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News Release: Pace Commencements to Honor NPR Journalist, Chilean Ambassador, IBM Innovator & Head of Asia Society

Posted By: Cara Cea
Date: April-10-2009
News Release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contacts: Chris Cory, 212-346-1117, 917-608-8164, ccory@pace.edu Bill Caldwell, 212-346-1567, wcaldwell@pace.edu Cara Halstead Cea, 914-906-9680 or 845-642-4051, chalstead@pace.edu NPR LAW JOURNALIST, SUCCESSFUL OPPONENT OF CHILEAN DICTATOR, IBM INNOVATION LEADER AND HEAD OF ASIA SOCIETY TO ADDRESS PACE UNIVERSITY 2009 COMMENCEMENTS NPR correspondent Nina Totenberg will address Law School graduates May 17 Nicholas Donofrio, recently-retired IBM EVP of innovation and technology, to speak to Westchester undergrads May 18 Chilean ambassador to UN to talk to New York City undergraduates May 20 in AM Vishakha Desai, president of Asia Society to address graduate students May 20 in afternoon NEW YORK, NY, April 10, 2009 – Influential leaders from media, science and world affairs in the US, Chile and Asia make up this year’s list of commencement speakers at Pace University’s ceremonies. Media admission is by press pass. SCHEDULE AND HONORARY DEGREE RECIPIENTS: Westchester Ceremonies Law School Sunday, May 17, 2009, 10:00 a.m. Pace University Law School, 78 North Broadway, White Plains, NY Nina Totenberg, Correspondent, Legal Affairs, Washington Desk, National Public Radio. Honorary Doctor of Laws In thirty-four years with NPR, Totenberg has reported stories that have drawn national attention, including Anita Hill’s allegations of sexual harassment by now-Justice Clarence Thomas, which caused the Senate Judiciary Committee to reopen the confirmation hearings. Named twice as one of the "Women We Love" by Esquire magazine, her broadcasts for NPR make significant Supreme Court rulings accessible to the public. Westchester Undergraduate Monday, May 18, 2009, 11:00 a.m. Ann & Alfred Goldstein Health and Fitness Center, Pleasantville Campus, 861 Bedford Rd., Pleasantville, NY, entrance # 3 Nicholas Donofrio, IBM Fellow, (Retired) Executive Vice President, Innovation and Technology, IBM Corporation, Honorary Doctor of Science Donofrio created and led the research and development staff that made it possible for IBM to generate more U.S. patents than any other company for each of the last 16 years, and has been an architect of the world’s information technology landscape in areas from logic and memory chips to storage technologies, personal computers, IBM's family of servers, and supercomputers. In 2005, Mr. Donofrio was appointed by the U.S. Department of Education to serve on the Commission on the Future of Higher Education. New York City Ceremonies Radio City Music Hall, Avenue of the Americas (6th Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets) New York Undergraduate Commencement Wednesday, May 20, 10:30 a.m. Radio City Music Hall Ambassador Heraldo Munoz, Permanent Representative of Chile to the United Nations and Chairman of the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission, Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Muñoz founded the Party for Democracy and under enormous stress helped defeat General Augusto Pinochet in 1988. As Chile’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Relations he was the chief negotiator of the country’s trade agreement with the European Union. At the UN, he has served on the Security Council and chaired a special committee on sanctions against Al Qaeda, recording reflections in a recent book, A Solitary War: A Diplomat’s Chronicle of the Iraq War and its Lessons. The most recent of more than a dozen books was published last year and is titled The Dictator’s Shadow: Life under Augusto Pinochet. The Washington Post listed it among the best books of 2008, calling it “meticulous and vivid, … a compelling personal account of life in a police state and a strong reminder of how far Chile has come.” Westchester & New York combined Graduate Ceremonies Wednesday, May 20, 4:00 p.m. Radio City Music Hall Vishakha Desai, President, Asia Society, Doctor of Humane Letters Vishakha Desai, chosen in 2007 by Crain’s New York as one of the “100 most influential women in New York City business,” is the first woman and first Asian-American to become the President and CEO of Asia Society. A noted historian of Asian art, she has expanded the society’s branches in Asia and demonstrated its influence by having it chosen as the location of Hillary Clinton’s first major speech after becoming Secretary of State as well as having hosted President George W. Bush, Indian Prime Minister Mammohan Singh, Chinese President Hu Jintao and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan. Thinking professionals. For 103 years Pace University has produced thinking professionals by providing high quality professional education resting on a firm base of liberal learning, amid the advantages of the New York metropolitan area. A private university, Pace has campuses in New York City and Westchester County, New York, enrolling nearly 13,000 students in bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs in its Lubin School of Business, Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, Lienhard School of Nursing, School of Education, School of Law, and Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems. www.pace.edu ###