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Vanderbilt Chancellor Gee to address Centre College's 183rd commencement
RELEASED: March 23, 2006
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Vanderbilt Chancellor Gordon Gee |
DANVILLE, KY—Gordon Gee, one of the most experienced chief executives in higher education, will speak at Centre College's 183rd commencement. The ceremony will take place at the College's Norton Center for the Arts on Sunday, May 21, at 3 p.m.
"He is an outstanding person," Centre president John A. Roush says of Gee, who is chancellor and professor of law at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. "His appreciation of Centre College, its faculty and students, is well documented. The opportunity to have our graduates and their families hear from an exceptional leader in American higher education is an opportunity not to be missed."
Before coming to Vanderbilt, Gee was previously president of Brown University, The Ohio State University, the University of Colorado and West Virginia University.
A joint degree recipient in law and education from Columbia University, Gee has served as assistant dean for the University of Utah College of Law; judicial fellow and senior staff assistant for United States chief justice Warren Burger; associate dean and professor at J. Reuben Clark Law School of Brigham Young University; and dean at West Virginia University. It was at West Virginia University that he made the transition from law school administrator to university president.
Gee has been a trustee for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation since 1995. He has carried out research on behalf of the Ford Foundation, the Guy Anderson Foundation, and the American Bar Foundation, among others. He is the co-author of six books, and the author of numerous papers and articles in fields relating to both law and education. The recipient of a number of awards and honors, he was a Mellon Fellow for the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies and a W.K. Kellogg Fellow. In 1994 he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from University of Utah, and in 1994 he received the same award from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Gee helps conduct Circle of Hope, a philanthropic leadership program organized by the Tennessee chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation; serves on the board of directors of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute, Inc.; and is a member of the advisory committee for the Nashville Alliance for Public Education. He is also a member of the board of directors for Nashville's Montgomery Bell Academy and the board of the Tennessee College Association. In conjunction with Vanderbilt, Gee was awarded the Outstanding Promotion of Diversity Award by the Nashville branch of the NAACP. In 2004 he was a recipient of the Nashville Women's Political Caucus' Good Guy Award and the recipient of the Nashville chapter of the Public Relations Society of America's Apollo Award for Communications Leadership.
Gee is part of The College Board's Commission on Writing in America's Schools and Colleges, an advisory committee of nationally recognized experts who will help develop the new SAT exam. He currently serves as a director or trustee of The Jason Foundation, the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute, the National Hospice Foundation, the Historic Black College and University Advisory Committee of the Kresge Foundation, Hasbro, The Limited, Dollar General Corporation, Massey Energy Corporation, and Gaylord Entertainment Company. Additionally, he is a member of the President's Council for Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life, the Christopher Isherwood Foundation Board, the Business-Higher Education Forum, and the National Committee to Unite a Divided America.
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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/
For news archives go to http://www.centre.edu/web/news/newsarchive.html.
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