What do a celebrated inventor, a respected CEO and business industry leader and an award-winning actress and playwright have in common? They will all be among the accomplished individuals receiving honorary degrees and providing keynote addresses this weekend during DePaul University’s 108th commencement ceremonies.

Seven colleges and schools will be conferring degrees during ceremonies June 10 and 11.

June 10 Ceremonies will be held at the Civic Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago:

June 10, 8:30 a.m. School of Education:

The former dean of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education and director of the National Institute of Education, Patricia Albjerg Graham is one of the nation’s top education historians and a prolific author who has explored ways of improving America’s schools. Her work across a variety of educational disciplines led to her appointment in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter as director of the National Institute of Education.

June 10, 11:30 a.m. School of Music and The Theatre School:

Charlayne Woodard is an award-winning writer and actress who has pioneered a trail of independence and accomplishment in the competitive fields of film, television and theater while also writing stories on the African-American woman’s experience. She has received major acclaim for a series of semi-autobiographical, emotionally charged theatrical works that address issues confronting African-American women, including “Pretty Fire,” “Neat” and “Flight.”

June 10, 2:30 p.m. School for New Learning:

Ronne Hartfield is a poet, writer and leader in arts education and administration who has garnered an international reputation for her dedicated commitment to the ennobling power of the arts. During the course of her career, Hartfield has led Urban Gateways, one the most important arts education and outreach organizations in Chicago. She also oversaw cultural outreach and education programs for the Art Institute of Chicago.

June 11 Ceremonies will be held at Allstate Arena, 6920 N. Mannheim Road, Rosemont, Ill.:

June 11, 8:30 a.m. College of Commerce:

John W. Rowe, chairman and CEO of Exelon Corp., has not only helped the Chicago-based utility holding company survive, but has catapulted it to the top tier of its industry. Forbes magazine ranked Exelon as the No. 1 utility company in 2005 for the second year in a row. As the head of the nation’s largest provider of nuclear-generated electricity, Rowe is a leader in the drive to develop further the nation’s capacity for safe and affordable atomic power. Rowe has also distinguished himself in Chicago’s cultural community where he serves on numerous boards, chairing the board of the Chicago History Museum.

Also receiving honorary degrees (though not presenting formal addresses) from the College of Commerce are James M. Jenness and Jagdish Bhagwati.

Jenness is chairman and CEO of the Kellogg Co., the world’s leading breakfast cereal producer which marks its 100th anniversary this year. Jenness began his long association with Kellogg while working at the advertising agency of Leo Burnett. A native of Chicago, Jenness received both his bachelor's degree (cum laude) in marketing and his MBA from DePaul.

Bhagwati is known globally as one of the world’s leading experts on international trade. He has provided a guiding hand in many of the most significant international trade developments of recent decades, and his research has helped lay the intellectual groundwork for major reforms in a number of global economies, most notably in his native India. In a body of work that has spanned 50 years and has produced more than 50 volumes and 300 articles, Bhagwati has distinguished himself as one of the most influential economic theorists of his time.

Among those graduating are 32 students from the Czech Republic who have completed their studies in DePaul’s MBA program in Prague, which is offered in partnership with Czech Management Center. Students in the program take their final course at DePaul’s business school in Chicago and participate in commencement with the university’s other MBA students.

June 11, Noon, School of Computer Sciences, Telecommunications and Information Systems (CTI):

Ray Kurzweil is founder and president of Massachusetts-based Kurzweil Technologies and is a visionary inventor and business leader whose pioneering work has drawn comparisons to Edison. An innovative and prolific inventor since his teens, Kurzweil’s print-to-speech reading machine developed in 1976 was hailed as the greatest advancement for the blind since the development of Braille nearly 150 years earlier.

June 11, 3:30 p.m. College of Liberal Arts & Sciences (LA&S):

Arnold Mitchem is the first and remains the only president of the Washington-based Council for Opportunity in Education, which this year is marking its 25th anniversary as one of the nation’s leading advocacy organizations for low-income and disabled American students. Under Mitchem’s leadership, this nonprofit council has helped move the federal government to increase by 400 percent the amount of TRIO higher education funding that is made available by the U.S. Department of Education to students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Also receiving honorary degrees from the LA&S are William E. and Mary Pat Gannon Hay, longtime supporters of DePaul and numerous other philanthropic and cultural organizations around Chicago and the nation. William is the founder and president of William E. Hay & Co., a leading management consulting firm specializing in organizational design, strategy, structure and senior executive selection to the manufacturing, service and not-for-profit sectors. Mary Pat has had a guiding hand in numerous organizations, most notably the Mercy Home for Boys and Girls, where she chaired its board of directors from 1990 to 1998 and doubled its capacity.

DePaul College of Law commencement ceremonies were held May 21 at the Civic Opera House. The Hon. Charles P. Kocoras, chief judge for the U.S. District Court of Northern Illinois, received an honorary degree and addressed the graduates. Appointed to the federal judiciary by President Jimmy Carter in 1980, Kocoras earned earned a reputation as a tough but fair-minded and personable jurist in more than a quarter-century’s service on the bench. An alumnus of DePaul, he was elevated to the position of chief judge of the district court in 2002. In addition, Samuel K. Skinner, former chief of staff to President George H.W. Bush, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, and U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, also received an honorary degree, which his wife accepted on his behalf. Skinner is a 1966 DePaul College of Law graduate.

With a total enrollment of 23,148 students on two city and four suburban campuses, DePaul is the largest Catholic university in the United States, the tenth-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.

Note: To view Webcasts of DePaul's Commencement during or after the ceremonies, visit the DePaul Academic Affairs Web site.