Spring 2017 • May 7, 2017 • 12 P.M
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THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY 415TH COMMENCEMENT SPRING 2017 • MAY 7, 2017 • 12 P.M. • OHIO STADIUM Presiding Officer Commencement Address Conferring of Degrees in Course Michael V. Drake Abigail S. Wexner Colleges presented by President Bruce A. McPheron Student Speaker Executive Vice President and Provost Prelude—11:30 a.m. Gerard C. Basalla to 12 p.m. Class of 2017 Welcome to New Alumni The Ohio State University James E. Smith Wind Symphony Conferring of Senior Vice President of Alumni Relations Russel C. Mikkelson, Conductor Honorary Degrees President and CEO Recipients presented by The Ohio State University Alumni Association, Inc. Welcome Alex Shumate, Chair Javaune Adams-Gaston Board of Trustees Senior Vice President for Student Life Alma Mater—Carmen Ohio Charles F. Bolden Jr. Graduates and guests led by Doctor of Public Administration Processional Daina A. Robinson Abigail S. Wexner Oh! Come let’s sing Ohio’s praise, Doctor of Public Service National Anthem And songs to Alma Mater raise; Graduates and guests led by While our hearts rebounding thrill, Daina A. Robinson Conferring of Distinguished Class of 2017 Service Awards With joy which death alone can still. Recipients presented by Summer’s heat or winter’s cold, Invocation Alex Shumate The seasons pass, the years will roll; Imani Jones Lucy Shelton Caswell Time and change will surely show Manager How firm thy friendship—O-hi-o! Department of Chaplaincy and Clinical Richard S. Stoddard Pastoral Education Awarding of Diplomas Wexner Medical Center Excerpts from the commencement ceremony will be broadcast on WOSU-TV, Channel 34, on Monday, May 8, at 5:30 p.m. Livestream coverage and a replay of the ceremony in its entirety can be viewed at commencement.osu.edu/video.html. 1 COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS Abigail S. Wexner DOCTOR OF PUBLIC SERVICE For more than two decades, During her seven-year tenure as The Wexner Foundation, The Wexner Abigail S. Wexner has stood at the chair of the Nationwide Children’s Center Foundation and the United leading edge of business, civic and Hospital Board of Directors, States Equestrian Team Foundation. philanthropic endeavors locally and Mrs. Wexner oversaw the largest She previously chaired the Columbus nationwide. Mrs. Wexner is CEO of pediatric expansion in national history. Foundation’s Governing Committee Whitebarn Associates, a private This milestone accomplishment and held a presidential appointment to investment company, as well significantly expanded pediatric The United States Holocaust Memorial as an esteemed leader in the health care and research in central Museum. She was appointed to a Buckeye community, holding Ohio and has earned Nationwide nine-year term on Ohio State’s Board positions on The Ohio State Children’s annual recognition since of Trustees in 2014, ending in 2023. University Board of Trustees and 2006 by U.S. News & World Report A magna cum laude and Phi Beta The Ohio State University Wexner as one of America’s Best Hospitals. Kappa graduate of Barnard College Medical Center Board. Mrs. Wexner lends her extensive at Columbia University, Mrs. Wexner Guided by an unwavering generosity and expertise to numerous earned a law degree from the New dedication to family and children’s business, community and nonprofit York University School of Law before issues, Mrs. Wexner is a founding boards, including L Brands, Inc., practicing with the London and New board member and vice chair of Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc., York offices of Davis Polk & Wardwell KIPP Columbus, a free, open- the KIPP Foundation, Harvard from 1987 to 1992. enrollment, high-performing college University’s Center for Public Mrs. Wexner is married to Leslie H. preparatory public school, and Leadership, the Columbus Downtown Wexner, chairman and founder of founder and chair of The Center Development Corporation, the L Brands, Inc. They have four children. for Family Safety and Healing. Columbus Partnership, Pelotonia, STUDENT SPEAKER Gerard C. Basalla CLASS OF 2017 While completing his undergraduate population in high- Ohio Union Activities Board and undergraduate studies in political level academic, financial and policy served as the public relations chair science and strategic communication discussions. His priorities focused for the Delta Tau Delta fraternity. at Ohio State, Gerard C. Basalla on improving college affordability, He also served on the University excelled as a student leader promoting diversity and inclusion Senate, participating in the Steering dedicated to initiating positive initiatives and enhancing mental Committee and Council on Student change. Demonstrating an unwavering health resources. Affairs. In the summer of 2016, commitment to the university and its During Mr. Basalla’s tenure, USG he interned