Blues musician B.B. King and the presidents of three New Orleans universities are among those who will receive honorary degrees this year at Commencement, University officials announced Wednesday.
Scott Cowen of Tulane University, Norman Francis of Xavier University and Marvalene Hughes of Dillard University will each receive an honorary degree "in recognition of their determination and leadership following Hurricane Katrina," according to a University press release.
Other honorary degree recipients include sportscaster Chris Berman '77 P'08, actress Kate Burton '79, Professor Emeritus of Medical Science Stanley Aronson, Pulitzer prize-winning author Samantha Power and Nobel Prize-winning researcher Craig Mello '82, who will give the baccalaureate address May 26.
Stanley AronsonThe dean of Brown's medical school from its founding in 1970 until 1981, when he was named a University professor, Aronson worked with other physicians and local clergy to establish Hospice Care Rhode Island, the state's first hospice program, serving as its first president from 1989 to 1991.
Aronson has also served as president of the Interfaith Care Ministries and has worked to incorporate hospice and palliative care into the medical curriculum. Aronson is an editor emeritus of the Medicine and Health of Rhode Island Journal.
Chris Berman '77 P'08 P'09Named National Sportscaster of the Year six times, Berman is one of the most popular and recognizable faces in sports broadcasting. A studio host, anchor and commentator for ESPN, which he joined shortly after his graduation from Brown, Berman has been the face of the cable channel from its quiet inception in 1979 to its current status as the premier 24-hour sports network.
Now a nine-time Emmy award-winner, Berman got his start at WBRU as an undergraduate, where he called basketball, football, ice hockey and baseball games. Known for his enthusiastic play-by-play and characteristic catchphrases, Berman has covered 20 World Series and 24 Super Bowls.
Kate Burton '79Best known for her role as Dr. Ellis Grey on ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," Burton has performed on stage, television and film for 25 years. Nominated three times for Tony awards and once for an Emmy award, Burton has served on the council of the Actors' Equity Association. She has also served as a visiting professor at the Brown University/Trinity Repertory Consortium.
Burton began rehearsals for her first of 10 Broadway shows, "Present Laughter," one day after her graduation from Brown and attended the Yale School of Drama.
Scott CowenThe 14th president of Tulane University, Cowen led the New Orleans university through the crisis of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, when much of Tulane's campus was flooded and its students dispersed across the nation. Under Cowen's leadership, the campus was repaired, and 87 percent of students returned to the university in January 2006. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin appointed Cowen to the city's Bring New Orleans Back commission with the task of rebuilding the public school system. Tulane has since chartered a K-12 school in the city and created an Institute for Public Education Initiatives to support further transformation of the school system.
Norman FrancisCurrently the longest-serving university president in the United States, Francis became president of Xavier University in 1968. In addition to leading the rebuilding of Xavier in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Francis was appointed by Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco as chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority. In December 2006, Francis was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award.
Marvalene HughesThe first woman to serve as president of Dillard University, Hughes is leading the university's recovery from more than $400 million in damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. Before coming to Dillard, which is President Ruth Simmons' alma mater, Hughes served as president of California State University, Stanislaus, for 11 years.
Riley "B.B." KingKing was named the greatest living guitarist by Rolling Stone magazine in 2003. A 14-time Grammy winner, he has won for Best Traditional Blues Album nine times, most recently in 2006 at the age of 80. He received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987. Since he first began recording in 1947, King has influenced generations of guitarists and has released more than 50 albums.
Craig Mello '82Mello, a Howard Hughes investigator at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Andrew Fire of Stanford University for their discovery of RNA interference, a phenomenon they documented in a landmark 1998 paper that has significantly affected research efforts worldwide.
Mello and Fire's discovery, which revealed "gene silencing," has allowed researchers to study gene regulation by controlling the expression of specific genes and has therapeutic implications for genetic diseases.
Mello, who was a biochemistry concentrator as an undergraduate, is a native of Fairfax, Va., and now lives in Shrewsbury, Mass. He will also deliver the baccalaureate address May 26, the day before the Commencement exercises.
Samantha PowerPower, a human rights activist, is a professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Her book, "A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide," won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction as well as other awards. Power won the 2005 National Magazine Award for best reporting for an article in the New Yorker on Darfur.
Power, who moved to the United States from Ireland at the age of nine, was the founding executive director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. She is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School.
