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Release date: 6-Mar-06 Children's Defense Fund Founder to Speak at Emory Commencement
"These three extraordinary individuals exemplify Emory's commitment to creating positive change in the world, and we are honored to recognize them for their achievements as we celebrate the class of 2006," says Emory University President James Wagner. Edelman has been an advocate for disadvantaged Americans her entire professional life. Under her leadership, the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) has become the nation's strongest voice for children and families. "Mrs. Edelman has been high on Emory's list of potential speakers for a long time. Her ethical engagement in society, her commitment to education in a variety of arenas, and her restlessness to achieve better communities for the children of our world resonate fully with Emory's own vision. In addition, she is a wonderfully inspiring speaker," says Wagner, who will preside over the ceremony for approximately 3,400 graduates and their families. Edelman, a graduate of Spelman College and Yale Law School, began her career in the mid-1960s when, as the first black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar, she directed the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund office in Jackson, Miss. In l968, she moved to Washington, D.C., as counsel for the Poor People's Campaign that Martin Luther King Jr. began organizing before his death. She founded the Washington Research Project, a public interest law firm and the parent body of the Children's Defense Fund. For two years she served as the director of the Center for Law and Education at Harvard University, and in l973 began CDF. Edelman served on the board of trustees of Spelman College, which she chaired from 1976 to 1987. She was the first woman elected by alumni as a member of the Yale University Corporation on which she served from 1971 to 1977. She has received many awards for her work including the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Prize, the Heinz Award and a MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship. In 2000, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, and the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award for her writings. She is the author of eight books, including 2005's "I Can Make a Difference: A Treasury to Inspire Our Children." Stephen B. Bright is a nationally renowned public interest lawyer. A graduate of the University of Kentucky School of Law, Bright gave up a potentially lucrative practice to pursue public interest and social justice law, and has been an advocate for addressing flaws in the criminal justice system. As director and president of Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights, Bright helps provide legal representation to people facing the death penalty and to prisoners challenging unconstitutional conditions in prisons and jails throughout the South. The center also is engaged in efforts to improve access to lawyers and the legal system by poor people accused of crimes and in prison, and to bring about greater judicial independence. Bright regularly teaches law, social justice and the death penalty courses at Emory Law School, Yale and Harvard universities, in addition to serving as a trial attorney on death penalty cases since 1979. He also actively mentors Emory law students who take field placements at the center. He previously has served as an attorney for the Public Defender Service in Washington, D.C., and for the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund in Kentucky. He is a regular contributor to scholarly law journals as well. Bright has received numerous awards for his work, including the John Minor Wisdom Professionalism and Public Service Award from the American Bar Association, and the Award for Leadership in Human Right from Columbia University. He will receive a doctor of laws degree. Dietrich von Bothmer is considered by many to be the world's leading archaeologist and historian of classic art. Von Bothmer, who will receive a doctor of letters honorary degree, is currently the distinguished research curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, after serving there in various roles since 1946. He is one of the remaining giants of a wave of German intellectuals who escaped pre-war Germany to build a career in America. Before obtaining U.S. citizenship, von Bothmer joined the U.S. Army and was assigned to the Pacific theater during World War II, where he was wounded, awarded the Bronze Star for gallantry, and made a U.S. citizen. He studied at the University of Chicago before completing his Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley in 1944. His distinguished academic career includes being named a Rhodes Scholar, Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur and member of the Deutches Archaologisches Institut. He holds honorary doctorates from the universities of Oxford and Trier, and will receive his first honorary degree from an American university at Emory's commencement ceremony. Von Bothmer's scholarship focuses on the study of the style, shape and iconography of Greek vases. He is also acknowledged as one of the finest scholars in the field of Greek and Roman bronzes, and is the author of 265 publications. In 1999, the Met named the two principal galleries of Classical pottery the "Bothmer Gallery I" and the "Bothmer Gallery II" in his honor. At Emory, von Bothmer has bolstered the Carlos Museum's collections of Greek vase fragments and proposed additional gifts over time of a major part of his personal collection, which is among the best in the world. The first two installments of his gifts gave Emory one of the six most significant collections of Greek vases in the country. ### Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. For nearly two decades Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, the state's largest and most comprehensive health care system. Subscribe to News@Emory RSS feeds for automatic updates of the latest news at Emory. |
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