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U.S. Representative Jane Lakes Harman, a leading Congressional
expert on terrorism and security issues, was the speaker at Smith College’s 128th commencement
ceremony on Sunday, May 21, 2006.
First elected to Congress
in 1992, Harman is currently serving her fifth term as representative of the Southern California
district that is home to the country’s leading defense contractors. An
attorney and an elected official, Harman is a fierce advocate of fiscal responsibility and of opportunity
for working families.
Harman’s involvement in the nation’s intelligence issues began
before September 11, 2001, when she served on the National Commission on Terrorism. Following the terrorist
attacks, she co-wrote a House report examining intelligence failures leading to that tragedy and
served on the Committee on Homeland Security. A member of the Smith
Class of 1966, previously received an honorary degree from Smith.
Following Harman’s address, four accomplished women received honorary
degrees.
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Jewel Plummer Cobb, scientist, educator
and administrator
Cobb, president emerita of California State University at Fullerton and researcher of cell biology
and cell physiology, began her teaching career in 1945 at New York University. Throughout her
lifetime, she has held appointments at numerous institutions, and, at each, she promoted programs
for the advancement of women and underrepresented minorities in science. In 1993, the National
Academy of Sciences recognized Cobb for that work with a lifetime achievement award. |
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Paula Deitz, New York literary magazine
editor
Deitz, a member of the Smith College Class of 1959, was an inspiration for the
recent establishment of Smith’s program in landscape studies, which focuses on the evolving
relationship between humans and natural and built environments. Hired as an associate editor
of the quarterly magazine The Hudson Review in 1967, Deitz rose through the ranks to become editor
in 1998. Published in New York City, the magazine provides a forum for the work of new writers
and for the exploration of new developments in literature and the arts. It has published the
work of such well-known writers as Thomas Mann, T.S. Eliot, e.e. Cummings, Eudora Welty and Dylan
Thomas. |
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Ruth Ozeki Lounsbury, filmmaker and author
After
graduating from Smith in 1980, Ozeki Lounsbury worked as an art director for low-budget horror
movies before deciding to make her own films. Her work often explores her Japanese-American heritage.
Ozeki Lounsbury won acclaim for her films “Body of Correspondence” and “Halving
the Bones,” which have been shown at the Sundance Film Festival and on PBS. Her novel “My
Year of Meats,” published in 1998, won the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize. |
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Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize winner, activist
A
longtime activist, Williams shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize with the organization she helped
found, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). Williams and the ICBL were instrumental
in the passage of an international pact outlawing landmines. In presenting the prize, the Nobel
chairman described Williams and her group as proving “that the impossible is possible.” Before
the ICBL, Williams spent more than a decade building public awareness about U.S. policy toward
Central America. |
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2006 Archive
Student Address
Ivy
Day Address
Prizes & Awards
Commencement
Traditions
Honorary
Degrees
Commencement
Speakers |
