Campus Life

Penn State announces spring 2012 commencement events and speakers

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Through the end of the fall 2011 semester, Penn State has conferred a total of 686,793 degrees. As of spring 2012 the University's total number of graduates should approach 699,780.

This spring Penn State expects to award approximately 12,987 diplomas to students University-wide who are completing 609 associate, 10,491 baccalaureate, 1,311 master's, 131 medical, 219 law and 226 doctoral degrees.

At University Park 16 students are expected to receive associate degrees, while 8,537 will be awarded baccalaureate degrees. Approximately 979 master's degree students are expected to graduate, as are 226 doctoral degree candidates. All figures listed are estimates as of April 9.

Following is a compilation of commencement ceremonies and speaker information for Penn State's 24 locations. Additional information about University Park commencement is available online at http://commencement.psu.edu.

Penn State Abington
10 a.m. Friday, May 4, Athletic Building
Speaker: Daniel V. Murray '86 Finance
Murray is CFO of Machinima, a leading producer and distributor of digital video content. He attended Penn State Abington and completed his undergraduate degree in finance at University Park. Murray went on to earn an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management and is a CPA. A member of Penn State Abington’s Alumni Society Board, Murray lives in Pasadena, Calif., with his wife, Yue, and his 8-year-old daughter, Loran.
http://www.abington.psu.edu/psasite/cs/commencement.html

Penn State Altoona
10 a.m., May 5, The Jaffa Shrine
Speaker: Mike Reid '69
Reid, an Altoona native and 1969 graduate of Penn State, gained fame as a Penn State football player. After graduating with a degree in music, he went on to play as a defensive lineman for the Cincinnati Bengals from 1970 to 1974. After an outstanding career in professional football, he moved forward in music, composing more than 30 hit singles for country music artists. He released two albums from his solo recording career, charting seven singles on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks.
http://www.altoona.psu.edu/commencement/

Penn State Beaver
7 p.m. Friday, May 4, Auditorium, Student Union Building
Speaker: Julian E. Gray ’91, Certified Elder Law Attorney
Gray is the founder and managing attorney of Julian Gray Associates, a Pittsburgh-area firm with offices in Moon Township and South Hills. It is the only law firm in the United States with six Certified Elder Law Attorneys, a designation conferred by the National Elder Law Foundation. A Beaver County native, Gray attended Penn State Beaver before graduating from Penn State University Park and holds a law degree from Duquesne University. He has been named a Pennsylvania Superlawyer and a Best Lawyer in America. For more than 17 years, his firm has worked in the areas of Medicaid planning, veteran’s benefits, special needs planning and related estate planning and tax issues.
http://live.psu.edu/story/58656

Penn State Berks
10 a.m., May 5, Beaver Community Center
Speaker: David H. Monk, professor of educational administration and dean, College of Education, Penn State
Monk earned his artium baccalaureatus in 1972 at Dartmouth College and his doctorate in 1979 at the University of Chicago. He was a member of the Cornell University faculty for 20 years prior to becoming dean at Penn State in 1999. He also has been a third grade teacher and has taught in a visiting capacity at the University of Rochester and the University of Burgundy in Dijon, France. He is the author of "Educational Finance: An Economic Approach" (1990); "Raising Money for Education: A Guide to the Property Tax" (1997); and "Cost Adjustments in Education" (2001), in addition to numerous articles in scholarly journals. He was the inaugural co-editor of Education Finance and Policy – the journal of the Association for Education Finance and Policy (MIT Press) and serves on the editorial board of that journal in addition to serving on the editorial boards of the Journal of Education Finance, Educational Policy, and the Journal of Research in Rural Education. Monk consults widely on matters related to educational productivity and the organizational structuring of schools and school districts and is a past president of the Association for Education Finance and Policy.
http://live.psu.edu/story/59264
 

Penn State Brandywine
10 a.m. Saturday, May 5, Campus Gymnasium
Speaker: Howard B. Stoeckel, president, CEO and vice chair of the board of directors, Wawa Inc.
Stoeckel was appointed president and chief executive officer and vice chair of the board of directors for Wawa Inc. on Jan. 1, 2005. He has been with Wawa since 1987 and has held the positions of executive vice president and chief retail officer, senior vice president of marketing and vice president of human resources. Prior to Wawa, Stoeckel was vice president of human resources for Mast Industries, a division of the Limited Inc. Earlier in his career, Stoeckel held various human resource positions with the Washington Gas Company in Washington, D.C., and John Wanamaker Department Stores in Philadelphia, Pa.