for Ohio Senator Rob student body, Mr. Basalla began his passed two resolutions through Portman in his Washington, D.C., career with Undergraduate Student Ohio State’s University Senate. office, working alongside staff Government during his first year on The first increased textbook members who were responsible campus, serving as an intern and affordability, which will save students for the senator’s legislative and member of the Outreach Committee. approximately $2.5 million in 2018 administrative operations. In his second and third years, through timely textbook ordering. Born in Parma, Ohio, Mr. Basalla he tackled the roles of Social and The second recommended the will remain in the Buckeye state after Behavioral Sciences senator, deputy inclusion of a mental health statement graduation with plans to become the director of the Student Affairs on course syllabi. In light of these special assistant to the president and Committee and deputy chief of accomplishments, he was nominated CEO of the Columbus Partnership, a staff. Ultimately, in his final year at for the National Campus Leadership nonprofit group of chief executives Ohio State, he was elected president Council’s Student Body President of from leading businesses and of USG for 2016-17. the Year Award. institutions in Columbus who As USG president, Mr. Basalla Beyond USG, Mr. Basalla has been are committed to improving the represented the university’s involved with event planning for the economic vitality of the region. 2 RECIPIENTS OF HONORS Charles F. Bolden Jr. DOCTOR OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION Nominated by President Barack in the Marine Corps as an aviator, innovative technology crucial to Obama, Major General Charles F. flying more than 100 combat missions the advancement of space travel, Bolden Jr., USMC (Ret.), served for in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in the such as the Space Launch System nearly eight years as the 12th early 1970s. rocket and Orion spacecraft that administrator of the National In 1977, Major General Bolden will carry astronauts to deep Aeronautics and Space Administration earned a graduate degree in systems space destinations. until his retirement in January 2017. management from the University of Under his leadership, the agency’s As administrator of NASA, Major Southern California, and was selected support of commercial space General Bolden — the first African as an astronaut candidate in 1980. transportation systems for reaching American to hold the office — led He traveled into orbit four times low-Earth orbit has enabled successful a nationwide team to advance the as a member of NASA’s Astronaut commercial cargo resupply of the missions and goals of the U.S. space Corps, commanding two missions International Space Station. He also program, shepherding a new era and piloting both the Columbia and oversaw a variety of dynamic science of space exploration focused on Discovery shuttles. His missions activities at NASA, including the aeronautics technology development included the deployment of the unprecedented landing of the and increased utilization of the Hubble Space Telescope and the first Curiosity rover on Mars, the launch International Space Station. American-Russian joint international of a spacecraft to Jupiter and Born in Columbia, South Carolina, space mission. He was inducted continued progress toward the Major General Bolden received an into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame 2018 launch of the James Webb appointment to the U.S. Naval in 2006. Space Telescope — the successor Academy, where he completed his During his tenure as NASA to the Hubble Space Telescope. undergraduate studies in electrical administrator, Major General Bolden science in 1968. He went on to serve led the agency in developing Lucy Shelton Caswell DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD Countless scholars at Ohio State alumnus Milton Caniff, creator of the San Francisco Academy of Comic and beyond owe a debt of gratitude beloved “Terry and the Pirates” and Art, rescued from the bound to Lucy Shelton Caswell, a celebrated “Steve Canyon” adventure comic newspaper volumes that libraries authority on cartoon art and the series, donated an extensive trove across the country had discarded visionary behind the creation of of memorabilia and manuscripts in favor of microfilm. the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & to the university. Under her leadership, donations Museum — the foremost collection of As curator of the Milton Caniff increased and the collection outgrew cartoon and comics materials in the Collection, Professor Emerita Caswell multiple storage facilities. In 2013, world. Thanks to her efforts, Ohio embarked on a considerable journey, after eight years of fundraising and State is home to one of the first which began in 1977, to survey, archive construction, the new, state-of-the-art