For more information, contact:Christine Murphy 484-664-3235
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ALLENTOWN, Pa. - (April 24, 2002) - CBS broadcast journalist Bob Schieffer will serve as the Commencement speaker for the class of 2002 at Muhlenberg College's 154th Commencement Exercises, Sunday May 19, at 2 p.m. on the College Green. Schieffer will receive an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. Frances Moore Lappe, Heidi B. Neumark, William J. Small, Elliott Sussman and Ervin J. Rokke will also receive honorary degrees.
Bob Schieffer has been a broadcast journalist with CBS News for over a quarter of a century, and is currently the anchor and moderator for Face the Nation. He joined CBS in 1969 as a general assignment reporter, but has served as the network's chief Washington correspondent since 1991. A former CBS Evening News anchor (Saturday edition), Schieffer has experience covering Capitol Hill, State Department affairs, the Pentagon and the White House.
Lutheran pastor Heidi B. Neumark will serve as Baccalaureate speaker for the class of 2002. Neumark has served as pastor of Transfiguration (Spanish) Lutheran Church since 1984. She was previously assigned at St. Matthew -Trinity Lutheran Church in Hoboken, N.J. as an assistant pastor for the Urban Residency Program.
Neumark is a 1982 graduate of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, where she is also a member of the Board of Trustees. In 1998 she was honored with a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the seminary, and has been the recipient of a Study Grant for Pastoral Leaders from the Louisville Institute. Her experience includes working for a year with Rural America Mission, Inc. in South Carolina as well as with Christian Base Communities in South America.
Neumark's congregation is located in Hunts Point, a South Bronx neighborhood overshadowed by an environment of poverty, crime and violence. Working with this, she has served as an ecumenical leader and social activist, striving to spread the spiritual message while strengthening multi-denominational relationships.
Frances Moore Lappe created a nutrition revolution in 1971 with her "Diet for a Small Planet." She has authored or co-authored eleven books which have been used in a broad array of college courses including economics, nutrition and sociology. Lappe has received numerous awards for her work. In Sweden in 1987, she became the fourth American to receive the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the "alternative Nobel" for her "vision and work healing our planet and uplifting humanity." She is currently the director of the Center for Living Democracy in Brattleboro, VT.
William J. Small is a professor emeritus of Communications and Media Management for the Graduate School of Business Administration at the Lincoln Center Campus of Fordham University in New York City.
Small received his MA in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago in 1951. Prior to his employment in higher education, Small was a communications executive employed as president and chief operating officer of United Press International wire service from 1982-1984. He also had a lengthy career in broadcasting and was vice president and director of news for CBS, but had previously started his career in journalism in 1951 as news director for station WLS in Chicago. Currently, Small serves as vice-chairman for news and documentaries awards at the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Elliot J. Sussman, MD has been the president and chief executive officer of Lehigh Valley Health Network since 1993. He is the first physician to hold this management position at the hospital, and in 1995 he was appointed a professor of medicine at Pennsylvania State University's College of Medicine. That year, he was named chairman of the board and president for PennCare, Inc.
Sussman earned his bachelor's degree from Yale University in New Haven, Conn. in 1973, and then received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Mass. in 1997. Sussman has also earned an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business at Penn, where he was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar.
Ervin Jerome Rokke has served as the 14th president of Moravian College and Moravian Theological Seminary since 1997. Dr. Rokke studied at St. Olaf College before joining the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. After graduating from the USAF Academy in 1962 with a bachelor's degree in public affairs, Dr. Rokke went on to receive both an M.P.A. (1964) and Ph.D. in Political Science (1970) from Harvard University.
Rokke is a decorated veteran whose military honors include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal and Legion of Merit award among others. The retired Air Force lieutenant general still serves as a lecturer and consultant on international politics. Having directed intelligence operations at the European Headquarters in Stuggart, Germany, he was able to work stateside as a senior staff member of the National Security Agency during the Gulf War.
During the 1980s, Rokke was a diplomatic defense and air attache for the American embassies in Moscow and London, and then returned to the Air Force Academy as dean of faculty and a permanent professor. Rokke's expertise in military intelligence brought to Moravian College and the Lehigh Valley one of five think tank conferences held throughout the U.S. in 2000.
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