Former West Virginia University and NBA basketball star Jerry West and “Dangerous Minds” teacher LouAnne Johnson will join former President Bill Clinton as keynote speakers during WVU’s 2010 Commencement festivities.

The University will host a series of individual, personalized ceremonies for each school and college at a variety of venues on the Evansdale Campus and around Morgantown, including the WVU Coliseum, Creative Arts Center and Student Recreation Center.

Students and their families are encouraged to visit the Commencement Web site http://commencement.wvu.edu/ for event updates, as well as information about photography, lodging and traditions.

Here is information on the individual commencement ceremonies and their speakers:

Saturday, May 15

School of Dentistry, 8:30 a.m., Student Recreation Center; reception at Student Recreation Center; Dr. Lorena Surber, president of the WVU School of Dentistry Alumni Association, will speak.

• Surber graduated Summa Cum Laude from both WVU’s dental hygiene and dentistry programs. She graduated from dental hygiene in 1972, practiced for 14 years, and graduated from WVU’s School of Dentistry in 1990. She currently practices in Charleston.

School of Medicine (MD, Ph.D.), 9 a.m., Creative Arts Center; reception details to be announced; interim Dean Dr. James Brick will speak.

• Brick earned both his undergraduate and medical degrees from WVU. He has served as a faculty member at WVU since 1984. He is the chair of the Department of Medicine and is well-known for his care of patients with arthritis. As the interim dean, Brick leads more than 600 faculty and more than 1,500 students in various education programs on campuses in Morgantown, Charleston and Martinsburg.

College of Human Resources and Education, 9:30 a.m., Coliseum; reception at Shell Building; former high school teacher LouAnne Johnson, portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer in the 1995 movie “Dangerous Minds” will speak.

• Johnson is a former U.S. Navy journalist, Marine Corps officer and author of the New York Times bestseller Dangerous Minds, originally published as My Posse Don’t Do Homework. Through the book, Johnson tells her experience working with at-risk teens at an inner-city high school in California. The book has been published in eight languages.

School of Pharmacy, noon, Student Recreation Center; reception at Student Recreation Center; Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Pharmacists Association Thomas E. Menighan will speak.

• Menighan, a native of West Virginia, graduated from WVU’s School of Pharmacy with a bachelor’s in 1974 and earned a Masters in Business Administration in 1990 from Averett College. He formally served as president and member of the American Pharmacists Association, and prior to that was president of SynTegra Solutions, Inc. in Germantown, Md. Menighan is also the founder of SymRx, Inc. and CornerDrugstore.com.

College of Law, 1 p.m., Creative Arts Center; reception at College of Law; WVU Law School Professor of the Year Anne Lofaso will speak.

• Lofaso, associate professor at WVU’s College of Law, teaches courses in employment and labor law, and socioeconomics, among others. She is the faculty advisor to several student organizations including the Moot Court Board, the Women’s Law Caucus and the Labor Law Society. She is a 1987 graduate of Harvard University.

College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, 2 p.m., Coliseum; reception at Shell Building; WVU 1976 graduate E. J. “Jed” DiPaolo will speak.

• DiPaolo has extensive experience in the oil and gas sector. He spent most of his career with the Halliburton Group of companies in a number of engineering, operational and executive roles. DiPaolo is currently an independent producer in the oil and gas industry, where he works as a consultant for Growth Capital Partners, a merchant investment banking firm; and serves as a director for a number of emerging private companies.

School of Nursing, 5 p.m., Student Recreation Center; reception to begin at 1 p.m. at the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute; Dr. Diana Mason, who serves as the Rudin Professor at the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing and is director of the Hunter College Center for Health Media and Policy, will speak.

• Mason is a 1970 graduate of WVU’s nursing program. Prior to her appointment at Hunter College, Mason was the editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Nursing. Mason also serves on the National Advisory Board of the Kaiser Health News organization. She has been a producer and moderator for over 20 years of “Healthstyles,” a popular live weekly radio program that airs on WBAI in New York City. She is the lead co-editor of the award-winning book Policy and Politics in Nursing and Health Care.

College of Creative Arts, 5 p.m., Creative Arts Center; reception at Creative Arts Center lobby; former WVU first lady and Division of Music alumna Susan Hardesty will speak.

