Commencement Speakers Announced

Ref. #03-48

May 8, 2003

COMMENCEMENT SPEAKERS ANNOUNCED AT UNIVERSITY OF REDLANDS

A Congressional Gold Medal recipient, the Director of Peace Corps and the Director of The Institute of Economic and Political Studies (INSTEP), Cambridge will speak at the University of Redlands commencement ceremonies on Thursday, May 29 and Saturday, May 31.

Terrence Roberts, Congressional Gold Medal recipient and part of the 1957 "Little Rock Nine," was one of the first black students to attend the then all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. A clinical psychologist, Roberts currently serves as the desegregation consultant for the Little Rock Arkansas School District and co-chairs the Master's in Psychology Program at Antioch University in Los Angeles.

Roberts will address approximately 400 graduates receiving teaching credentials and master's degrees on May 29. During the ceremony, Roberts will receive an honorary doctorate of humane letters. The ceremony begins at 7 p.m. in the Memorial Chapel.

Gaddi Vasquez, director of the Peace Corps and Geoffrey Lee Williams, director of INSTEP, Cambridge will speak at the commencement ceremonies on May 31.

Vasquez, class of 1980, will address about 500 graduates of the traditional College of Arts and Sciences program. The ceremony begins at 9 a.m. in the Alumni-Greek Theatre.

Appointed to the Peace Corps on Feb. 15, 2002 by President George W. Bush, Vasquez is the agency's first Hispanic-American director.

From 1985-87, Vasquez served in the California Governor's Office first as the Hispanic liaison and then as chief deputy appointments secretary and from 1987-1995, he served as county supervisor of Orange County.

The son of migrant farm workers, Vasquez is the first member of his family to earn a college degree. Williams will address over 800 graduates from the School of Business. During the ceremony, Williams will receive an honorary doctorate of humane letters. The ceremony begins at 5 p.m. in the Alumni-Greek Theatre.

A lecturer at the Centre of International Studies at the University of Cambridge, and former NATO Defense Fellow, Williams has served as senior assistant director, London region, at the Confederation of British Industry and as head of International Relations in the Department of Linguistics and European Studies at the University of Surrey.

Two additional honorary degrees will be awarded during the commencement ceremonies. Jeanne L. Narum, director of the Independent Colleges Office (ICO) and Lawrence A. Scadden, class of 1960 and retired senior program director of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Program for Persons with Disabilities, will receive the honorary doctorate of human letters.

Narum is a member of the Board of Governors of the National Council on Undergraduate Research and also the founding director of Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL), an informal alliance of educators, administrators and others working to strengthen undergraduate education in science, mathematics and engineering.

Scadden, recipient of the 2002 Migel Medal, the highest honor in the blindness field, by the American Foundation for the Blind, worked for NSF to design and establish the Program for Persons with Disabilities from 1992-2001 and was their program director of Bioengineering and Research to Aid Persons with Disabilities from 1983-84.