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Media Advisory

Office of News and Information
Johns Hopkins University
901 South Bond Street, Suite 540
Baltimore, Maryland 21231
Phone: 443-287-9960 | Fax: 443-287-9920


May 2, 2007
To: Reporters, Editors, Assignment Desks
From: Dennis O'Shea, dro@jhu.edu, and
Amy Lunday, amylunday@jhu.edu
(443) 287-9960
Subject: Johns Hopkins University Commencement — May 17
Baltimore Ravens head coach Brian Billick, legendary musician and producer Quincy Jones, British ambassador to the United States among speakers

Baltimore Ravens Coach Brian Billick will address seniors graduating from The Johns Hopkins University's schools of Arts and Sciences and Engineering at their diploma ceremony at 1:45 p.m. on Thursday, May 17.

The ceremony will take place at Homewood Field, the stadium on the northern end of the university's Homewood campus at 3400 N. Charles St. in Baltimore. There will be a press section for working print and broadcast reporters and photographers on the playing surface of Homewood Field, at stage right [audience left]. Identification is required; prior notification of intention to cover the ceremony is preferred. Limited press parking will be available; please notify us in advance if you need parking. See above for contact information.

Earlier on May 17, university president William R. Brody will speak at the university-wide commencement ceremony. This ceremony will begin at 9:15 a.m. at Homewood Field. Honorary degrees will be awarded at that event to R. Champlin Sheridan Jr., a 1952 graduate and trustee emeritus of the university, and M. Roy Schwarz, a physician, educator and president of the China Medical Board of New York.

Noteworthy speakers at other Johns Hopkins commencement- related events — at various times and locations from Wednesday, May 16 through Friday, May 18 — include Sir David Manning, British ambassador to the United States, who will speak to graduates of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies; legendary musician and producer Quincy Jones, who will speak to graduates of the Peabody Conservatory; and Claire M. Fraser-Liggett, former president of the Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Md., and new director of the Institute of Genome Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who will speak to the master's degree graduates of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. The ceremonies mark the end of the university's 131st academic year. Details on the university's various ceremonies are listed below.

About the Graduating Class

The total number of earned degrees, certificates and diplomas awarded is expected to be about 6,348, as follows: 1,512 bachelor degrees (including 1,049 seniors graduating from the schools of Arts and Sciences and Engineering at the Homewood campus); 3,863 master's degrees, 531 doctoral degrees (122 of which are medical degrees); and 442 certificates and diplomas.

About the Ceremonies

The university as a whole and its nine academic divisions will hold the following commencement events:

William R. Brody

University-wide Commencement Ceremony
Thursday, May 17, 9:15 a.m. to approximately noon, Homewood Field, Homewood campus.
Speaker: William R. Brody, president, The Johns Hopkins University. During this ceremony, all university degrees are conferred by the university president. The only graduates who receive their diplomas at this time, however, are doctoral students. The ceremony also recognizes new members of the Society of Scholars. At this time, two honorary degrees of doctor of humane letters also will be awarded. [See above for details on honorary degree recipients].


Brian Billick

Arts and Sciences/Engineering Undergraduate Diploma Ceremony
Thursday, May 17, 1:45 p.m., Homewood Field, Homewood campus.
Speaker: Baltimore Ravens Coach Brian Billick, who led the team to a Super Bowl championship in 2000. During this ceremony, an anticipated 1,049 seniors from the schools of Arts and Sciences and Engineering, who will officially have graduated when degrees were conferred in the morning ceremony, cross the stage to shake hands with the president. Afterwards, they receive their diplomas. Billick was invited by the senior class. A bio of Billick is available here.


John M. Barry

Bloomberg School of Public Health Convocation Ceremony
Wednesday, May 16, 2 p.m., Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Cathedral and Preston Streets.
Speaker: John M. Barry, author and distinguished visiting scholar at the Center for Bioenvironmental Research of Tulane and Xavier universities. He is the author of The Ambition and the Power: A True Story of Washington, The Transformed Cell and Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, which was named a "notable book of the year" by The New York Times and "best nonfiction of the year" by The Los Angeles Times. A bio of Barry is available online here.


