The Fordham School of Law celebrated its 105th diploma ceremony on Sunday, May 20 by honoring one of its own.

Michelle DePass, LAW ’92, assistant administrator for the Office of International and Tribal Affairs at the Environmental Protection Agency, received a doctorate of letters, honoris causa, and addressed the graduates at a ceremony at Radio City Music Hall.

The school awarded a total of 486 J.D.s (Juris Doctor) and 143 LL.M’s (Master of Laws). Congratulations to the class of 2012!

Fordham University will present honorary degrees to eight leaders in national security, religion, the arts, medicine, business and government service during its 2012 commencement exercises.

John Brennan, FCRH ’77, the Obama administration’s deputy national security adviser for counterterrorism and homeland security, and this year’s commencement speaker, will receive a doctorate of humane letters, honoris causa, at the 167th commencement on Saturday, May 19, at the Rose Hill campus.

Also being awarded honorary degrees on May 19 are singer Tony Bennett, pediatrician Eugenie Doyle, MC ’43, and actress Phylicia Rashad.

Newly elevated Timothy Cardinal Dolan, archbishop of New York, was the principal celebrant and homilist at the Fordham College at Rose Hill Class of 2012’s Baccalaureate Mass, held on May 18 in the Rose Hill Gymnasium. He received a doctorate of humane letters, honoris causa, that evening.

The Fordham School of Law, the Graduate School of Business Administration (GBA), and the Graduate School of Social Service (GSS) will present additional honorary degrees at their diploma ceremonies.

Michelle DePass, LAW ‘92, assistant administrator for the Office of International and Tribal Affairs in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will receive a doctorate of humane letters, honoris causa, on May 20, where she will also address the law school’s graduating class.

Brooklyn congressman Edolphus Towns will receive a doctorate of humane letters, honoris causa, at the May 20 GSS diploma ceremony, where he will give the address.

Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of Acumen Fund, will give the address and receive a doctorate of humane letters, honoris causa, at the May 22 GBA diploma ceremony.

John Brennan received his current appointment in 2009, following a career that included 25 years in the Central Intelligence Agency, with a four-year stint as Middle East station chief in Saudi Arabia. He works with the federal government’s intelligence agencies and the military on counterterrorism efforts around the globe, and on issues of homeland security.

In 2004, he was named director of the federal government’s National Counterterrorism Center, which was established that year to coordinate intelligence from agencies collecting data around the world. He left government service briefly in 2005 to become CEO of Analysis Corp., a private firm that contracts with government agencies on security and intelligence issues.

The son of Irish immigrants, Brennan was raised in North Bergen, N.J., and graduated from St. Joseph’s High School in West New York. He enrolled at Fordham as a commuter student, soon becoming enthralled with the Middle East through the lectures of John Entelis, Ph.D., professor of political science and director of Fordham’s Middle East Studies Program.

While a Fordham student, Brennan traveled to Indonesia to work at the U.S. Embassy and to research the politics of oil. He studied Arabic at the American University in Cairo.

Tony Bennett, legendary vocalist, accomplished painter and ardent supporter of arts education, got his start as a singing waiter in Astoria, N.Y.’s Italian restaurants. During World War II, he faced bitter combat in Germany, an experience that made him a pacifist.

Bennett climbed the charts with early crooning hits like “Because of You” and “Rags to Riches” before recording his signature “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” in 1962. Late 1950s albums The Beat of My Heart and Basie Swings, Bennett Sings established him as one of today’s great jazz singers. His close friend Frank Sinatra famously said, “For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business.”

In 2001 he founded the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in his hometown of Astoria with his wife Susan Benedetto, FCLC ’90, GSE ’05.

True to his generosity in nurturing young talent, ticket sales from his 85th birthday bash at the Metropolitan Opera benefited Exploring the Arts, a nonprofit committed to strengthening arts education in the city’s public schools.

Timothy Cardinal Dolan was appointed to the College of Cardinals by Pope Benedict XVI in January 2012. The Cardinal was elevated in the Consistory on Feb. 18, 2012 in Rome.

Cardinal Dolan was named Archbishop of New York by the Pope in February 2009, and was installed as archbishop in April of that year. In November 2010, Cardinal Dolan was elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He succeeded Cardinal Francis George of Chicago in the position.