Penn State DuBois
2 p.m., May 5, Multipurpose Building Gymnasium
Speaker: Madlyn L. Hanes, vice president for Commonwealth Campuses, Penn State
Hanes was named vice president for Commonwealth Campuses of The Pennsylvania State University in 2010. As vice president, she has executive oversight for 20 campuses of the University. Commonwealth Campuses enroll 34,000 students in associate, baccalaureate and graduate degrees. The vice president provides leadership for the University’s multiple missions across the Commonwealth, including its core mission of excellence in teaching, research and service; strategic planning; budgeting; fundraising, alumni relations and outreach; and management of the campuses’ facilities.
http://www.ds.psu.edu/Academics/DuBoisCommencement.htm

Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
6:30 p.m., Friday, May 4, Tullio Arena, Erie
Speaker: Chris Coulston, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, Penn State Behrend
Coulston earned his bachelor's degree at Slippery Rock University and his master’s and doctoral degrees in computer engineering at Penn State. He taught at the University Park campus from 1993 to 1998. In January 2012 he became chair of Penn State Behrend's Computer Science and Software Engineering Department; in that role he leads the efforts in his department to maintain ABET accreditation. Previously he chaired the electrical, computer and software engineering programs.
http://www.behrend.psu.edu/commencement

Penn State Fayette
10 a.m. Saturday, May 5, Community Center Main Arena
Speaker: Pennsylvania State Sen. Richard A. Kasunic
Kasunic was elected to the Pennsylvania Senate in 1994. Now in his fifth term, serves the 32nd Senatorial District, which includes Penn State Fayette. Kasunic is a lifelong resident of Fayette County and is an active member of numerous state, regional and local organizations, including the Advisory Board of Penn State Fayette, which honored him with the Outstanding Fellow Award in 2010. In the State Senate, he is a member of the Senate Democratic leadership, serving as Democratic Caucus chairman.

Penn State Great Valley
on the grounds of the Penn State Great Valley campus, Malvern
-- management students: 3 p.m., Friday, May 4
-- education and engineering students: 7 p.m., Friday, May 4
Speaker: Lorene Carey, founder and executive director, Art Sanctuary; writer and senior lecturer, University of Pennsylvania
Carey founded Art Sanctuary in 1998 to unite Philadelphia black artists to create lectures, performances and instructional programs for educating and aspiring students in the region. In addition to regular monthly programming, Art Sanctuary annually hosts an arts festival, panel discussions, workshops, a sports tournament, a symposium and other events. Carey is a senior lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, and has received The Philadelphia Award and several national honorary doctorates. Her essays have appeared in Newsweek, Time, Essence and O Magazine.
http://www.sgps.psu.edu/current/commencement/default.ashx

Penn State Greater Allegheny
11 a.m. Saturday, May 5, Wunderley Gymnasium
Speaker: John Lydon, chief executive officer, Auberle and Pauline Auberle Foundation
Lydon has served as the CEO at the foundation in McKeesport since 2004. Auberle is a nonprofit social agency serving more than 2,000 at-risk children and families in eight southwestern Pennsylvania counties. Many Penn State Greater Allegheny students have interned at Auberle. Lydon has been involved with the nonprofit for more than 20 years as a volunteer, board member and board chair. Prior to working at Auberle, Lydon practiced law in the Pittsburgh area and was founder and president of the Lydon and Schubert law firm. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Law.
http://www.ga.psu.edu/33727.htm

Penn State Harrisburg
9 a.m. Saturday, May 5, Hershey Giant Center, Hershey
Speaker: Adm. James Milton Loy (Ret.)
Loy, a native of Altoona, Pa., completed a 45-year career in public service, retiring as United States Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. Before the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security, Loy served in the Department of Transportation as deputy under secretary for Security and chief operating officer of the Transportation Security Administration, and later as under secretary for Security. He retired from the U.S. Coast Guard in 2002, having served as its commandant since 1998. Prior to his service as commandant, Loy served as the Coast Guard chief of staff from 1996 to 1998.

