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Lafayette will award honorary doctorates to four distinguished leaders as part of the College’s 169th Commencement exercises, scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Saturday, May 22.
Shelley Brown, executive director of the State Theatre Center for the Arts, Easton, will be awarded an honorary Doctor of the Performing Arts degree. LaSalle D. Leffall Jr., Charles R. Drew Professor of Surgery at Howard University College of Medicine, will receive an honorary Doctor of Science degree.
Lafayette announced earlier that Edward G. Rendell, Governor of Pennsylvania, will deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary Doctor of Laws. Ali A. Mazrui, director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at Binghamton University, State University of New York, will deliver the Baccalaureate address at 10:30 a.m. and will be awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity.
Both the Baccalaureate and Commencement ceremonies will be held outdoors on the Quad. In case of rain, they will be held in Allan P. Kirby Sports Center. Click here for information for parents on Commencement.
Commencement will be televised live. All households within a 50-mile radius of campus can watch on RCN and WBPH-TV. The telecast will be carried statewide on PCN, Pennsylvania Cable Network.
The telecast will be available nationally via satellite (KU Band, AMC 9, Transponder K 03, Downlink Frequency 11760 Vertical). It can be viewed by those who have a satellite receiver capable of dialing into the coordinates or have access to a venue such as a restaurant that has these capabilities.
Brown has overseen all operations of the State Theatre since becoming executive director in 1993. Her responsibilities include supervising all operations and technical aspects of the State Theatre and its productions, annual and long-range fundraising, and programming over 100 shows per season for the 1,549-seat restored vaudeville house, in addition to the Acopian Ballroom and The Gallery at the State Theatre. She also created and is executive producer of the State Theatre FREDDY Awards, a Tony-award style ceremony held each May to recognize outstanding achievement in high school musicals in Lehigh and Northampton Counties, Pa., and Warren County, N.J.
Brown has received three major awards in recognition of her contributions as executive director of the State Theatre, the Athena Award from the Two Rivers Area Chamber of Commerce (2002), Martin Zippel Award from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Easton (2001), and NIKE Award from the Business & Professional Women’s Club of the Lehigh Valley (2000).
Prior to her tenure at the State Theatre, Brown was executive producer, vice president for development, and principal on-air personality of WLVT-TV, the Lehigh Valley’s public television station, for more than 18 years. Her programs received seven Golden Keystone Awards and her magazine series “First Monday” received an Emmy Award nomination.
Brown is a member of the board of directors of Easton Hospital. A native of Boston, she holds a B.A. with a major in English from Tufts University.
Leffall, a surgeon, oncologist, medical educator, and leader in professional and civic organizations, has devoted his professional life to the study of cancer, especially as it relates to African Americans. He was appointed by President George W. Bush as a member and chair of the President’s Cancer Panel in May 2002.
His membership on Howard University’s faculty began in 1962 as assistant professor and continued through appointments as acting dean and professor. He became chairman of the department of surgery in 1970, a position he held for 25 years.
In 1979, as the first African-American national president of the American Cancer Society, he launched a program on the challenge of cancer in black Americans, paying special attention to the increasing incidence and mortality in this population group. His major areas of interest are soft-part sarcomas and cancers of the breast, colorectum, and head and neck.
Leffall is chairman of the board of the Komen Foundation, a global leader in the fight against breast cancer through its support of innovative research and community-based outreach programs. Working through a network of U.S. and international affiliates and events like the Komen Race for the Cure, the foundation fights to eradicate breast cancer as a life-threatening disease by funding research grants and supporting education, screening and treatment projects in communities around the world.
A diplomate of the American Board of Surgery and fellow of the American College of Surgeons and American College of Gastroenterology (of which he was named an honorary lifetime member in 1998), Leffall has been a visiting professor and guest lecturer at more than 200 medical institutions in the United States and around the world. He has authored or coauthored more than 130 articles and chapters.
Leffall graduated summa cum laude from Florida A&M University with a B.S. degree in 1948. Four years later, he received his M.D. from Howard University College of Medicine, ranking first in his class. He continued his medical training as an intern at Homer G. Phillips Hospital, St. Louis, Mo.; assistant resident in surgery at Freedmen’s Hospital, Washington, D.C.; assistant resident in surgery at the D.C. General Hospital, Washington, D.C.; chief resident in surgery at Freedmen’s Hospital; and senior fellow in cancer surgery, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, N.Y.