April
19, 2002
Queen
Noor of Jordan to Speak at Commencement
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Her
Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan
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Her Majesty Queen
Noor of Jordan, known throughout the world for promoting international
exchange and understanding of Middle Eastern politics, Arab-Western
relations, and global issues, will speak at Mount Holyoke's 165th
commencement ceremony, Sunday, May 26. Queen Noor will receive
the degree of doctor of humane letters from the College; she will
be joined by four other honorary degree recipients: Reverend Peter
Gomes, advocate for the homeless Ellen Baxter, Mayor Claude de
Renty du Granrut '48, and Professor Lila M. Gierasch '70.
Acting President Beverly
Daniel Tatum said, "We are delighted that Queen Noor has
accepted our invitation. Her life work is clearly consonant with
our mission to link excellence in the liberal arts with purposeful
engagement with the world. Particularly at this time of escalating
global conflict, it is wonderful to celebrate a woman who has
so often been a voice for peace."
Born to a distinguished
Arab-American family in 1951, Lisa Najeeb Halaby attended schools
in the United States and entered Princeton University as a member
of its first coeducational class. After receiving a bachelor's
degree in architecture and urban planning in 1974, she participated
in international urban planning and design projects in Australia,
Iran, the United States, and Jordan. In 1976, she traveled throughout
the Arab world to research aviation training facilities for the
preparation of a master plan for an Arab Air University in Jordan.
Subsequently, she joined Royal Jordanian airline as director of
planning and design projects.
Marrying the late
King Hussein in 1978, Halaby took the name Noor and with him raised
six children. She became an advocate for the arts, environmental
protection, and business development in Jordan and directed numerous
projects concerning community development, education, conservation,
culture, children's welfare, family health, women, and enterprise
development. Her projects have received international recognition
as development models for the Middle East and the developing world.
Queen Noor also plays
a prominent role internationally. She chairs the King Hussein
Foundation, a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization dedicated
to humanitarian interests, and she serves on numerous boards and
organizations committed to developing global cooperation, creating
environmental conservation strategies, banning antipersonnel mines,
preventing substance abuse, and supporting developing countries.
In recognition of her efforts to advance development, democracy,
and peace, the queen has won several international awards and
been granted honorary doctorates in international relations, law,
and humane letters.
Reverend Peter
Gomes
The author of seven
volumes of sermons, including the best-selling The Good Book:
Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart (1996) and Sermons: Biblical
Wisdom for Daily Living (1998), Reverend Peter Gomes, Plummer
Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in Harvard University's
Memorial Church, is considered one of America's most distinguished
preachers. His most recent book is a collection of sermons titled
You Can Do This! and Other Sermons Preached at Harvard. Gomes
is a graduate of Bates College and Harvard Divinity School and
holds fourteen honorary degrees. He has preached and lectured
throughout the United States and British Isles and has participated
in the inaugurations of presidents Ronald Reagan and George Herbert
Walker Bush. He was named Clergy of the Year in 1998 by Religion
in American Life. He is the former acting director of the W.E.B.
DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research and a past president
of the Signet Society, Harvard's oldest literary society. He will
receive the degree of doctor of humane letters.
Ellen Baxter
Ellen Baxter has been
an advocate for the homeless since 1976, when she settled in New
York with the hope of creating permanent, cost-effective, humane
housing for the mentally ill and destitute. She was inspired by
the Belgian village of Geel, home to the shrine of Saint Dymphna,
patron saint of the mentally ill, where she had seen a large colony
of mentally disabled persons living with dignity in community
rather than in institutions. By 1986, Baxter had established "The
Heights," which offered housing units with integrated social
and mental health services. She founded the nonprofit Broadway
Housing Development Fund, which now owns five such "supportive
housing" buildings for 220 formerly homeless people, and
she serves on the board of directors for the Corporation for Supportive
Housing, an organization formed in 1991 to replicate and expand
the supportive housing model on a nationwide basis. There are
now active programs in nine cities, assisting 6,000 units of supportive
housing for people coping with extreme poverty and mental illness,
addiction, or HIV/AIDS. Baxter will receive the degree of doctor
of humane letters.
Claude de Renty
du Granrut '48
Since 1977, Claude
de Renty du Granrut '48 has been deputy mayor of Senlis, a small
medieval town in the northeast region of Picardy, France, and
since 1986, a regional councilor of Picardy, serving the land-planning
commission on infrastructure, local
development, culture, and tourism. As a member of the Committee
of the Regions of the European Union since 1994, she informs the
people of Picardy of the implications of European Union decisions
and writes recommendations on public health, the environment,
culture, innovation in technological research and development,
and town and country planning. She is a member of the Paris I
University Research Group on Public Finances and of the National
Commission for Historical Monuments. Du Granut holds a degree
from the Institute of Political Sciences of Paris and an honorary
doctorate from Mount Vernon College. She attended Mount Holyoke
for one year and will receive the degree of doctor of laws.
Lila M. Gierasch
'70
Lila M. Gierasch '70,
professor of chemistry and professor and head of biochemistry
and molecular biology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst,
earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry at Mount Holyoke, graduating
summa cum laude and with great distinction, and a doctorate in
biophysics from Harvard University. Having taught at Amherst College,
the University of Delaware, and the University of Texas Southwestern,
she joined the faculty of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst,
in 1994. While doing research supported by grants totaling $3
million there, she spearheaded a rebuilding of both the chemistry
department and the department of biochemistry and molecular biology.
Gierasch has published more than 170 papers, her research focusing
on human proteins and the "mistakes" in the protein
folding and assembly process that give rise to diseases such as
cystic fibrosis and Alzheimer's. She has been a member of the
National Advisory Council to the General Medical Sciences Institute
of the National Institutes of Health and a member of the Advisory
Committee to the Math and Physical Sciences Directorate of the
National Science Foundation. Gierasch will receive the degree
of doctor of science.
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