A native of St. Louis, Mo., Cardinal Dolan was ordained to the priesthood in 1976. He served as Archbishop of Milwaukee from June 2002 until his 2009 New York appointment. He has served as a faculty member in the Department of Ecumenical Theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Michelle DePass, LAW ’92, was appointed by President Obama and currently serves as assistant administrator for the Office of International and Tribal Affairs at the Environmental Protection Agency. Throughout her distinguished career she has worked as a lawyer, public administrator, and policy analyst with environmental and human and civil rights organizations, academic institutions, labor, and all levels of government.

She has served as executive director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, senior policy advisor at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, environmental manager of the City of San Jose, and William Kunstler Racial Justice Fellow with the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York.

In addition to her Fordham law degree, DePass has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Tufts University, and a master of public administration from Baruch College’s School of Public Affairs.

Eugenie Doyle, MC ’43, M.D., professor emeritus of pediatric cardiology, enjoyed an impressive 47-year career in medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, where she was an early practitioner in her field.

“It was a great field to get into,” said Doyle, who graduated from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1946, when just 12 percent of the medical students were women. Surgeons were performing the very first operations on infants with “blue baby syndrome.” The advent of open-heart surgery soon followed. Devastated parents became very grateful, she said, upon learning that their children could be saved.

In addition to patient care and teaching duties at NYU, Doyle wrote and published several papers on children with rheumatic heart disease. She directed the hospital’s pediatric cardiology department from 1958 until her retirement in 1993.

Jacqueline Novogratz is the founder and CEO of Acumen Fund, a nonprofit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to the problems of poverty.

Acumen Fund aims to create a world beyond poverty by investing in social enterprises, emerging leaders, and breakthrough ideas. Under Novogratz’s leadership, the fund has invested more than $72 million in 65 companies in South Asia and Africa, all focused on delivering affordable healthcare, water, housing and energy to the poor.

Prior to Acumen Fund, Novogratz founded and directed The Philanthropy Workshop and The Next Generation Leadership programs at the Rockefeller Foundation.

She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and was recently named to The Daily Beast’s 25 Smartest People of the Decade. She is the author of a memoir, The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World (Rodale, 2009).

She holds an M.B.A. from Stanford and a bachelor’s degree in Economics/International Relations from the University of Virginia.

Phylicia Rashad is best known to TV audiences as Clair Huxtable on The Cosby Show. Successful, elegant, wise and loving, the character Rashad created remains a role model for working mothers everywhere. This fall, thanks to a generous gift from Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington, FCLC ’77, she took on a new role in which she brought those same qualities to students at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus.

As the University’s first Denzel Washington Chair in Theatre, Rashad taught a semester-long course called “Creating a Character.” In helping choose Rashad, Washington said she “will provide the care, compassion and that extra push to help take students where they’re meant to go.”

Rashad, who earned a B.F.A. in theater magna cum laude from Howard University, recently made her directorial debut at the helm of the Seattle Repertory Theatre’s production of August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean. Her Broadway credits include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Wiz, and A Raisin in the Sun, for which she won a 2004 Tony Award for best actress in a play.

On November 2, 2010, voters in Brooklyn’s 10th Congressional District elected Edolphus “Ed” Towns to his 15th term in the United States House of Representatives, signaling their continued confidence in his leadership and ability to deliver for his constituents.  Over the course of a career in Congress that began in 1982, Congressman Towns has brought millions of dollars to a wide range of projects in the 10th District, the Borough of Brooklyn, and the City of New York.

As leader of the Congressional Social Work Caucus that he inaugurated during the 111th Congress, Towns has emerged as a champion for children and youth. He has spearheaded numerous forums on issues pertaining to children and youth and has introduced and co-sponsored legislation designed to support them.

He views his work in Congress through the lens of his commitment to improving the lives of others as a professional social worker and ordained minister. He is the author of Harvesting the Fruits of Power (Morton Books, 2010).
Towns holds an M.S.W. from Adelphi University, and a bachelor’s degree in sociology from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.

“Never judge your actions according to what those around you do. Judge yourself against the high standards you set for yourself,” he told an enthusiastic audience of more than 15,000 graduates and their guests gathered under blue skies on Edwards Parade, for the University’s 167th Commencement on May 19.

Along with Brennan, singer Tony Bennett, pediatric cardiologist Eugenie Doyle, MC ’43, and actress Phylicia Rashad received honorary degrees at the commencement ceremony. Timothy Cardinal Dolan, archbishop of New York, was the principal celebrant and homilist at Fordham College at Rose Hill’s Baccalaureate Mass on May 18, at which he received a doctorate of humane letters, honoris causa.

