Bennis, Gross to Receive Honorary Degrees

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Former University at Buffalo administrator Warren Bennis, an internationally known expert in leadership, and National Public Radio (NPR) personality and UB alumna Terry Gross have been selected to receive honorary degrees from the State University of New York.

Bennis will receive a doctor of humane letters at UB's 161st general commencement ceremony on May 13. Gross will receive a doctor of humane letters during a luncheon on June 13 in the Jacobs Executive Development Center, 672 Delaware Ave., Buffalo. Later that day, she will do a live call-in show on WBFO-FM 88.7.

Bennis, who the Financial Times called "the professor who established leadership as a respectable academic field," is on the faculty of the University of Southern California, where he serves as University Professor, Distinguished Professor of Business Administration and founding chairman of the Leadership Institute. He also is chair of the advisory board of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University's Kennedy School. He is visiting professor of leadership at the University of Exeter (U.K.) and a senior fellow at UCLA's School of Public Policy and Social Research.

A World War II veteran who was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star, Bennis began his career in academic leadership at UB, serving as provost and executive vice president from 1967-71. A former member of the faculty at Harvard, Boston University and the University of Cincinnati, he also has served as chair of the Department of Organizational Studies at MIT's Sloan School of Management.

Bennis is the author or editor of more than two dozen books, including the best-selling "Leaders," named recently by the Financial Times as one of the top 50 business books of all time, and "On Becoming A Leader," both of which have been translated into 21 languages. His 1993 essay collection, "An Invented Life: Reflections on Leadership and Change," was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

He has received 15 honorary degrees and has been a member of numerous boards of advisors, including those at Claremont University, the American Leadership Forum, the American Chamber of Commerce and the Salk Institute. He has been advisor to four U.S. presidents and has consulted for Fortune 500 companies.

The Wall Street Journal named him as one of the top 10 speakers on management in 1993, and in 1996, Forbes magazine referred to him as the "Dean of Leadership Gurus."

Gross, who received a bachelor's degree in English from UB in 1972 and a master's degree in communication in 1975, has been called "one of the most thought-provoking interviewers working in media today."

She is host and executive producer of "Fresh Air with Terry Gross," an hour-long, Monday-through-Thursday, interview-and-features program that provides a fresh look at contemporary arts and issues. The show airs at 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and at 7 a.m. on Sunday on WBFO.

Gross began her radio career in 1973 at WBFO, where she hosted and produced several arts, women's and public-affairs programs, including "This Is Radio," a live, three-hour magazine program that aired daily. Two years later, she joined the staff of WHYY-FM in Philadelphia as producer and host of Fresh Air, then a local, daily interview-and-music program. In 1985, WHYY-FM launched a weekly half-hour edition of "Fresh Air with Terry Gross," which was distributed nationally by NPR. Since 1987, a daily, one-hour national edition of "Fresh Air" has been produced by WHYY-FM; it now airs on 160 stations.

In addition to her work on "Fresh Air," Gross has served as guest host for the weekday and weekend editions of NPR's "All Things Considered." Her appearances include a spot as co-anchor of the PBS show "The Great Comet Crash," produced by WHYY-TV; a short series of interviews for WGBH-TV in Boston; and an appearance as guest-host for "CBS Nightwatch."

"Fresh Air with Terry Gross" has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Peabody Award in 1994 for its "probing questions, revelatory interviews and unusual insight." In 1987, the program received the Ohio State Award. In 1981, it won the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Award for "Best Live Radio Program."

Gross also received an honorary doctor of letters from Drexel University in 1989 and a Distinguished Alumni Award from UB in 1993.