JORDAN'S QUEEN NOOR TO SPEAK
AT MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT

The queen plays a prominent role internationally, working to promote humanitarian interests, develop global cooperation, create environmental conservation strategies, ban landmines, prevent substance abuse, and support developing countries.

SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- 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, 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, a bestselling author and one of the nation's foremost preachers; Ellen Baxter, an advocate for the homeless; Claude de Renty du Granrut '48, a deputy mayor who represents her region of Picardy, France, to a European Union committee; and Professor Lila M. Gierasch '70, a leading authority on protein chemistry.

"We are delighted that Queen Noor has accepted our invitation," said Acting President Beverly Daniel Tatum. "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 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 landmines, 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. 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 St. 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. Du Granut holds a degree from the Institute of Political Sciences of Paris, and an honorary doctorate from Mount Vernon College. She studied for one year at Mount Holyoke College. She 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.

Commencement is scheduled to begin at 10:30 AM in Richard Glenn Gettell Amphitheater, or, in the event of rain, the Kendall Field House.

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