Michelle DePass, LAW ’92, assistant administrator for the Office of International and Tribal Affairs in the Environmental Protection Agency, will receive a doctorate of humane letters, honoris causa, on May 20, where she will also address the law school’s graduating class. Brooklyn congressman Edolphus Towns will receive a doctorate of humane letters, honoris causa, at the May 20 GSS diploma ceremony, where he will give the address. And Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of Acumen Fund, will give the address and receive a doctorate of humane letters, honoris causa, at the May 22 GBA diploma ceremony. (See the complete article on this year’s honorary degree recipients.)

Throughout his address, Brennan recalled the influence of his Fordham professors, including the political science professor—John Entelis, Ph.D.—who first sparked his interest in exploring the world and told him about the opportunity to study at the American University of Cairo, which he seized.

See the full video of the ceremony here.

“As with most things in life, it was the influence of others—those who helped me learn here at Fordham—that left the most lasting and indelible imprint,” he said. “I had some truly remarkable professors and instructors—educators who knew that learning is a journey that doesn’t end with a semester’s close or even with the achievement of a degree. It is a journey that lasts a lifetime.”

He delivered his commencement address in front of the academic building—Keating Hall—where he first wrestled with some of the moral questions that continue to occupy his mind today.

“The textbooks I read and the papers I wrote in John Banja’s [philosophy]class have traveled and remained with me over the past 35 years,” said Brennan, who serves as assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism and deputy national security advisor. “I have reread them many times as I have struggled with the real-world application of the concepts that I learned about as a 20-year-old.”

Brennan, who was deeply involved in the successful hunt for Osama Bin Laden, said among those real-world questions were: “What constitutes justice?” and “When is war a morally acceptable choice? What are the ethics of warfare?”

Brennan’s appearance stirred opposition among some students and faculty opposed to the Obama administration’s defense and homeland security policies. He acknowledged the controversy in his speech. “Much has been attributed to me over the course of my career,” he said. “And after recently reading some of the things that I reportedly have done, said, or have been responsible for while I was at the CIA and the White House, I must admit that I was deeply torn between giving the commencement address or joining the protesters and petitioners who have so energetically opposed my appearance.

“But that’s what makes our country great: our individual ability to openly and freely express our views, whether or not they are popular, whether or not they are in the minority, or whether they are even based on misimpressions.” Brennan had to pause here for sustained applause. “That’s why I still do my job, because the values that this country was founded on, to include freedom of speech and freedom from harm, are worth fighting for.

“And as long as I try to do my job to the best of my ability by calling upon the life lessons that I learned in Professor Entelis’ political science class, Father Rushmore’s theology class, and John Banja’s philosophy class, I can rest peacefully at night, and I do.”

In his own address, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, noted that he and Brennan met that morning with faculty members, students, and members of the Board of Trustees to hear and respond to concerns that had been raised about Brennan’s selection as speaker.

“The discussions…were both good and very important,” Father McShane said. “They bore witness to the seriousness with which our faculty and our students wrestle with the great and sometimes divisive issues of our age.

“It is good for us to remember that our nation was founded as a self-conscious experiment in democratic government,” Father McShane said. “From the very birth of the republic, therefore, it was understood that we would never be, and could never be, a static society. Rather, it was believed that our national experiment would, and only could, grow stronger and more perfect through the honest and vigorous debate of deeply held views connected with our core values.

“Therefore, I would like to thank both [Brennan] and the women and men who raised questions about his appearance for making this an occasion on which our graduates were sent out into the world with an important lesson on civic engagement.”

He said Brennan, that morning, offered to come back to campus next academic year for a longer discussion. “I agreed on the spot,” Father McShane said.

He also urged the graduates to “be forever bothered” about problems in the world. “Seek answers that will bring a measure of justice to our world, and a measure of dignity to all the brothers and sisters that God has placed in our care.”

Brennan told the 3,432 graduate and undergraduate degree recipients that they were among the most privileged of the world’s population. “You have virtually limitless potential in your respective career fields, but it will remain only potential if you do not seize the opportunity you have been given,” he said.

In other advice to the graduates, he impressed upon them the need to work hard to prove themselves in the workforce. “There is no free lunch,” he said. “You will need to work hard and overcome obstacles, probably more times than you think you should.”

Brennan also stressed the need for work-life balance, and to spend time with one’s family. He said he was “blessed” to have his 92-year-old father, Owen Brennan, in the audience, and he urged the graduates to take his father’s advice. “Don’t look back years from now with regret because you didn’t get that balance right,” he said. “Believe me, the cost of such a mistake is too high.”