Penn State Hazleton
7 p.m. Friday, May 4, Dr. Thomas M. Caccese Gym, Physical Education Building
Speaker: To be announced

Penn State Hershey College of Medicine
1 p.m. Sunday, May 20, Founders Hall, Milton Hershey School
Speaker: Catherine D. DeAngelis, professor, Johns Hopkins University School Medicine (pediatrics) and Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health (health services administration); editor-in-chief emerita, JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association
DeAngelis received her medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine, her master of public health degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Public Health (Health Services Administration) and her pediatric specialty training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. She also has been awarded seven honorary doctoral degrees and has received numerous awards for humanitarianism and medical excellence. From 1990 to 1999 she was vice dean for Academic Affairs and Faculty, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and from 1994 to 2000, she was editor of the journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. DeAngelis is a former council member and current member of the National Academy of Science (NAS), Institute of Medicine (IOM) and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She also has served as an officer of numerous national academic societies including past chairman of the American Board of Pediatrics and chair of the Pediatric Accreditation Council for Residency Review Committee of the American Council on Graduate Medical Education. She currently serves on the advisory board of the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the IOM (NAS) Omics-Based Tests Committee. Most of her recent publications have focused on conflict of interest in medicine, on professionalism and integrity in medicine, on women in medicine and on medical education.
http://www.pennstatehershey.org/web/educationalaffairs/home/upcoming/graduation

Penn State Lehigh Valley
11 a.m. Saturday, May 5, Stabler Arena, Bethlehem
Speaker: Brad Meltzer, author and researcher on the History Channel series "Brad Meltzer's Decoded"
Meltzer is the author of The New York Times best-sellers "The Tenth Justice," "Dead Even," "The First Counsel," "The Millionaires" and "The Zero Game." He is working on his newest comic book, "DC Universe," and recently published his latest novel, "The Inner Circle." His books have a total of almost 6 million copies in print, have spent more than nine months on bestseller lists, and have been translated into more than 25 languages, from Hebrew to Bulgarian. He can also be seen on the History Channel series "Brad Meltzer’s Decoded," which investigates the secret history of the symbols and codes that surround us every day. Meltzer also is one of the co-creators of the TV show, "Jack & Bobby" -- about two young brothers, one of whom will one day grow up to be president of the United States -- and is the No. 1 best-selling author of the critically acclaimed comic book "Identity Crisis," a murder-mystery featuring Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. His newest nonfiction book, "Heroes for My Son," examines 52 global heroes, from Gandhi to Rosa Parks to Thomas Jefferson, and the qualities they shared that allowed them to shape the modern world. While cataloging the lives of so many impactful individuals, Meltzer grew to understand three truths to successful leadership: communicate and collaborate with your team, admit and overcome your limitations, and represent your organization, don’t have it represent you.
http://live.psu.edu/story/58253

Penn State Mont Alto
10 a.m. May 5, Multipurpose Activities Center
Speaker: Bob Ziobrowski, Franklin County commissioner and owner, Ziobrowski Appraisals
Ziobrowski has held the elected office of Franklin County commissioner since 2008. He also is a member of the Penn State Mont Alto Advisory Board. A lifelong resident of Chambersburg, Ziobrowski owns a real estate appraisal company, Ziobrowski Appraisals. He is a past president of the Chambersburg school board from 1987 to 1995, has served on the Chambersburg Planning and Zoning Commission, and has been a member of the Chambersburg Hospital Board of Directors since 2000. Ziobrowski’s wife, Ann, began her Penn State education with two years at Mont Alto before graduating at the University Park campus in 1978.
http://live.psu.edu/story/58853

Penn State New Kensington
10 .m. Saturday, May 5, Athletics Center
Speaker: Arlene Hall, director of Academic Affairs, Penn State New Kensington
http://www.nk.psu.edu/Academics/graduation.htm

