Georgetown University 2016 Commencement Speakers

Posted in GUMC Stories

MAY 9, 2016 — A physician devoted to improving medical education effectiveness, an advocate for safe delivery of culturally competent care and an award winning novelist, journalist and poet have been tapped to deliver the 2016 commencement addresses for the School of Medicine, the School of Nursing & Health Studies Graduate and the School of Arts and Sciences.

Students, family, faculty, alumni and friends can follow commencement activities online, including live webcasts. Information about how to share memories, pictures and words of wisdom with the class of 2016 can be viewed here (new window) beginning May 12.

School of Nursing & Health Studies

Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN (new window)
Chief Executive Officer, National League for Nursing

Malone is an internationally renowned leader in the health care field and a strong advocate for the safe delivery of culturally competent care to diverse patient populations.

Malone’s achievements are recognized professionally though her elected membership in the National Academy of Medicine and fellowship in the American Academy of Nursing. She has served as CEO of the National League for Nursing since 2007 and previously held the prominent role of general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, which is the largest professional union of nurses in the United Kingdom.

In 2010 and 2015, Modern Healthcare magazine named her one of the 100 most powerful people in health care. Malone’s background includes academe, clinical practice and policy.

She has served as dean of the School of Nursing at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, president of the American Nurses Association and deputy assistant secretary for health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Honorary Degree: Doctor of Science
Saturday, May 21, Healy Lawn, 12 p.m.

You can watch a live stream of the celebration here (new window). A video of the event will be archived and a link available soon after the conclusion.

School of Medicine

Kelley Michael Skeff, MD, PhD (new window)
George Deforest Barnett Professor of Medicine, Stanford University

Skeff is the George DeForest Barnett Professor in Stanford University’s Department of Internal Medicine, and co-director of the Stanford Faculty Development Center for Medical Teachers. He was the internal medicine residency program director at Stanford for 2 decades. 

His academic career has focused on methods to assist faculty and residents internationally to improve their teaching effectiveness, resulting in the development of the Stanford Faculty Development Center (SFDC). The SFDC uses a dissemination approach that trains faculty from institutions internationally to train their own faculty colleagues and housestaff to become more effective teachers.

Since 1986, the SFDC has trained 378 faculty trainers from 156 institutions in 16 countries to become local, regional, and national resources for the improvement of medical education. These faculty have, in turn, assisted over 15,000 faculty and residents to improve their teaching effectiveness. 

Skeff has received several awards  for teaching and mentorship at Stanford, and national awards including the AAMC/AOA Distinguished Teacher Award in the Clinical Sciences, the first national award for Career Achievement in Medical Education from the Society of General Internal Medicine, the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine’s Distinguished Medical Educator Award and the AAMC Flexner Award for Distinguished Service to Medical Education. He was a Regent and is a Master of the American College of Physicians. 

Skeff received his MD from the University of Colorado and his PhD from the Stanford School of Education. 

Honorary Degree: Doctor of Science
Sunday, May 22, DAR Constitution Hall, 11 a.m.

You can watch a live stream of the celebration here (new window). A video of the event will be archived and a link available soon after the conclusion.

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Elena Poniatowska Amor (new window) 
Journalist, Novelist, Poet

Elena Poniatowska Amor was born in Paris in 1932 with the title of Princess Helene Louise Elizabeth Dolores Amelie Paula Poniatowska Amor.

Amor has an extensive literary career, and has touched almost all literary genres including novels, short stories, poetry, essays, stories and children’s stories and dramatizations.

In 1955, she published her first novel, “Lilus Kikus.” 

Amor combines her journalistic work with literary and published numerous novels.

She has taught literature and journalism at the National Institutes of Kairos and  National Youth (INJ) and was a founding member of the National Film and Siglo XXI. She has also studied important figures of culture as the Mexican poet Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz and Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco, through short films.

The Mexican writer has a literary prize that bears her name, established in 2007 by the Government of Mexico City and is “honoris causa” by universities around the world. In 2013 she obtained the Cervantes prize.

(Excerpted and translated from a biography on the Cervantes Institute website (new window).)

Honorary Degree: Doctor of Humane Letters
Friday, May 20, Healy Lawn, 9 a.m.

To read about speakers for other schools, click here (new window).