Deval Patrick, Governor of Massachusetts, will deliver Tufts Commencement Address and receive an honorary doctorate of laws. Patrick was elected governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 2006. Born and raised on Chicago's south side, he received a scholarship to Milton Academy at the age of 14 and was graduated from Harvard with honors in 1978, the first in his family to attend college. After a year working on a UN project in Sudan, he returned to Harvard to earn a law degree. His illustrious career has included serving in the Clinton Administration as assistant attorney general for civil rights, the nation's top civil rights post; as chair of Texaco's Equality and Fairness Task Force, widely recognized for creating a model for fostering an equitable workplace; and as vice president and general counsel for Texaco. Patrick later became executive vice president and general counsel for the Coca-Cola Company. He has served on numerous charitable and corporate boards as well as the Federal Election Reform Commission under Presidents Carter and Ford.
David Burke is a Tufts alumnus whose career reflects a commitment to public service and civic engagement through senior positions with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), Gov. Hugh Carey (D-N.Y.), ABC News, CBS News, the Dreyfus Corporation and the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe.
Leslie H. Gelb is a Tufts alumnus, and president emeritus and board senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a respected voice in journalism, politics, academia and public policy.Sister Margaret Leonard, LSA is executive director and moving spirit behind Boston's Project Hope, a community-based multi-service agency dedicated to preventing homelessness.
Patricia Q. Stonesifer is founding CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and chair of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Her career also includes 20 years in the technology sector, including leading Microsoft's consumer products division spanning Encarta, MSNBC.com, Expedia and MSM.
C. Megan Urry is a Tufts alumna, Israel Munson Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Yale University, director of the Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, and chair of the physics department at Yale.
Robert A. Weinberg is a founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and director of the Ludwig Center for Molecular Oncology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