Penn State Schuylkill
10 a.m. Saturday, May 5, Lower Level, Health and Wellness Building
Speaker:
Karen Byrnes-Noon ’81, ’85 Law, district attorney, Schuylkill County
Schuylkill County District Attorney Karen Byrnes-Noon is a 1977 graduate of Pottsville Area High School. She began her studies at Penn State Schuylkill and then finished at the University Park campus in 1981 with a bachelor of science degree in administration of justice. In 1985 she graduated from The Dickinson School of Law. She served as a law clerk for the now-retired President Judge George Heffner and has been a prosecutor for more than 25 years, 23 of those in Schuylkill County. In January she was named the county’s first woman district attorney. She also was the first attorney to present DNA evidence in Schuylkill County and the first to present this type of evidence in a homicide case.
http://www.sl.psu.edu/Academics/27825.htm

Penn State Shenango
7:30 p.m. Friday, May 4, Penn State Shenango Auditorium
Speaker: James B. Lester ’75, CEO/owner, Lee Identification Services

Penn State University Park:

College of Agricultural Sciences
9 a.m. Saturday, May 5, Eisenhower Auditorium
Speaker: James Shirk ’93, Northeast territory business manager, CEVA Biomune
Shirk graduated in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in environmental resource management. He manages poultry vaccine sales in the northeast United States for CEVA Biomune as the Northeast territory business manager. Shirk, his wife, Stephanie, and his three children are the ninth generation to live on their family farm in Lancaster County, Pa.

College of Arts and Architecture
Noon, Saturday, May 5, Eisenhower Auditorium
Speaker: Leo Mullen '70, '72g, chief executive officer, Navigation Arts LLC
Mullen is CEO of Navigation Arts LLC, a privately held consulting firm in McLean, Va., that specializes in enterprise web design and web development. He has spent his career building and managing businesses in the communications, design and technology sectors. He started on his entrepreneurial career path in 1979 when he and his wife created the graphic design firm Invisions Ltd. In 1994, he launched IconixGroup, which grew both in size and stature as a leader in digital media development. He later sold Iconix to a technology holding company and, in 2001, helped found Navigation Arts, which he has since guided to its recent citation on Inc. Magazine’s "Inc. 5000" list as one of the most entrepreneurial and fastest-growing companies in America. Leo continues to provide strategic advisory services to some of the Washington, D.C., region’s leading businesses and organizations, including the American Red Cross, the U.S. Department of State, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, NASDAQ, NPR, the Discovery Channel and the Smithsonian Institution. In 2011, Leo was selected to receive the American Institute of Graphic Arts-D.C. Fellow Award, which recognizes a designer who has made significant contributions to the design community, and continues to push the bounds of the conventional. Mullen has held numerous board positions among business, community and philanthropic organizations, including TravelGuide Software, the Greater Washington Initiative of the Board of Trade, the Norwood School and the Holton Arms School in Bethesda, Md. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in art from Penn State.

Smeal College of Business
10 a.m. Sunday, May 6, Bryce Jordan Center
Speaker: Tony Buzzelli '71, senior partner (retired), Deloitte
After nearly 40 years Buzzelli retired from Deloitte, the professional services firm where he started his career. Buzzelli held several key positions at Deloitte. He was a vice chairman, the national managing partner of U.S. regions, the managing partner for the Pacific Southwest region based in Los Angeles, and the managing partner for the central Atlantic region based in Washington, D.C. Buzzelli served on Deloitte’s board of directors, its executive committee and the operating committee. From 2001 to 2003, he was the national deputy managing partner for all U.S. operations, during which time Deloitte relocated 5,000 professionals who were impacted by the World Trade Center events, integrated nearly 3,000 professionals from Arthur Andersen and reintegrated its consulting operations into its core business unit. In addition to leading business units and advising clients, Buzzelli has dedicated himself to supporting the communities where he has lived. He served as a board member of the L.A. Chamber of Commerce (named Business Leader of the Year in 2010), United Way Los Angeles (vice chair), L.A. Police Foundation, World Affairs Council, Town Hall Los Angeles (vice chair), Chairman of the Southern California Leadership Network and the California Science Center (Audit Committee Chair). For Penn State, Buzzelli was the inaugural chair of the Smeal Accounting Advisory Board, and today serves on the Smeal Board of Visitors. In 2003 he was named accounting alumnus of the year. In 1971 Buzzelli graduated with a degree in accounting. In retirement, Buzzelli serves as the chair of Semester at Sea, and sits on the boards of a nine-hospital integrated health-care organization and a 14 million member-services entity. He and his wife of 40 years, Marta, a Penn State graduate with a degree in English, live in Charlottesville, Va.

