Honorary degree recipients

Wake Forest awarded four honorary degrees during the Commencement ceremony May 15, 2006:

Former Virginia Governor Mark Warner, who delivered the Commencement address, received an honorary doctor of laws degree. Author and preacher Barbara Brown Taylor, who delivered the Baccalaureate address on May 14, received an honorary doctor of divinity degree.

Prominent medical researchers Elias A. Zerhouni and Walter A. Orenstein received honorary doctor of science degrees. Zerhouni is director of the National Institutes of Health. Orenstein is associate director of the Emory University Vaccine Center and a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Immunization Program.

Wake Forest has awarded honorary degrees since 1849. The first honorary degree was awarded to Wake Forest founder and first president Samuel Wait.

MARK WARNER
Doctor of Laws
Sponsor: Michele K. Gillespie, Kahle Associate Professor of History

Former Virginia Governor Mark Warner left office in January as one of the most popular governors in Virginia history. He was described recently in The New York Times Magazine as "the bright new star in the constellation of would-be candidates" for the 2008 presidential race. A native of Indiana, he graduated from George Washington University — the first member of his family to graduate from college — and received his law degree from Harvard. He was a leading figure in the telecommunications industry in the 1980s and co-founded Nextel Communications. He began his political career in 1993 as chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia and was elected governor in 2001. He was recognized by Time magazine as one of the "Five Best Governors" in 2005, and by Governing magazine as one of its "Public Officials of the Year" in 2004.

BARBARA BROWN TAYLOR
Doctor of Divinity
Sponsor: Bill J. Leonard, Dean of the Divinity School

Barbara Brown Taylor is a gifted author, storyteller, and preacher, who shared her gifts through her writing initially before being ordained in 1983. She spent fifteen years in parish ministry, first at All Saints' Church in Atlanta and then at Grace-Calvary Church in Clarkesville, Georgia, before turning to education full-time. Today, she holds the Harry R. Butman Chair in Religion and Philosophy at Piedmont Bible College in rural northeast Georgia. She is also an adjunct professor of Christian spirituality at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. In recent years, she has lectured at Yale, Princeton, and Duke universities, and has preached at churches across the country. In 1995, Baylor University listed her among the twelve most effective preachers in the English language. She is the author of eleven books, including When God is Silent and Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith, published earlier this year.

ELIAS A. ZERHOUNI, M.D.
Doctor of Science
Sponsor: C. Douglas Maynard, M.D., Professor and Chair Emeritus, Department of Radiology

Since being named director of the National Institutes of Health in 2002, Dr. Elias Zerhouni has doubled the NIH budget, leading to a record number of research grants awarded and increased support for clinical trials. He oversees twenty-seven institutes and centers with more than 17,000 employees and a budget of $28 billion. A native of Algeria, he earned his medical degree at the University of Algiers School of Medicine in 1975. He came to the United States at the age of 24 and completed his residency in diagnostic radiology at Johns Hopkins in 1978. His research in imaging has led to numerous advances in technology, resulting in eight patents. He served on the National Cancer Institute's Board of Scientific Advisors from 1998-2002 and has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine since 2000.

WALTER A. ORENSTEIN, M.D.
Doctor of Science
Sponsor: Jon S. Abramson, M.D., Weston M. Kelsey Professor and Chair, Department of Pediatrics

Walter Orenstein is a professor of medicine and pediatrics at Emory University, where he serves as the director of the Program for Vaccine Policy and Development and associate director of the Vaccine Center. Previously, he was director of the National Immunization Program for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During his twenty-six years at the CDC, he led the global effort to eliminate many of the world's most common vaccine-preventable diseases. He is credited with attaining the highest immunization levels ever in U.S. children, eliminating indigenous transmission of measles, introducing several new vaccinations, and involving the CDC in the global polio eradication initiative. He is also a former assistant surgeon general of the U.S. Public Health Service. He currently chairs the World Health Organization's Technical Consultative Group on the Global Eradication of Poliomyelitis. He received his bachelor's degree from the City College of New York and his medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

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