Over 2,000 students will participate in graduation ceremonies May 8 and 9. It is a longstanding tradition for AU to hold the commencement addresses on Mother’s Day, according to University Communications. Two weeks later, 500 Washington College of Law students will hold their commencement ceremonies. All will occur in Bender Arena. Thanks to University Communications for providing this information to The Eagle. You can see their full story here.
Eric H. Holder Jr.
Attorney General of the United States
Honorary Doctor of Laws
Speaker, Washington College of Law
Eric H. Holder Jr., is the 82nd Attorney General of the United States and first black man to serve in the post. Nominated by President Barack Obama on Dec. 1, 2008, he was sworn in on Feb. 3, 2009 by Vice President Joe Biden.
In 1997, President Bill Clinton appointed Holder as the deputy attorney general, making him the first black man to hold that position as well.
Previous to these positions, he served as U.S. Attorney for D.C., and in 1988 he was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to become an associate judge of the Superior Court of the D.C.
Holder graduated from Columbia College in 1973 and then earned his law degree from Columbia Law School.
Janet Napolitano
Secretary of Homeland Security
Honorary Doctor of Public Service
Speaker, College of Arts and Sciences
Janet Napolitano is the current Secretary of Homeland Security under President Barack Obama. Napolitano was governor of Arizona from 2003 to 2009. Before serving as governor, Napolitano was attorney general for Arizona from 1999 to 2002. Napolitano is the third secretary of Homeland Security and the first woman to hold the position.
Napolitano was born in New York City and grew up in Pennsylvania and New Mexico. She graduated from Santa Clara University and received her Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law. Napolitano also served as a clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and practiced law in Phoenix at the firm of Lewis and Roca before entering politics.
Napolitano recently came under fire for her handling of the attempted terrorist attack on a Northwest Airlines flight approaching Detroit, Michigan on Christmas Day last year. Napolitano at first said that "the [security] system worked" at the airport, but she later recanted and admitted "the system failed."
Michelle Bachelet
First female president of Chile
Honorary Doctor of International Affairs
Speaker, School of International Service
Michelle Bachelet, a University of Chile alumna, was the first female president of Chile and served in office from March 11, 2006 through March 11, 2010. Bachelet has received several notable honors. In 2008, Bachelet was ranked 15th of the world's 100 most influential people by TIME magazine and in 2009 as number 22 of the world's 100 most powerful women by Forbes magazine.
Before her presidential term, Bachelet served as health minister and defense minister under Chiléan president Ricardo Lagos. She is a socialist and she speaks five languages - Spanish, English, German, Portuguese and French. She lived in Bethesda as a child before moving to Chile.
Donna E. Shalala
President of the University of Miami
Honorary Doctor of Public Service
Speaker, School of Public Affairs
Donna E. Shalala has been the president of the University of Miami since 2001.
Shalala served for eight years as Secretary of Health and Human Services from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton.
Shalala was born in 1941 and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. She graduated from West Tech High School and got her bachelor's degree from Western College for Women in 1962. Shalala joined the Peace Corps right after graduation and was stationed in Iran until 1964. When Shalala returned to the United States, she received a master's and doctoral degree from Syracuse University.
In 2007 Shalala was appointed by President George W. Bush to co-head the "President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors" with Bob Dole. President George W. Bush gave her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in June 2008.
Seth Goldman
Cofounder, President and TeaEO of Honest Tea
Honorary Doctor of Laws
Speaker, Kogod School of Business
The president and self-proclaimed TeaEO of Honest Tea, Seth Goldman has come a long way from the lemonade stands of his childhood. In 1998, he and a professor from Yale's School of Management co-founded his environmentally-friendly beverage company in his kitchen. Since then, the company has blossomed. In 2008, Coca-Cola bought a minority interest.
Before launching Honest Tea, Goldman's career took him from managing a corporate initiative to counter child labor for the Calvert Foundation to working as Senator Lloyd Bentsen's Deputy Press Secretary and even stints in Beijing and Moscow.
Goldman is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute and was named Ernst & Young's 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year for the Mid-Atlantic region.
Barbara Kopple
Academy Award winning filmmaker
Doctor of Humane Letters
Speaker, School of Communication
Academy Award winning film director Barbara Kopple, a Northeastern University alumna, is known for her documentaries but has also produced feature films and directed episodes of some television series.
She directed documentaries about Gregory Peck, Mike Tyson and Woody Allen and directed "Bearing Witness," a 2005 film about five female reporters and their experiences working in Iraq during the war. She won the "Best Documentary" Oscar for her 1990 documentary, "American Dream." She also won the "Best Documentary" Oscar for her 1976 documentary, "Harlan County, U.S.A." Kopple has also directed a feature film — "Havoc" — starring Anne Hathaway and Bijou Phillips. She currently directs documentary-style commercial advertisements for Target.
Images from MCT Campus, Honest Tea and the Woodstock Film Festival.