College of Communications
Noon, Saturday, May 5, Bryce Jordan Center
Speaker: Stephen G. Smith, editor, The Washington Examiner
Smith, currently the editor of The Washington Examiner, is the only journalist to hold senior-level editing positions at all three American news magazines. He was editor of U.S. News & World Report, executive editor of Newsweek and nation editor of Time. He also was editor of National Journal, a weekly devoted to government and politics, and founding editor of Civilization, which in 1996 won a National Magazine Award for General Excellence. Immediately before joining the Examiner, Smith spent three years as Washington bureau chief for the Houston Chronicle. He also worked as Washington news editor for Knight Ridder Newspapers and as an editor and reporter for the Boston Globe and the Philadelphia Inquirer. At the Globe, he won the Ernie Pyle Award for writing and reporting that exemplified "the style and craftsmanship" of the great World War II correspondent. Smith has written for The New Yorker and The New York Times Book Review, as well as for the publications where he was on staff. Smith grew up in New York City and graduated from The University of Pennsylvania. His wife, Sally Bedell Smith, is the author of six major biographies, including "Elizabeth the Queen," which appeared this year to critical acclaim and became a New York Times bestseller. They live in Washington and have three grown children.
http://comm.psu.edu/current/commencement

Dickinson School of Law
10:30 a.m. Saturday, May 12, at University Park and Carlisle locations simultaneously
The two locations will be interconnected by high-definition audiovisual telecommunications to enable audiences at each campus to see and hear the entire event in real time.
Speaker: Hon. Thomas I. Vanaskie '78 Law, member, United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
Vanaskie was nominated to the United States Court of Appeals by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the United States Senate on April 21, 2010. Prior to his appointment, Vanaskie had sat on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania since 1994 and served as chief judge from 1996 to 2006. He previously was a partner in the Scranton offices of Elliott, Vanaskie & Riley and Dilworth, Paxson, Kalish & Kauffman. After graduating from The Dickinson School of Law in 1978, Vanaskie began his legal career as a law clerk to the Hon. William J. Nealon of the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Vanaskie has served on the boards of directors of the Lackawanna Bar Association, the Northeastern Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association, the Scranton Community Medical Center and the Federal Judges Association. He currently serves on the law school’s adjunct faculty and as a member of its board of counselors. Vanaskie is a former chair of the Continuing Legal Education Committee of the Lackawanna Bar Association, a member of the Lawyers' Advisory Committee for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, and a member of the Civil Justice Reform Act Group for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. He is the chair of the Information Technology Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, the policy-making body for the United States Courts, having been appointed to that position by the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.

College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
8 p.m. Friday, May 4, Eisenhower Auditorium
Speaker: John Leone '56, president and chief executive officer, Bonney Forge
Leone is president and CEO of Bonney Forge, with manufacturing operations in Mount Union, Pa.; Houston, Texas; Shanghai, China; and Bergamo, Italy. Bonney Forge, founded in 1876, is an industry leader in marketing and manufacturing forged steel fittings and unions, branch connections, forged steel valves, cast steel valves and specialty engineered products for the energy industries. Leone graduated in 1956 from Penn State's petroleum and natural gas engineering program and earned an MBA from Northern Illinois University in 1976. He is a life member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and a Pipe Valves and Fittings Industry Hall of Fame honoree. At Penn State, he was named an Earth and Mineral Sciences Centennial Fellow in 1996, a recipient of the C. Drew Stahl Distinguished Achievement Award in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering in 2006, and a Penn State Alumni Fellow in 2008. His wife, Willie, is a former professional ice skater. The couple resides in Bethlehem, Pa. The Leones have a long history of supporting Penn State, dating from their first gift to the Department of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering in 1984. Their philanthropy includes gifts for undergraduate scholarships in petroleum and natural gas engineering, theatre and dance and Penn State athletics. The College of Arts and Architecture has an endowed scholarship, named for Willie Leone, that assists undergraduates majoring in musical theatre who are especially talented in the area of dance. The endowment for the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering is part of the current University-wide fundraising initiative, For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students.

