Graduating Students to Hear Variety of Speakers During 2011 Commencement

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Christopher Mercer and Lewis Epley, Jr.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Three prominent Arkansans will receive honorary degrees and address graduating students during the University of Arkansas All-University Commencement ceremony at 8:45 a.m. Saturday, May 14, in Bud Walton Arena.

Lewis Epley Jr. is a noted attorney, banker, community and state leader who served for 10 years on the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees, two years as chairman. He will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

Christopher Mercer was one of the first African Americans to enroll at the University of Arkansas School of Law and was a pioneer in the civil rights movement in Arkansas. He will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

B. Alan Sugg

B. Alan Sugg has led the University of Arkansas System as its president since 1990. He will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

The Dalai Lama, who is speaking at the University of Arkansas on May 11, will also be given an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree, but will not attend the commencement ceremonies.

Graduate students will be individually recognized during the All-University Commencement ceremony. Undergraduates and law students will be recognized during their individual college or school ceremonies.

Sam M. Walton College of Business, 12:30 p.m., Barnhill Arena

Mary Ann Greenwood

Fayetteville businesswoman and university alumna Mary Ann Greenwood will be the commencement speaker at the Walton College commencement. She is a native Arkansan who received a bachelor’s degree in banking and finance, a master’s degree in economics and a doctorate in economics and finance from the University of Arkansas. Greenwood is president of Greenwood Gearhart Inc., a registered investment adviser and president of Greenwood Group Ltd., a pension consulting firm. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst charter holder, as well as being a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts, the Consumer Analysts Group of New York, the Consumer Analyst Group of Europe and the National Association for Business Economics.

Greenwood currently serves on the executive committee for the University of Arkansas Foundation Inc. and the investment subcommittee for the NCAA. She is vice chair of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and a member of the Northwest Arkansas Council. She is a founding member of the Towers of Old Main, serves on the Board of Advisors for the Fayetteville campus and is also on the Dean’s Executive Advisory Board for the Walton College.

Fay Jones School of Architecture, 1 p.m., Verizon Ballroom, Arkansas Union

James P. Cramer

James P. Cramer, educator, futurist and foresight adviser, will be the speaker for the Jones School commencement. Cramer is chairman of The Greenway Group Inc., a management consulting, research and publishing firm specializing in the design professions, the media and cultural institutions. He is the founding publisher and editor of DesignIntelligence, a design, management, change and innovation journal published six times a year. He is author of the bestseller How Firms Succeed: A Field Guide to Design Management, the critically acclaimed Design Plus Enterprise: Seeking a New Reality in Architecture, and The Next Architect: A New Twist on the Future of Design.

He is the editor of the annual Almanac of Architecture & Design and is president of the Design Futures Council, a Washington-based think tank.

Cramer served as the chief executive officer of the American Institute of Architects from 1988 to 1994. He is also the former president of the American Architectural Foundation and, for seven years, was the publisher of Architecture magazine.

He is a Richard Upjohn Fellow of the AIA and a Leadership Fellow of the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute in La Jolla, Calif. He is currently an adjunct professor of architecture at the University of Arizona.

J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, 1 p.m., Walton Arena

Sarah Griffis

Fulbright College continues its tradition of choosing an outstanding student as commencement speaker. This year the honor goes to Sarah Griffis of Green Forest, a four-year Honors Scholar graduating with a double major in English and classical studies and a minor in religious studies. She studied theatre and literature in London in the summer of 2008 and will travel to Greece and Turkey following graduation to study classics. Her undergraduate research focused on the role of language in shaping separate doctrines of salvation in Protestant and Roman Catholic traditions. Griffis will attend Harvard University as a Dean’s Scholar to pursue a Master of Theological Studies degree.

College of Engineering, 3:30 p.m., Barnhill Arena

Julian Stewart

Julian Stewart, businessman and philanthropist, will be the keynote speaker for the College of Engineering commencement, and Nicole Lorenz will speak as the college’s Outstanding Senior.

Stewart graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1957 with a degree in civil engineering. He worked for United Gas Pipeline Co. in New Orleans until 1965 when he joined IBM in sales and marketing for the data-processing division. Since 1992 he has been self-employed, managing his investment portfolio and devoting his time to philanthropic causes. 