Frannie A. Leautier

G.W.C. Whiting School of Engineering Graduate Ceremony
Wednesday, May 16, 7 p.m. Homewood Field, Homewood campus.
Speaker: Frannie A. Leautier, managing partner, The Fezembat Group in Castelnau de Montmiral, France. She started the Fezembat Group, which helps clients understand and manage risks, particularly in emerging markets, after a 15-year tenure at the World Bank, where she held various positions, including vice president of the World Bank Institute. Leautier's passion for development and her commitment to the power of knowledge and learning began early in her youth in Tanzania and have been the hallmarks of her work.


Atul Gawande

The School of Medicine Diploma Award Ceremony
Thursday, May 17, 2:30 p.m., Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Cathedral and Preston Streets.
Speaker: Atul Gawande, assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health. His research focuses on problems at the intersection of surgery and public health, with emphasis on error in surgery, establishing its frequency and seriousness and revealing underlying mechanisms. He also writes the "Notes of a Surgeon" column for the New England Journal of Medicine and has been a staff writer for the New Yorker magazine since 1998. Gawande's bio is online here.


Sir David Manning

Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies Diploma Award Ceremony
Thursday, May 17, 3 p.m., Constitution Hall, 18th and D Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C.
Speaker: Sir David Manning, British ambassador to the United States and 1972 SAIS Bologna Center graduate. His resume is online here.


Carol A. Romano

School of Nursing Diploma and Award Ceremony
Wednesday, May 16, 9 a.m., the Francis Merrick Performing Arts Center (Hippodrome) 12 N. Eutaw Street.
Speaker: Rear Admiral Carol A. Romano, chief nurse officer of the U.S. Public Health Service. Romano provides leadership and coordination of Public Health Service nursing affairs for the Office of the Surgeon General. She is a pioneer in the field of nursing informatics, having been involved in designing and implementing one of the first computerized medical information systems in 1976. She was a co-architect of the world's first graduate curriculum in nursing informatics at the University of Maryland, where she earned her doctoral degree in 1993. Her bio is online here.


Stanley C. Gabor

The Carey Business School and the School of Education Undergraduate and Graduate Diploma Award Ceremony
Thursday, May 17, 7:30 p.m. Homewood Field, Homewood campus.
Speaker: Stanley C. Gabor, dean emeritus of the former School of Professional Studies in Business and Education, which in January became two separate schools — the Carey Business School and the School of Education. [Note: This will be the last commencement ceremony shared between the two schools.] Gabor became dean in 1982 after spending 20 years at New York University. Under his leadership, the School of Professional Studies grew to become one of the largest at Johns Hopkins, serving more than 4,500 students. He led the implementation of the Leadership Development Program for Minority Managers, the Business of Medicine Program, and the Public Safety Executive Leadership Program, and is credited with development of the university's Downtown Center. In addition, Gabor has been consultant to universities including Harvard, Columbia, Rice, Penn and Virginia. Gabor holds advanced degrees in history and law from New York University. He retired as dean in 1999.


Quincy Jones

The Peabody Conservatory Diploma Award Ceremony
Thursday, May 17, 7:30 p.m., Friedberg Hall, Peabody Institute, 1 E. Mount Vernon Place.
Speaker: Quincy Jones, the most Grammy-nominated artist of all-time with 79 nominations (he has won 27). Jones has produced both the best-selling album of all-time (Michael Jackson's Thriller) and the best-selling single of all-time (We Are the World), scored 34 major motion pictures, and in 2001, he added the title "best-selling author" to his list of accomplishments when his autobiography Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones entered the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal best-sellers lists. A bio for Jones is online here.


Claire M. Fraser-
Liggett

Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Master's Diploma Award Ceremony
Friday, May 18, 10 a.m., Homewood Field, Homewood campus.
Speaker: Claire M. Fraser-Liggett, former president of the Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Md., and newly appointed director of the University of Maryland School of Medicine Institute of Genome Sciences. Leader of the teams that sequenced the genomes of several microbial organisms, Fraser has helped initiate the era of comparative genomics. Her research interests include whole genome sequence analysis of microbial genomes, and the use of genomic-based approaches to elucidate differences in gene expression. Information on Fraser-Liggett is available at here.



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