College of Education
1:30 p.m. Sunday, May 6, Bryce Jordan Center
Speaker: Ron Tomalis, Secretary of Education, Pennsylvania Department of Education
Tomalis was nominated for Secretary of Education by Gov. Tom Corbett in January 2011 and unanimously confirmed by the Pennsylvania Senate in April 2011. The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) develops and administers educational policies to improve the quality of education in the Commonwealth and achieve the basic and higher education goals established by the governor, General Assembly and the State Board of Education, including public and non-public elementary and secondary schools and institutions of higher education. Tomalis brings a range of public and private experience in education and educational systems to his role as a member of Corbett’s cabinet. From 1995 to 2001, he served as PDE’s executive deputy secretary under former Gov. Tom Ridge. From 2001 to 2004, he worked for the United States Department of Education in several positions, including counselor to the Secretary and as acting assistant secretary of education in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. After his public service, he was a private advisor and consultant in the field, and most recently was the director of Dutko Worldwide/Whiteboard Advisors, based in Washington, D.C. At Dutko, he was a principal advisor to non- and for-profit groups, foundations and companies operating in Pre-K and postsecondary education environments. Tomalis, born and raised in Camp Hill, is a graduate of Dickinson College.

College of Engineering
8 p.m. Friday, May 4, Bryce Jordan Center
Speaker: Robert D. Braun '87, David and Andrew Lewis Professor of Space Technology and director, Space Systems Design Laboratory, Georgia Institute of Technology
Braun leads an active research and educational program focused on the design of advanced flight systems and technologies for planetary exploration. He has contributed to the design, development, test and operation of several robotic space flight systems. He has previously served as a leader and senior manager for multiple, large engineering organizations at NASA. In 2010-2011, he served as the first NASA chief technologist in more than a decade. In this capacity, he was the senior agency executive for technology and innovation policy and programs, reporting directly to the NASA administrator. Braun received a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from Penn State in 1987, a master's degree in astronautics from the George Washington University in 1989, and a doctoral degree in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University in 1996. He has received the 2011 AIAA von Karman Astronautics Award, 1999 AIAA Lawrence Sperry Award, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, two NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals, two NASA Inventions and Contributions Team Awards and eight NASA Group Achievement Awards. He is an AIAA Fellow and the principle author or co-author of more than 200 technical publications in the fields of atmospheric flight dynamics, planetary exploration, multidisciplinary design optimization and systems engineering. He lives on a small farm in Newnan, Ga., with his wife, Karen, and their three children.

College of Health and Human Development and School of Nursing
3 p.m. Saturday, May 5, Bryce Jordan Center
Speaker: William H. Dietz, director, Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Prior to his appointment to the CDC, Dietz was a professor of pediatrics at the Tuft′s University School of Medicine, and director of clinical nutrition at the Floating Hospital of New England Medical Center Hospitals. He received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1970 and a doctoral degree in Nutritional Biochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine, a recipient of the Holroyd-Sherry award from the American Academy of Pediatrics for his contributions to the field of children and the media, and the recipient of the 2006 Nutrition Research award from the AAP for outstanding research in pediatric nutrition.