Stewart has been active in community, state and national organizations throughout his career, particularly with the American Heart Association. He was elected a life deacon of Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio.

Stewart was a leader in the University of Arkansas Campaign for the Twenty-First Century. During the six-year campaign, he served on the Steering Committee, the Executive Committee and also as vice chair of the Leadership and Principal Gifts Committee. He was the first chairman of the University of Arkansas Board of Advisors and currently serves as a member of the board.

Nicole Lorenz

Nicole Lorenz of Chicago, a chemical engineering major, was chosen as Outstanding Senior based on her academic record, leadership, community service and participation in undergraduate research, internships, co-operative learning opportunities and study abroad programs.

College of Education and Health Professions, 4 p.m., Walton Arena

Lewis Epley Jr. will deliver the commencement address for the College of Education and Health Professions.

Lewis Epley, Jr.

Eply grew up in Springdale, where he overcame polio as a teenager. He attended the University of Arkansas after recovering from the disease and went on to become the “Voice of the Razorback Band” for seven years. He graduated in 1961 with degrees in public administration and law, and moved to Eureka Springs, where he developed a prominent law practice. He was also active in business, serving as vice-chairman of Cornerstone Bank (formerly the Bank of Eureka Springs) and a member of the board of directors of the Southwestern Energy Co.

Epley was a delegate to the Arkansas Constitutional Convention in 1969-70 and in 1984 was named special associate justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court. He was a member of the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees from 1989 to 1999 and was chair for two years. He is a board member of the University of Arkansas Foundation, the university Board of Advisors and a former member of the Arkansas Alumni Association Board. He also remains a major supporter of the Razorback Band, and in 1997 the band building was named in his honor.

Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, 6:30 p.m., Barnhill Arena 

Bumpers College will have two commencement speakers, the Outstanding Alumnus, Harold H. Schmitz, and the Senior Scholar, Fines Levi Hudson.

Harold H. Schmitz

Harold Schmitz, chief science officer for Mars Inc., grew up in Fayetteville and received a bachelor’s degree in food science from the University of Arkansas in 1987. He earned a master's degree in food science from the University of Illinois and a doctoral degree in food science, with a minor in organic chemistry, at North Carolina State University.

 He has worked at Mars since 1993 in scientific and regulatory affairs, fundamental research, analytical and applied sciences and corporate staff. He was appointed chief science officer in 2006.

Schmitz conducts research in the agricultural, biomedical, clinical and engineering sciences related to food production and its influence on human and companion-animal health. In addition to research, he is an advocate for enhancing the contributions that science can make to society and the environment, and he presently serves on the executive committee of the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable at the National Academies.

Schmitz is a visiting faculty member at the University of California, Davis, and serves on advisory boards at the Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Illinois and Washington University.

Fines Levi Hudson

Levi Hudson was named Senior Scholar for maintaining a 4.0 grade point average. He is a food, human nutrition and hospitality major with a concentration in dietetics, a member of Alpha Zeta Honor Society and the Razorbacks for Christ ministries. He plans to enroll at Harding University at Searcy in August to pursue a master’s degree in the physician’s assistant program. He is the son of Richard and Anita Hudson of Mount Judea.

School of Law, Saturday, May 20, 2 p.m., Fayetteville Town Center

 Judge Lavenski Smith of the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will be the keynote speaker at the School of Law commencement. He is an Arkansas native, born in Hope, and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Arkansas in 1981 and his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Arkansas School of Law in 1987. Smith worked as a staff attorney for Ozark Legal Services in Fayetteville and later established the Smith Law Office in Springdale. In 1994, he became a full-time assistant professor at John Brown University in Siloam Springs.

Judge Lavenski Smith

Smith joined Gov. Mike Huckabee’s staff, serving as regulatory liaison in 1996 and then as a member of the Arkansas Public Service Commission. He also served for two years as a justice on the Arkansas Supreme Court, completing the term of Justice David Newbern.

 Smith was appointed to the Eighth United States Circuit Court of Appeals in 2002.