• Hardesty graduated from WVU’s College of Creative Arts with a degree in music education in 1967. She taught music and special education in West Virginia schools for 16 years. In 1998 she developed the Read Aloud Program in Jackson County. She has held numerous state and national appointments over the years and was responsible for the creation of the Mountaineer Parents Club in 1995 when her husband, David, was University president.

College of Business and Economics, 6 p.m., Coliseum; reception at WVU Shell Building; WVU 1966 and 1968 alumnus Douglas Van Scoy will speak.

• Prior to retirement, Van Scoy worked as branch manager, regional director, divisional director and finally senior executive vice president and deputy director of Smith Barney’s Private Client Group. His responsibilities included 12,000 financial consultants, 500 branch offices generating $7 billion in revenue and $1.5 billion in pre-tax profits. Van Scoy also served as a director of Robinson Humphrey, an Atlanta-based investment bank, from 1997 to 1999 and was an arbitrator for the New York Stock Exchange from 1988 to 1990. He was given the Georgia Securities Leadership award in 1993.

Sunday, May 16

Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design, 9:30 a.m., Coliseum; reception at WVU Shell Building; Rustin M. Moore, chair of the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at The Ohio State University, will speak.

• Moore is a 1986 graduate of WVU. Prior to his current appointment, Moore served as director of the Equine Health Studies Program at Louisiana State University and service chief of equine medicine and surgery in the Veterinary Teaching Hospital and Clinics at Louisiana State University. He has published numerous research articles associated with equine health.

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences hooding ceremony for masters and doctoral candidates, 10 a.m., Morgantown Event Center; reception at Morgantown Event Center (diplomas will be awarded at Sunday afternoon ceremony); David Fleming, a graduate of WVU’s English program, will speak.

• Flemming currently serves as provost and executive vide president for academics at Davenport University in Grand Rapids, Mich. Davenport is a private university specializing in business, technology and health professions. It serves approximately 12,000 students through its main campus, other locations in Michigan and online. Since assuming his current position, Fleming has spearheaded several institutional efforts to strengthen and improve Davenport University’s efficiency in meeting its educational missions, and two critical partnerships have also been finalized to insure continued growth within the academic areas of business and technology.

Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism, 10 a.m., Creative Arts Center; reception at Creative Arts Center lobby; Tom Harrison, chairman and chief executive officer of Omnicom’s Diversified Agency Services, will speak.

• Under Harrison’s watch, Diversified Agency Services has more than quadrupled in size and now accounts from almost 60 percent of the total revenues of Omnicom. DAS provides a broad range of marketing communications services including public relations, crisis management, branding, sales promotion, customer relationship management and specialty communications. Harrison, who has a degree in cell biology and physiology, began his career at Pfizer Laboratories as a sales representative. He recently published a book called INSTINCT Tapping Your Entrepreneurial DNA to Achieve Your Business Goals.

School of Medicine (professional programs: exercise physiology, medical technology, community medicine, physical therapy, occupational therapy),10:30 a.m., Student Recreation Center; reception at Student Recreation Center; Paralympic athlete Mike Schlappi will speak.

• A four-time paralympic medalist in USA men’s wheelchair basketball, Schlappi is the author of two inspirational books, Bulletproof Principals for Personal Success and Motivational Leaders. He was honored by the state of Utah as one of its Top 50 Athletes of the Century. Schlappi has a master’s degree in business administration and health care from Arizona State University and an undergraduate degree in finance from Brigham Young University.

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, 2 p.m., Coliseum; reception at WVU Shell Building; former U.S. President William J. Clinton will speak.

• President Clinton was the first Democratic president in six decades to be elected twice – first in 1992 and then in 1996. Under his leadership, the country enjoyed the strongest economy in a generation and the longest economic expansion in U.S. history, including the creation of more than 22 million jobs. After leaving the White House, President Clinton established the William J. Clinton Foundation with the mission to strengthen the capacity of people in the United States and throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence.

College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, 2:30 p.m., Creative Arts Center; reception at Creative Arts Center lobby; former WVU and NBA basketball star Jerry West.

• West, a 1960 WVU graduate, is one of University’s most accomplished basketball players. He led the Mountaineers to the Final Four in 1959, was co-captain of the 1960 U.S. Olympic gold medal team in Rome and played 14 years with the Los Angeles Lakers. He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1980 and voted one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA history in 1996. West retired in 2007 after serving five years as the manger of the Memphis Grizzlies.

-WVU-

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