Homewood ceremonies. On the agenda that day:
everything and anything.
The lively discussion flitted about from field setup
to photography to live Webcasts to security
and much more. The attendees, under the guidance of
commencement director India Lowres, wanted
to ensure that every last detail was accounted for, from
the size of tables in a reception area and the
placement of recycling bins to the construction of
scaffolding and the exact timing of the procession
in the universitywide ceremony.
There were 10,001 details to go over for one day that
literally requires hundreds of staff and
volunteers in order to run smoothly.
"It's meetings like that one that pull it all
together," Lowres said. "You have to account for
everything. One little tiny detail might affect 20 people.
We all need to be on the same page."
Lowres is confident that everyone is, and the moment
of truth approaches. On Thursday
morning, President William R. Brody, who is retiring from
his post at the end of the year, will offer his
last commencement address and confer degrees and
certificates on a record-high 6,687 JHU
scholars.
The universitywide commencement forms the centerpiece
for this week's various ceremonies
that formally conclude JHU's 132nd academic year.
The ceremony, to be held at 9:15 a.m. on May 22, will
feature the conferring of all degrees;
recognize the new members of the Society of Scholars, who
will be inducted on May 21; and bestow
honorary degrees upon George Bunting Jr., university and
hospital trustee; Baltimore-born jazz legend
Ethel Ennis; Robert E. Fischell, an engineer and inventor
retired from the Applied Physics Laboratory;
and Raymond A. "Chip" Mason, co-founder of the
Baltimore-based asset management firm Legg Mason
and former chair of the university's board of trustees.
Also this week, all of the university's academic
divisions will hold diploma award ceremonies
featuring keynote speakers selected by each school.
Ceremonies will include the announcement of
awards that recognize the contributions and achievements of
students and faculty.
The universitywide commencement and Homewood
undergraduate diploma ceremonies will be
held on Homewood Field, as will several diploma ceremonies.
The stadium holds 9,000 people — no
tickets necessary. In the event of rain, ceremonies will go
on if possible. (If it does become necessary
to cancel or curtail any of the ceremonies, announcements
will be made on the university Web site and
on the weather emergency line at 410-516-7781.) Other
ceremonies will take place in venues
throughout Baltimore and in Washington, D.C.
William S. Nye, best known as "Bill Nye, the Science
Guy," will address graduates of the schools
of Arts and Sciences and Engineering at their diploma
ceremony at 1:45 p.m. on Thursday, May 22. He
will also be awarded an honorary degree from Johns
Hopkins.
Nye, who has a degree in mechanical engineering from
Cornell University, moved to Seattle upon
graduation to work for Boeing. A natural entertainer, he
first had a dual career as engineer by day and
stand-up comic by night. He eventually landed a job as a
writer/actor on a local ensemble comedy show
called Almost Live, where Bill Nye, the Science Guy was
born.
In 1993, he created the Bill Nye, the Science
Guy television show, which ran on PBS for five
years and then lived on in syndication. The show won 28
Emmy Awards, with Nye personally winning
seven for writing, performing and producing. The author of
five science books, he currently hosts The
100 Greatest Discoveries on the Science Channel and
The Eyes of Nye, which airs on PBS stations
across the country.
The Krieger School's master's diploma award ceremony
will feature economist Anne Kreuger,
professor of international economics at the Nitze School of
Advanced International Studies. She
most recently held the International Monetary Fund's No. 2
leadership position as first deputy
managing director, from September 2001 to August 2006. At
SAIS, Kreuger teaches international
trade, finance and economic development. The ceremony will
be held at 10 a.m. on Friday, May 23, on
Homewood Field.
The Bloomberg School of Public Health speaker will be
Peter Agre, who in 2003 shared the
Nobel Prize in chemistry for his discovery of aquaporins,
channels that regulate and facilitate water
molecule transport through cell membranes — a process
essential to all living organisms. Agre was a
faculty member of the School of Medicine from 1981 to 2005,
when he joined Duke University Medical
Center as vice chancellor for science and technology. Agre
rejoined Johns Hopkins last year to serve
as director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute
and professor of molecular microbiology
and immunology. The ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. on
Wednesday, May 21, in Meyerhoff Symphony
Hall.