College of Information Sciences & Technology
3 p.m. Saturday, May 5, Eisenhower Auditorium
Speaker: Irving Wladawsky-Berger, chairman emeritus, IBM Academy of Technology
Wladawsky-Berger retired from IBM in 2007 after 37 years. While at IBM, he was responsible for identifying emerging technologies and marketplace developments critical to the future of the information technology industry. He also was responsible for the company's university relations office and for the IBM Academy of Technology, where he served as chairman of the board of governors. A founding member of the Computer Sciences and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council in 1986, he served as co-chair of the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee from 1997 to 2001. He is a former member of University of Chicago Board of Governors for Argonne National Laboratories, the board of overseers for Fermilab, and BP's Technology Advisory Council. He is a member of the board of directors of Inno360, ID³ and CNRI, the InnoCentive Advisory Board, the Visiting Committee for the Physical Sciences Division at the University of Chicago, and the Advisory Board of USC's Annenberg Innovation Lab. Since his retirement, Wladawsky-Berger has collaborated with IBM colleagues on a number of initiatives, including Cloud Computing and Smarter Planet. In March 2008 he joined Citigroup as a strategic advisor, working on innovation and technology initiatives including the transition to mobile digital money and payments. He also is a visiting lecturer at MIT's Sloan School of Management and Engineering Systems Division; senior fellow at the Levin Institute of the State University of New York; and adjunct professor in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at the Imperial College Business School. Born in Cuba, he came to the U.S. at the age of 15. Wladawsky-Berger was named 2001 Hispanic Engineer of the Year and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He holds master's and doctoral degrees in physics from the University of Chicago.

College of the Liberal Arts
6 p.m. Saturday, May 5, Bryce Jordan Center
Speaker: Arthur J. Nagle, '61, managing director and founding partner, Vestar Capital Partners Inc.
Nagle is a managing director and founding partner of Vestar Capital Partners, Inc., a leading private equity firm headquartered in New York City. He was previously with The First Boston Corporation, where he headed the Private Finance Group for seven years and co-headed the Management Buyout Group for four more. Before that he was a systems engineer at IBM and an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve. A 1961 arts and letters graduate of Penn State, he also earned an MBA in finance from Columbia University's Graduate School of Business. Born and raised in Allentown, Nagle is married with two children and lives in Bronxville, N.Y.
http://laus.la.psu.edu/current-students/commencement/

Eberly College of Science
9 a.m. Saturday, May 5, Bryce Jordan Center
Speaker: Steven Chu, U.S. Secretary of Energy; honorary doctor of science degree recipient
Chu, a distinguished scientist and Nobel laureate, is the former director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and former professor of physics and molecular and cell biology at the University of California. He was co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1997. Before his time at the University of California, he held positions at Stanford University and AT&T Bell Laboratories. He has devoted his recent scientific career to the search for new solutions to energy challenges and stopping global climate change. As U.S. Secretary of Energy, Chu is charged with helping to implement President Barack Obama's goals to invest in clean energy, reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, address global climate change and create jobs in the energy sector. The holder of 10 patents, Chu has published nearly 250 scientific and technical papers. Chu's research in atomic physics, quantum electronics, and polymer and biophysics includes tests of fundamental theories in physics, the development of methods to laser-cool and trap atoms, and the manipulation and study of polymers and biological systems at the single-molecule level. Chu is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Academia Sinica, the Korean Academy of Sciences and Technology and numerous other civic and professional organizations. He received bachelor's degrees in mathematics and physics from the University of Rochester and a doctorate in physics from the University of California. He is the holder of honorary degrees from 16 universities, including Penn State.
http://live.psu.edu/story/58456

The Graduate School
4:30 p.m. Sunday, May 6, Bryce Jordan Center
Speaker: Peter E. Schiffer, associate vice president and director of Strategic Initiatives, Office of the Vice President for Research; professor of Physics, Penn State
Before coming to Penn State, Schiffer held a faculty appointment at the University of Notre Dame from 1995 to 2000 and worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories from 1993 to 1995. He received his undergraduate degree from Yale University in 1988 and his doctoral degree from Stanford University in 1993, both in physics. His research specialty is the physics of materials, with a focus on geometrically frustrated magnets, magnetic semiconductors and oxides, magnetic nanostructures and granular materials. He has published more than 160 papers with more than 6,000 citations and an h-index of 34 as of January 2011. He is the recipient of a Career Award from the National Science Foundation, a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the Army Research Office, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, and the Faculty Scholar Medal in the Physical Sciences and the Joel and Ruth Spira Award for Teaching Excellence from Penn State. He is also a fellow of the American Physical Society. He has served as the chair of the American Physical Society Topical Group on Magnetism and its Applications, program chair of the 2007 Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, and will assume the role of chair of the American Physical Society Division of Materials Physics in 2011.

