Veteran Broadcaster, Top Legal and Business Minds to Address Graduates

DePaul University, the nation’s largest Catholic university, has announced its lineup of speakers for its 2005 commencement ceremonies, the 107th exercises in the school’s history. Seven DePaul colleges and schools will award diplomas to approximately 4,500 students during ceremonies to be held this weekend, June 11-12.

Here is the lineup of ceremonies and speakers:

June 11, 8:30 a.m., DePaul School of Education Commencement: The Honorable Anne M. Burke, Justice with the Illinois Appellate Court, First District, will receive an honorary degree at the Civic Opera House. A noted advocate for children, Burke has served on the Appellate Court since 1996, after sitting on the Illinois Supreme Court and serving as the state’s Special Counsel for child welfare services. She also co-founded the Chicago Special Olympics, and serves as a DePaul University trustee.

June 11, 9 a.m., Barat College of DePaul Commencement: Sylvia Nasar, author of the bestselling book, "A Beautiful Mind," will receive an honorary degree at the ceremony. The book, which tells the story of mathematician John Nash, won the 1999 National Book Critics Circle Award and was later adapted into an Oscar-winning movie starring Russell Crowe. Nasar, a former New York Times economics reporter and Pulitzer Prize finalist, currently serves as Knight Chair in Business Journalism at Columbia University in New York. The commencement ceremony for Barat College of DePaul will take place on the Barat Front Lawn, 700 E. Westleigh Road, Lake Forest, Ill.

June 11, 11:30 a.m., Combined DePaul School of Music and Theatre School Commencements: William Mason, general director for the internationally-acclaimed Lyric Opera of Chicago, will receive an honorary degree during the ceremony at the Civic Opera House. A Chicago native, Mason has served as general director since 1997 and has worked with the Lyric Opera for more than four decades. With more than 37,000 subscribers, the Lyric Opera has sold out its schedule completely for the past 14 seasons and celebrated its 50th anniversary this season.

June 11, 2:30 p.m., DePaul School for New Learning Commencement: Pamela Tate, president of the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL), will receive an honorary degree during the ceremony at the Civic Opera House. CAEL is a national, non-profit educational organization committed to expanding lifelong learning opportunities for adults and advancing experiential learning and its assessment. Internationally recognized for facilitating workforce education programs, Tate has served on numerous education governing boards.

June 12, 8:30 a.m., DePaul School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems (CTI) Commencement: The commencement ceremony for DePaul CTI will be held at Allstate Arena, 6920 N. Mannheim Road, Rosemont, Ill. No speaker is scheduled.

June 12, Noon, DePaul College of Commerce Commencement: Two business industry leaders will receive honorary degrees at the ceremony at Allstate Arena. Leo Melamed, chairman emeritus and senior policy advisor for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, will speak to graduates at the event. Melamed is recognized as the founder of financial futures markets, and in 1999, the Chicago Tribune named him one of the 20th century’s 10 most important Chicagoans in business. A Holocaust survivor and refugee from Poland, Melamed was appointed to the Council of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by President George H.W. Bush in 1992.

Howard Goss, former CEO and chairman of the board of Transco, Inc., also will receive an honorary degree at the ceremony. Goss is a Chicago success story, with five decades of service and leadership in the Chicago business community and numerous charitable endeavors. He is currently the chairman of the Board of Trustees of Adler Planetarium. He has shared his time, expertise and assets through the Howard & Roberta Goss Scholarship Fund and the Campaign for Accounting Excellence. A DePaul trustee since 1988, Goss also received his bachelor’s degree from DePaul.

June 12, 3:30 p.m., DePaul College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LA&S) Commencement: John Callaway, legendary broadcast journalist and former host of WTTW’s "Chicago Tonight" program, will speak to graduates and receive an honorary degree during the ceremony at Allstate Arena. For more than half a century, Callaway has told Chicago’s story through the famed City News Bureau, WBBM-TV and radio, WTTW, and numerous documentaries. The founding director of the William Benton Fellowships in Broadcast Journalism program at the University of Chicago, Callaway’s broadcast journalism work has been honored with more than 100 awards, including the Peabody Award, 16 Emmys and election to the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame.

Harrison I. Steans, chairman of Financial Investments Corp. and a generous benefactor of service learning programs, also will receive an honorary degree at the ceremony. In addition to a long, successful career in banking, Steans has devoted much of his time to philanthropy. He founded the Steans Family Foundation in 1991, and is chairman of the I Have a Dream Foundation/Chicago. He also is past president and life trustee of the Ravinia Festival Association, director of the Ounce of Prevention Fund and trustee of the Carnegie Council for Ethics and International Affairs. He has been a member of DePaul’s Board of Trustees since 1990, and in 2001 Steans committed $5 million to establish and endow the Irwin W. Steans Center for Community-based Service Learning at DePaul. The Steans Center offers more than 125 courses serving about 1,800 students and 100 community organizations annually. In part because of his gift and his involvement, DePaul was named as one of the nation’s 23 stellar programs in service learning by U.S. News & World Report in its annual college rankings issue, "America’s Best Colleges" in 2004 and 2005.

With a total enrollment of 23,570 students on two city and five suburban campuses, DePaul is the eighth-largest private university in the United States and the largest private educational institution in Chicago. DePaul is an innovative and diverse university offering pragmatic educational programs that instill values, including a commitment to community service.