Jeong Kim, university trustee and president of Bell
Laboratories Alcatel-Lucent, will speak at
the Whiting School of Engineering's graduate ceremony, to
be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 21, on
Homewood Field. A member of the National Academy of
Engineering, Kim earned his bachelor's degree
in electrical engineering and computer science as well as a
master's degree in technical management
from Johns Hopkins. In 2005, the U.S. Pan Asian American
Chamber of Commerce named him one of
the Top 10 Most Influential Asian Americans in Business.
A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard, former executive director of
the Central Intelligence Agency and
former chief executive officer and chairman of the board of
the investment bank Alex. Brown & Sons,
will be the speaker at the Carey Business School graduate
diploma award ceremony, to be held at 2:30
p.m. on Thursday, May 22, in Shriver Hall. Krongard was
appointed executive director of the CIA in
2001; he joined the agency in 1998 after nearly 30 years as
a businessman.
The diploma ceremony speaker for the School of
Advanced International Studies will be Robert
Zoellick, 11th president of the World Bank Group and
chairman of its board of directors. The event
will be held at 3 p.m. on Thursday, May 22, at Constitution
Hall in Washington, D.C. Before assuming
his post in July 2007, Zoellick was international vice
chairman of the Goldman Sachs Group, and
managing director and chairman of Goldman Sachs' board of
international advisers from 2006 to 2007.
He was deputy secretary of the State Department from 2005
to 2006. From 2001 to 2005, he served
as U.S. trade representative.
The School of Medicine will welcome Peter Beilenson,
Howard County health officer. Before
taking his current post, Beilenson spent 13 years as health
commissioner of Baltimore City, where he
expanded drug treatment programs, improved immunization
compliance, instituted initiatives for lead
poisoning and juvenile violence prevention and founded
Maryland Health Care for All, a statewide
initiative for universal health coverage. The ceremony will
be at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 22, in
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.
Leslie Mancuso, president and CEO of Jhpiego, will be
the speaker for the School of Nursing
ceremony, to be held at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 22, in
the Lyric Opera House. Jhpiego is a Johns
Hopkins affiliate that builds global and local partnerships
to enhance the quality of health care
services for women and families throughout Africa, Asia,
the Middle East, Latin America and the
Caribbean. Mancuso, a nurse, joined Jhpiego in 2002 after
13 years at Project HOPE, a $110 million
operation where she served as acting chief executive, chief
operating officer and executive vice
president for international operations.
The Peabody Conservatory Diploma Award Ceremony
speaker will be Sir Ken Robinson, an
internationally recognized innovator in the fields of
business and arts education. The ceremony will
take place at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 22, in Peabody's
Friedberg Hall. Robinson has advised
national governments in Europe and Asia and works with
international agencies, Fortune 500
companies, nonprofit corporations and some of the world's
leading cultural organizations.
Robinson was the principal author of The Arts in
Schools: Principles, Practice and Provision, a
standard text in the United Kingdom and around the world.
From 1985 to 1989, he was director of the
Arts in Schools Project, a major UK initiative to improve
the teaching of the arts, and in 1998 was
appointed by the British government to chair the National
Advisory Committee on Creative and
Cultural Education, the largest-ever inquiry into the
importance of creativity in education and the
economy. He will receive the George Peabody Medal at the
ceremony. Instituted in 1981, the medal is
the highest award the Peabody Institute can bestow and is
meant to honor individuals who have made
exceptional contributions to music in America.
The Carey Business School undergraduate diploma award
ceremony will be held at 7 p.m. on
Thursday, May 22, in Shriver Hall. The speaker will be
Anirban Basu, founder, chairman and chief
executive officer of Sage Policy Group, an economic and
policy consulting firm in Baltimore. An
instructor in the Department of Management in the Carey
Business School, Basu is well-known
throughout the mid-Atlantic region for his consulting work
on behalf of developers, bankers,
brokerage houses, energy suppliers, law firms, government
agencies and nonprofit organizations.
Camilla Benbow, dean of education at Vanderbilt
University's Peabody College, will speak at the
School of Education undergraduate and graduate diploma
award ceremony. It will be held at 7:30 p.m.
on Thursday, May 22, on Homewood Field. A Johns Hopkins
alumna, Benbow has become increasingly
influential in national education circles. In 2006,
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings appointed
her as vice chair of the National Mathematics Advisory
Panel. President Bush subsequently nominated
her to serve on the National Science Board, which oversees
the National Science Foundation.
For more information on all the Johns Hopkins
graduation ceremonies, go to:
www.jhu.edu/commencement.