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Who Are the Honorary Degree Recipients?

Duke to honor internationally known leaders at commencement ceremony

In addition to the more than 5,300 degrees awarded to Duke students on Sunday, five distinguished leaders in the fields of health, science, journalism and literature will receive honorary degrees. 

Here’s a little more about them and why Duke is honoring them on stage at commencement.

William Foege

William H. FoegeDoctor of Science

Who: Dr. William Foege is Emeritus Presidential Distinguished Professor of International Health at Emory University and is the first senior medical adviser to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Why: Foege is widely credited with devising the global strategy for eradicating smallpox. His approach -- a combination of focused surveillance and “ring vaccination” of people who had been exposed to the disease -- led the WHO to declare smallpox eradicated in 1980.  It is the first and only disease to have been eliminated as a global threat.

Quote: Discussing skepticism he’s encountered about vaccinations, HIV and other issues in his career: “I've found that there is an incubation period for ideas as well as for viruses.” 

Did You Know: In his book “House on Fire,” Foege writes about how he came up with the idea of “surveillance and containment” as a way of fighting smallpox during an outbreak in Nigeria. He did not have enough vaccine for mass vaccination of the region. Instead, he went to each village whose inhabitants had smallpox infections and vaccinated the inhabitants of only that village and perhaps one or two neighboring villages that had frequent contact. That method was crucial to the eradication of a disease that had killed or scarred humans for more than 3,500 years.

  

Riza Lavizzo-Mourey

Risa Lavizzo-MoureyDoctor of Humane Letters

Who: Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey is president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. With assets of $10 billion, it is the fourth largest foundation in the United States.  Prior to joining the foundation, Lavizzo-Mourey was the Sylvan Eisman Professor of Medicine and Health Care Systems at the University of Pennsylvania.

Why: Under Lavizzo-Mourey’s leadership, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is striving to build a comprehensive culture of health in America by focusing on four major themes: Healthy communities; healthy children, healthy weight; transforming health and health care systems; and leadership for better health.

Quote: “There is no single solution for the confluence of societal racism, poverty and other factors that lead to poor health. However, we now know enough to improve the situation. Health builds from where we live, learn, work and play -- and only secondarily in the doctor's office. Data conclusively show that early childhood education matters greatly, as does the nutritional value of the food we put in our bodies and our access to safe outdoor spaces.”

Did You Know: In administrative roles, Lavizzo-Mourey was an advocate for hands-on medicine. In 1998, as chief of geriatric medicine and director of the Institute on Aging at the University of Pennsylvania, she made house calls as part of a model team program to care for elderly people in Philadelphia. "If you never see how patients are functioning in their homes, you are in many ways treating them in the dark," she said.

 

Charlie Rose

Charlie RoseDoctor of Humane Letters 

Who: Charlie Rose currently holds down four jobs.  He is anchor and executive editor of “Charlie Rose,” the nightly one-hour program that engages in one-on-one, in-depth conversations and round-table discussions, and the newly launched “Charlie Rose: The Week.” Rose also co-anchors “CBS This Morning” and is a correspondent for “60 Minutes.” 

Why: In a career of more than four decades, the Henderson, North Carolina, native has been praised for rigorous interviews of a variety of guests ranging from leaders such as Nelson Mandela to actors, musicians and comedians. Rose, a Duke alumnus, won an Emmy Award and Peabody Prize for his 2013 interview with Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad. Other honors include France’s Legion d'honneur and being named among the world’s 100 most influential people by TIME magazine. Rose received the 2015 Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism and the 2014 Vincent Scully Prize.

Quote: “I get up every morning with a new adventure. The adventure is fueled by interesting people.”

Did You Know: Rose entered Duke University as a premed student. During college, an internship in Congress led to an interest in politics.  He ultimately graduated from Duke with a history major and later earned a J.D. from Duke's School of Law.

 

Natasha Trethewey

Natasha TretheweyDoctor of Humane Letters 

Who: Natasha Trethewey served as United States Poet Laureate from 2012 to 2014.  She is currently the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University, where she is the director of the Creative Writing Program.  

Why: A native of Gulfport, Mississippi, where her parents’ interracial marriage was illegal at the time of her birth, Trethewey’s poetry explores the historical and personal significance of America’s racial legacy. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2007 for her collection “Native Guard,” which tells the story of the Louisiana Native Guards, an all-black regiment in the Union Army. 

Quote: “Even though I am the daughter of a poet, and my stepmother is also a poet, growing up, I didn't think I could understand poetry; I didn't think that it had any relevance to my life, the feelings that I endured on a day-to-day basis, until I was introduced to the right poem.”

Did You Know? Trethewey spent the 2005-06 academic year teaching at Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies and at UNC-Chapel Hill as the Lehman Brady Professor of Documentary and American Studies.

 

S. Varadhan

Srinivasa VaradhanDoctor of Science

Who: Born in Chennai, India, Srinivasa Varadhan arrived in the United States in 1963, when he became a postdoctoral fellow at the Courant Institute at New York University.  He is still at the institute as professor of mathematics and Frank J. Gould Professor of Science.  

Why: Varadhan is best known for his fundamental contributions to probability theory, in particular for creating a unified theory of large deviations. His work opened up new abilities to assess probability of rare events and is useful in a variety of ways, from quantum field theory and statistical mechanics to population dynamics and traffic control. He has received many of the major awards in math, and in 2010 President Obama awarded him the National Medal of Science, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on scientists.

Quote: “You struggle and struggle with [challenging problems], sometimes for months, sometimes for years and sometimes for a lifetime! And eventually, suddenly one day you see how to fix that small piece. And then the whole structure is complete. … Then that is a real revelation, and you enjoy a satisfaction that you cannot describe.”

Did You Know? His son Ashok Varadhan is a 1994 Duke graduate and serves on the board of directors of DUMAC, which manages Duke University’s endowment and other financial assets.