Creator, Host of "America's Most Wanted" to Receive Honorary Degree at UB's 157th Commencement May 11

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- State University of New York Chancellor Robert L. King will speak at the University at Buffalo's 157th general commencement ceremony, to be held at 10 a.m. May 11 in Alumni Arena on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

Some 6,800 students are candidates to receive degrees during the general commencement and 13 other ceremonies to be held May 9-11 and on May 23.

UB's highest award, the Chancellor Charles P. Norton Medal, will be presented at the general commencement ceremony to UB President William R. Greiner.

Receiving an honorary degrees from the State University of New York will be John Walsh, UB alumnus and creator and host of Fox's "America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back" television show.

Also receiving SUNY honorary degrees at UB commencement ceremonies will be Joseph P. Allen, pioneering physicist and astronaut, who will receive a doctor of science degree at the commencement ceremony of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences on May 10, and Elizabeth P. Olmsted Ross, path-breaking ophthalmologist, clinician and inventor, who will receive a doctor of science degree at the commencement of the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences on May 23.

In addition to King, Greiner also will speak at the general commencement ceremony, as will graduating senior Jason P. Litwak.

Greiner and Provost Elizabeth D. Capaldi will confer degrees.

Thirty-six students will be recognized during the general commencement.

Recipients of the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence are Geoffrey S. Andrews, Rebecca L. Ashare, Sara M. Center, Pamela A. Cocol, Jennifer E. Drake, Hedva Krauze, Crystal R. Oliver and Danielle L. Sheather.

Jenelle A. Callender will receive the Division of Student Affairs Senior Leadership Award.

Twenty-eight graduates will receive the College of Arts and Sciences Dean's Outstanding Senior Awards. The students and their departments of study are Alva B. McFarland, African American studies; Taylor E. Chamberlain, American studies; Robert Roeder, anthropology; Clifford L. Borress, art; Julia E. Roberts, art history; Stefanie A. Miller, biological sciences; Brooks R. Bohall, chemistry.

Also, Marissa T. Valetich, classics; Melissa S. Fuerch, communicative disorders and sciences; Cheekoon Tan, economics; Sara M. Center, English; William E. Gunter, Jr., geography; Laura E. Gilcrist, geology; Matthew J. Schrantz, history.

Also, Catherine M. Hummel, interdisciplinary degree programs; Mark P. Josef, linguistics; Steven A. Kieffer, mathematics; Jennifer S. Roth, media study; Satoshi Takagi, music; Darla S. Martin-Gorski, philosophy; Jeffrey A. Delmerico, physics.

Also, Elizabeth Fox-Solomon, political science; Rebecca L. Ashare, psychology; Molly J. Giblin, romance languages and literatures; Janelle M. Fleck, sociology; Breckglyn R. Miller, special major; Chelsea M. Warren, theatre and dance, and Lindsey M. Bonadonna, women's studies.

Vocalist at the general commencement will be Kimberly S. Grant.

A determined advocate for victims' rights since his young son was abducted and murdered in 1981, Walsh will receive a doctor of humane letters at the general commencement.

Walsh's extraordinary commitment led to two Missing Children's Acts, as well as to the founding of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Adam Walsh Child Resource Center and the Charles B. Wang International Children's Building, which is the first national center devoted to helping missing children and their families.

He has proposed a set of constitutional "victims' rights amendments" that would guarantee more rights for crime victims, and he has received numerous accolades from such national law enforcement organizations as the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice.

Allen has been expanding the frontiers of information systems technology for more than three decades. After earning a master's degree and a doctorate in physics from Yale University, he joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1967. At NASA, he worked as an assistant mission controller for Apollo 13 and as a mission controller for Apollo 15 and 17 before serving as a member of the support crew for the first orbital flight-test of the Space Transportation System. In 1982, Allen explored the space frontier as a mission specialist on the Columbia space shuttle. As chairman of Veridian and a board member of the Calspan UB Research Center (CUBRC), he has played a key role in promoting UB's excellence in the areas of information systems and technology transfer.

Olmsted Ross, M.D. '39, who is numbered among the nation's first women pilots, is one of UB's most distinguished alumni and one of Western New York's most dedicated philanthropists. For six decades, she has channeled her expertise into programs for the visually impaired, from instituting company safety goggles and making large-print books available in public schools to organizing vision-testing programs in Buffalo preschools.

Awarded a Lifetime Medical Alumna Achievement Award, Olmsted Ross has placed her alma mater at the forefront of vision research with the establishment of the Ira G. Ross and Elizabeth P. Olmsted Ross, M.D., Chair in Ophthalmology in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

In addition to the general commencement, UB will hold 13 other commencement ceremonies:

o Graduate School of Education, 9 a.m., May 9, Center for the Arts, North Campus. The speaker will be Johanna Duncan-Poiter, deputy commissioner in the Office of Higher Education in the Office of Professions in the New York State Department of Education. Kerry S. Grant, vice provost for academic affairs and dean of the Graduate School, will confer degrees.

o Graduate School, 1 p.m., May 9, Center for the Arts. Uday P. Sukhatme, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, will speak; Capaldi will confer degrees.

o School of Informatics, 9 a.m., May 10, Alumni Arena, North Campus. W. David Penniman, dean of the School of Informatics, will speak. Senior Vice Provost Kenneth J. Levy will confer degrees.

o School of Social Work, 9 a.m., May 10, Center for the Arts. Faith L. Hoffman, MSW '93, women veterans' program manager and domestic violence program coordinator at the Buffalo VA Medical Center, will speak. Greiner will confer degrees.

o School of Nursing, 9 a.m., May 10, Slee Concert Hall, North Campus. Colleen Murphy Miller, DNS '97, MS '91, nurse practitioner in the Department of Neurology and the William C. Baird Multiple Sclerosis Research Center at the Kaleida Health's Buffalo General Hospital, will speak. Margaret W. Paroski, interim vice president for health affairs and interim dean of the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, will confer degrees.

o School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 1 p.m., May 10, Alumni Arena. Dean Mark H. Karwan will speak; Greiner will confer degrees.

o Law School, 1 p.m., May 10, Center for the Arts. The Hon. Sonia Sotomayor, judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, will speak. Grant will confer degrees.

o School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 1 p.m., May 10, Slee Concert Hall. Dean Wayne K. Anderson will speak; Paroski will confer degrees.

o School of Architecture and Planning, 2 p.m., May 10, Hayes Hall lawn, South Campus. Dean Brian Carter will speak; Levy will confer degrees.

o School of Management, 5 p.m., May 10, Alumni Arena. Dean John M. Thomas will speak; Greiner will confer degrees.

o School of Public Health and Health Professions, 5 p.m., May 10, Center for the Arts. State Sen. Mary Lou Rath will speak; Levy will confer degrees.

o School of Dental Medicine, 2 p.m., May 11, Center for the Arts. William R. Calnon, president of the New York State Dental Association, will speak; Paroski will confer degrees.

o School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, 2 p.m., May 23, Center for the Arts. Rep. Louise M. Slaughter will speak; Greiner will confer degrees.