Teachers College Medal Recipients Named for 2006 Convocation
This year's Convocation at Teachers College will include a line-up of honorees who hail from the fields of philanthropy, medicine, journalism, government, academia and entertainment.
Chair of the 9/11 Commission Thomas Kean, Congressman Charles Rangel, Author David Halberstam and Sex Therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer Among Those To Address Teachers College, Master's Graduates On May 16
Robert Rubin, Chairman of the Executive Committee, Citigroup Inc., Will Receive the Cleveland E. Dodge Medal for Distinguished Service to Education at May 17 Convocation to Honor Doctoral Graduates
This year's Convocation at Teachers College will include a line-up of honorees who hail from the fields of philanthropy, medicine, journalism, government, academia and entertainment.
Teachers College Medal Recipients
Dr. William G. Bowen, President, Andrew Mellon Foundation. In addition to having served for 16 years as President of Princeton University, Bowen co-authored, with Derek Bok, the groundbreaking book, The Shape of the River, which marshals the academic, employment and life histories of more than 90,000 students to shed light on issues such as drop-out rates, the demoralization of minority students who are admitted under selective guidelines, the effect selective admissions has on diversity and racial tension, and alternatives to race-sensitive admissions. Under Bowen's leadership, the Mellon Foundation has dramatically increased its appropriations and-'"reflecting his leadership in the field of information technology-'"created the electronic archives JSTOR and ARSTOR, which have dramatically increased access to research information.
Dr. Benjamin Carson, pediatric neurosurgeon, The Johns Hopkins Medical Institute. Inspired by a mother who required him to read two books every week and write a report about them, Carson, who is African American, overcame an impoverished background to earn a scholarship to Yale University. At age 32, he became the nation's youngest Director of Surgery and has since earned faculty appointments in oncology, pediatrics and plastic surgery and published more than 90 neurosurgical papers. In 1987, he led a marathon 22-hour effort that successfully separated the Binder twins, who were conjoined at the head. He has since published three books, Gifted Hands, Think Big and The Big Picture, and delivered hundreds of motivational talks to young people each year. He is the subject of a long-running Baltimore stage production, "Ben Carson, M.D."
K. Patricia Cross, Professor of Higher Education, Emerita, The University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Education. As a university administrator, researcher and teacher-'"as well as a former two-time board chair of the American Association of Higher Education-'"Cross has served as a catalyst of the community college movement and an architect of classroom strategies for connecting with widely varying student populations. She is the author of such other pragmatically focused classroom guides as Adults As Learners: Increasing Participation and Facilitating Learning and Using Assessment to Improve Instruction. Her monograph series, The Cross Papers, has served as an especially valuable resource for those in administrative and teaching roles in community colleges. She also has personally funded scholarships such as the K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award, which is bestowed by the Association of American Colleges and Universities to graduate students who commit themselves to foster academic and civic responsibility.
David Halberstam, journalist, author and social historian. First recognized for his coverage of the Emmett Till murder case, he is the author of such classics works of Americana as The Best and the Brightest, on the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations' roles in promulgating the Vietnam War; The Powers That Be, which chronicles the evolution of television and its impact on news coverage; The Firehouse, on the rescue workers who lost their lives during 9/11; and The Next Century, which describes America's weakening school standards and resulting decline in economic productivity.
Frances Hesselbein, founder and guiding spirit of the Leader to Leader Institute. A recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor, and cited by Fortune magazine as "the Best Non-Profit Manager in America," Hesselbein has focused organizations in the private, public and non-profit sectors on maintaining greatness and helping America to sustain its democratic traditions. A former volunteer Girl Scout troop leader who first rose to prominence as CEO of Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., she tripled that organization's minority enrollment and dramatically expanded its membership overall-'"work that was published as a case study by the Harvard Business School. As head of Leader to Leader, she initiated the three-part "Future" series-'"The Leader of the Future, The Organization of the Future, and, most recently, The Community of the Future-'"in which Jim Collins, James L. Barkdale, Elie Wiesel, Andrew Young and many others have shared their ideas about the future of leadership, organizations, change, innovation and community life. The series has been translated into 16 languages.
Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, President, University of Maryland, Baltimore County. A Ph.D. recipient at age 24, Hrabowski has transformed the little-known University of Maryland, Baltimore County into the nation's leading producer of black biochemistry majors. His innovative Meyerhoff Program, hailed as a national model by Dr. Rita Colwell of the National Science Foundation (NSF), annually recruits high-achieving high school students to UMBC and sends 90 percent of them on to graduate school. Named one of the 50 Most Important Blacks in Research Science, Hrabowski consults for NSF, the U.S. Department of Education and many colleges and universities. He co-authored the enormously influential Beating the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African-American Males.
Thomas Kean, former Governor of New Jersey and chair of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States. A TC alumnus and trustee emeritus, Kean increased school spending during his two terms as New Jersey's chief executive and created report cards for teachers. As President of Drew University for 16 years (he retired last spring), he tripled the school's endowment to over $200 million. In leading the 9/11 Commission, Kean used his consensus-building skills to guide five Democrats and four other Republicans in producing a bipartisan report that made it to the New York Times bestseller list and was nominated for the National Book Award.
New York Congressman Charles B. Rangel, the senior member of the New York State delegation and the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee. In the 17 terms he has served since 1970, Rangel has authored or co-authored such landmark legislation as the $5 billion Federal Empowerment Zone demonstration project to revitalize urban neighborhoods nationwide; the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, which has financed the vast majority of affordable housing built in the U.S. during the past decade; the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, which has provided thousands of jobs to underprivileged workers; and provisions in the tax law that helped finance revitalization of the 125th Street Corridor. He is also a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and, in 1987, led the fight to deny tax credits to companies that paid taxes to the apartheid regime in South Africa.
Dr. Ruth Westheimer, sex therapist and talk show personality extraordinaire. Through her two signature programs Sexually Speaking and The Dr. Ruth Show, as well as through the more than two dozen books she has authored or co-authored and the countless talks she has delivered to audiences of all ages, Dr. Ruth has established herself as the world's leading apostle of sane sexuality and healthy relationships. A former refugee from Nazi Germany who endured the loss of her family, and a one-time freedom fighter for Israeli independence who survived severe personal injury, Dr. Ruth is both a TC alumna and the mother of a TC alumna. She has appeared at alumni events and established TC's Dr. Ruth Westheimer Scholarship Fund.
Cleveland E. Dodge Medal Recipient for Distinguished Service to Education
Robert Rubin, Chairman of the Executive Committee, Citigroup Inc. As Secretary of the Treasury under President Clinton, Rubin helped balance the federal budget, open trade policy to further globalization, resolve fiscal crises in Mexico, Russia and Asia, and win Most Favored Nation trading status for China. In the private sector, he has served as co-chair of Goldman Sachs, chairman of the executive committee of CitiGroup and board member of the Ford Motor Company. He is the author of In an Uncertain World: Tough Choices from Wall Street to Washington; Vice Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations; and Chairman of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, the nation's leading community development support organization, which funds charter and alternative school facilities for underserved children nationwide.
Published Monday, Apr. 10, 2006