 May 2001 |
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C-SPAN Chairman, CEO Named Commencement SpeakerBrian P. Lamb, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of C-SPAN, will deliver the commencement address to the 5,046 students graduating at George Mason's 34th annual Commencement. The ceremony will take place on Saturday, May 12, at 10 a.m. in the Patriot Center. Lamb, who will receive an honorary doctoral degree in humane letters that day, helped found the cable network and has served as the company's CEO since its beginnings and as an on-air host. After graduating from Purdue University in 1963 with a B.A. in Speech, Lamb joined the U.S. Navy and spent time in Washington, D.C., working at the White House and in the Department of Defense's public affairs office. In 1974, he began publishing a biweekly newsletter called The Media Report. He also covered communications issues as Washington bureau chief for CableVision magazine. It was from this vantage point that the idea of a public affairs network delivered by satellite began to take shape. C-SPAN was organized as a nonprofit company and built one of Washington's first satellite uplinks in March 1979. Over the years, C-SPAN has grown from a part-time video programming service to a network of three 24-hour video channels (C-SPAN, C-SPAN2, and C-SPAN3) and a 50,000-watt radio station (WCSP-FM) that serves the Baltimore and Washington area. James V. Kimsey, founding CEO of America Online, Inc. (AOL), and Elizabeth P. Campbell, vice president of community affairs and founder of WETA TV/FM, will also receive honorary doctoral degrees at Commencement. Kimsey, a lifelong Washingtonian, became AOL chairman emeritus in 1996 and turned his energies to new challenges. He created the Kimsey Foundation, which provides grants that level the playing field for Washington's disadvantaged youth through education and technology. He is a member of the board of directors of several companies, including Capital One Financial Corporation and Thayer Capital. Over the past 25 years, Kimsey has founded and served on the boards of directors of a number of successful businesses in the Washington, D.C., area. In 1994, he was named Business Leader of the Year by Washingtonian magazine. In 1998, he received the KPMG Peat Marwick's High Tech Entrepreneur Award, the American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award, and the first annual "I Have a Dream" award from the "I Have a Dream" Foundation. Campbell, founder and first president of WETA, has served in public broadcasting in the Washington area since 1953. Campbell's leadership has helped WETA become the third-largest producing station for the Public Broadcasting Service and one of the most listened-to public radio stations in the United States. In her current role as vice president of community affairs, Campbell serves as a liaison between WETA and the Washington community, speaking to civic organizations, sponsoring a monthly lecture series, and hosting the Washington area's annual Children's Art Festival. A graduate of Salem College and Columbia University, Campbell served as a dean at Mary Baldwin College and at Moravian College for Women and was on the Arlington County School Board for 12 years, including serving three terms as chair. Campbell played a significant role in the early development of George Mason University, serving as a member of the advisory committee of George Mason College from 1964 to 1972. Accounting major Dionne (DeeDee) Leticia Jacobs of Centreville, Virginia, has been chosen to give the graduate address. Jacobs enrolled at George Mason in the fall of 1996 after graduating from Centreville High School. While at George Mason, she has played a prominent role in several campus organizations. A member of the Campus Advisory Board from 1996 to 1998, Jacobs was also recognized as a student leader on campus and chosen by the Office of Campus Living as a senior resident advisor. For the past two years, she has served as the campus student representative for Becker/Convisor CPA Review. Over the next few months, she will be working to attain her accreditation as a Certified Public Accountant. In June, she begins work at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Of the graduating class of 2001, 3,018 students are receiving undergraduate degrees and 1,825 will be awarded master's or doctoral degrees. The School of Law will graduate 203 students. The discipline with the most undergraduates is Decision Sciences and Management Information Systems (398), followed by Communication (255), Psychology (234), Integrative Studies (173), and Computer Science (160). Mason's oldest graduate, James Joy II, is 70; the youngest, Betty Berhanu Sintayehu, is 20. For more information on George Mason's graduation ceremonies, call the Commencement hotline at x3GRAD. |