ROTC Commissioning
-- Air Force ROTC: all day, Friday, May 11, Nittany Lion Inn
-- Army ROTC: 9 a.m. Friday, May 11, Celebration Hall, State College, Pa.
Speaker: Maj. Gen. Mari K. Eder, commanding general, U.S. Army Reserve Joint and Special Troops Support Command (JSTSC), headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah
-- Navy ROTC: 11 a.m. Friday, May 11, Heritage Hall, HUB-Robeson Center

Schreyer Honors College Medals Ceremony
5 p.m. Friday, May 4, Eisenhower Auditorium

Penn State Wilkes-Barre
10 a.m. May 5, Athletics & Recreation Building
Speaker: James V. Reino Jr. ’77, regional director of sales and operations, northeastern and central Pennsylvania, UGI Energy Services Inc.
Reino, a Kingston, Pa., native and 1977 Penn State electrical engineering alumnus, serves as the regional director of sales and operations for UGI Energy Services, where he implements and develops new customer sales programs with his 25 years of energy sales, supply,and operations knowledge. Reino is a civic leader in the Wyoming Valley, serving as chair to the Kingston Township Board as well as the Back Mountain Community Partnership. In addition to his civic leadership, he is a proud Penn State alumnus, serving on the Penn State Wilkes-Barre Advisory Board and as the For The Future campus campaign chair.

Penn State Worthington Scranton
6 p.m. Friday, May 4, Multi-Purpose Building
Speaker: Frank Marcos, retired vice chairman, Deloitte Tax LLP, and leader for tax, OCEO Strategic Client Program
Marcos is a member of Penn State Worthington Scranton's Advisory Board and is actively involved with the campus and its students as a business program mentor. He was a 2012 speaker for its Walsh Lecture Series, which is hosted by the campus each semester for business and information sciences and technology students.

Penn State York
6 p.m. Friday, May 3, Pullo Family Performing Arts Center
Speaker: Frederick Haag '86g, associate professor of visual arts, Penn State York
Since 1987, Haag has taught a variety of classes at Penn State York, including art appreciation, drawing, design and painting. He augments traditional media with design software in the computer lab and has students design logos, ads and other materials for local community organizations. He also encourages his students to create blogs as showcases for their work and to provide a place for ongoing artistic reflection. For the past 14 years, students in his class have created designs for Penn State York's yearly Unity Day celebration. The campus community votes on the student designs and the one selected is featured on a T-shirt to commemorate the annual event, which celebrates diversity. Haag was raised in Pennsylvania and attended the University of the Arts (the Philadelphia College of Art) in Philadelphia, where he graduated with honors in 1984 with a bachelor of fine art in painting and drawing. He earned a master of fine art in painting and drawing from Penn State in 1986. In addition to numerous awards for his artwork, Haag was the 2003 recipient of the James H. Burness Award for Excellence in Teaching at Penn State York and in 2002 was named the recipient of the Penn State York Advising Award for his outstanding work with students. Haag also serves as the adviser to the Penn State York Visual Arts Club. He recently was named a 2012 Penn State Teaching Fellow and a recipient of a University-wide Alumni/Student Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Pennsylvania College of Technology
Community Arts Center, Williamsport
-- Friday, May 11, 3 p.m.: School of Industrial & Engineering Technologies, School of Integrated Studies and School of Natural Resources Management.
-- Saturday, May 12, 10 a.m.: School of Construction & Design Technologies and School of Health Sciences.
-- Saturday, May 12, 1:30 p.m.: School of Business & Computer Technologies, School of Hospitality and School of Transportation Technology.
Speakers: selected from among graduating students.
http://www.pct.edu/commencement/commencement.htm

For details about commencement at University Park, click on the image above. Credit: Annemarie Mountz / Penn StateCreative Commons

Last Updated May 7, 2012

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