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Founders' Day Convocation Oct. 1 Honors Duke Standouts

Among those to be honored at the cermony are Joel L. Fleishman and Ernest Mario, the winners of the University Medal for Distinguished Service, and Judy C. Woodruff, the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award.

Duke University will honor outstanding faculty, employees, alumni, students and trustees at its annual Founders' Day Convocation at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, in Duke Chapel. Honorees at the ceremony, which is open to the public, include Joel L. Fleishman, who began his ongoing Duke career in 1971 as a law professor and director of what is now the Sanford School of Public Policy; Ernest Mario, a pharmaceutical industry executive and second-longest serving Duke University trustee (1989-2007); and Judy C. Woodruff, a veteran journalist and Duke alumna. Fleishman will deliver the Founders' Day address and, along with Mario, receive the University Medal for Distinguished Service, one of Duke's highest awards. Woodruff will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award. President Richard H. Brodhead will preside over the event, which takes place one day before the university's Board of Trustees opens its fall meeting. Fleishman began his career in 1960 as assistant to the director of the Walter E. Meyer Research Institute of Law at Yale University, the same year he received the LL.M. degree from the law school there. From 1961-1965, he served as legal assistant to North Carolina Gov. Terry Sanford, who became Duke's president in 1969 and served until 1985. Fleishman was the founding director of the Institute of Policy Sciences and Public Affairs (now the Sanford School of Public Policy), a position he held until 1983. He remains a professor of law and public policy studies. Fleishman directs Duke's Heyman Center on Ethics, Public Policy and the Professions, and the Duke Foundation Research Program. His research interests include the accountability of nonprofits and foundations. Mario spent more than 40 years in the research-based pharmaceutical industry and was instrumental in establishing the Duke University Health System (DUHS), where he served as the DUHS board's first chairman from 1998 to 2007. In 2007, he was named a Duke trustee emeritus. That year he also received the American Pharmacists Association's Remington Honor Medal, the profession's highest honor. Mario joined Glaxo plc. in 1986 and eventually became the company's chief executive and deputy chairman, a period in which he led the launch of five major brands that grew the company's sales and profits by nearly 15 percent annually. He also worked as CEO and board chairman at Reliant Pharmaceuticals. Earlier this year, Mario was appointed lead independent director of Wilmington, N.C.-based Pharmaceutical Product Development, Inc., where he has been affiliated since 1993. Woodruff is a 1968 Duke political science graduate who has covered politics and other news for more than three decades at CNN, PBS and NBC. She anchored CNN's "Inside Politics" for 12 years until 2005, when she left to pursue interests in teaching, writing and public speaking. She returned to Duke in 2006 to teach the course "Media and Politics: The Clash of Ideology, Technology and Ownership." Prior to joining CNN in 1993, Woodruff was the chief Washington correspondent for NBC's "Today Show," the White House correspondent for NBC News, and the chief Washington correspondent for the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour. She served on the university's Board of Trustees from 1985-97. In other awards, the Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award will go to Mbaye Lo, an Arabic language instructor who has been teaching in the Duke Islamic Studies Center and the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies since the fall of 2006. The University Scholar/Teacher of the Year Award will go to Daniel J. Lew, a professor of pharmacology and cancer biology, and genetics. Other faculty awards to be recognized include: -- Leslie Digby, professor of evolutionary anthropology: David and Janet Brooks Trinity College Distinguished Teaching Award;

-- Diane Nelson, professor of cultural anthropology: Robert B. Cox Trinity College Distinguished Teaching Award;

-- Peter English, professor of History: Howard Johnson Distinguished Teaching Award;

-- Andrew Janiak, professor of philosophy: Richard K. Lublin Distinguished Award for Teaching Excellence;

-- Seth Dowland, lecturing fellow, and Marcia Rego, lecturing fellow: Award for Excellence in Teaching Writing;

-- Suzanne Shanahan, professor of sociology: Dean's Distinguished Service Award;

-- Craig Henriquez, professor of biomedical engineering: Klein Family Distinguished Teaching Award;

-- Mark Wiesner, professor of civil engineering: Stansell Family Distinguished Research Award;

-- Brian Mann, professor of mechanical engineering: Lois and John L. Imhoff Distinguished Teaching Award;

-- Steven Cummer, professor of electrical engineering: Capers and Marion McDonald Award for Excellence in Teaching and Research;

-- Pei Zhong, professor of mechanical engineering: Capers and Marion McDonald Award for Excellence in Mentoring and Advising;

-- John French, professor of history: Dean's Awards for Excellence in Mentoring;

-- Karen Remmer, professor of political science: Dean's Awards for Excellence in Mentoring;

-- Grant Wacker, professor of religion: Dean's Awards for Excellence in Mentoring. Those to be honored during the Founders' Day service include Angier B. Duke Scholars, Benjamin N. Duke Scholars, James B. Duke Graduate Fellows, Reginaldo Howard Scholars, University Scholars, Robertson Scholars, The Duke Endowment Fellows, Baldwin Scholars and many other undergraduate and graduate scholars.

Employees being recognized include recipients of the 2009 Presidential Awards, Diversity Award and Teamwork Award.

Founders' Day celebrates the founding of the university and provides an opportunity each year for the university to reflect on its history and heritage and to recognize major contributions by students, faculty, administrators, employees and alumni. This year's occasion will mark the 108th anniversary of the first event honoring the Duke family at this institution. In 1901, when the school was Trinity College, the school held a Benefactors' Day to pay tribute to university namesake, Washington Duke.