Colorado State University Announces Spring Commencement Ceremonies May 16-18

Note to Reporters: Photos from past commencement ceremonies are available with the news release at news.colostate.edu.

Colorado State University will confer degrees on spring 2013 graduates at commencement ceremonies May 16-18.

College ceremonies and ROTC commissionings at Colorado State University will recognize 3,100 undergraduate and 945 graduate students, including 66 doctoral students and 141 DVM students. Seventy-three students are candidates for distinction as summa cum laude, 139 as magna cum laude and 229 as cum laude.

Colorado State will confer honorary doctoral degrees on Dave and Gail Liniger, founders of RE/MAX International Inc., at the College of Business commencement ceremony at 8 a.m. May 18 at Moby Arena.

When the Linigers founded RE/MAX in 1973, it revolutionized the way real estate companies were structured. Expanding from its Colorado beginnings to a global company with more than 90,000 agents in 88 countries, RE/MAX International Inc. transformed the real estate industry and become the largest privately owned real estate franchising company in the world. Over the years, the Linigers also have built an impressive record of community service, outreach and charitable giving while overcoming some formidable personal challenges as well.

Commencement ceremonies, with the exception of the ROTC commissionings, will be webcast live. The ceremonies can be found at commencement.colostate.edu.

Commencement speakers for this year’s ceremonies include:

Michael Martin, chancellor of the Colorado State University System, will speak at the College of Agricultural Sciences commencement ceremony at noon May 18 at Moby Arena. Martin served four years as campus chancellor of Louisiana State University and A&M College prior to joining the CSU System. An academic leader dedicated to the land-grant mission of teaching, research and extension service, Martin is recognized as a strong voice for education and the agriculture industry. In 2007, he received the Justin Smith Morrill Memorial Award, named after the author of the bill creating land-grant universities, for his outstanding service on behalf of the land-grant mission. Only six individuals have been designated to receive this award since its inception in 1980.

A native of Crosby, Minn., Martin earned a bachelor’s degree in business and economics and a master’s degree in economics at Mankato State College in Minnesota. He received his Ph.D. in applied economics from the University of Minnesota in 1977. His areas of specialization are prices, international trade, public policy, transportation and business logistics.

Rich Feller, a professor of counseling and career development in the School of Education at Colorado State, will speak at the College of Applied Human Sciences (recently renamed the College of Health and Human Sciences) commencement ceremony at 7:30 p.m. May 17 at Moby Arena. In his role as professor, Feller has been influencing the field of counseling and career development with innovative methods since 1980. He teaches graduate courses in career development, counseling, and organizational performance and change. Having served fast food at McDonald’s to study youth employment, co-produced a video in Sudan on starvation and famine relief, and co-authored a print, internet and video career development program used by more than 20 million students, he enjoys making classes high energy, experiential and reflective. Feller is one of CSU’s 12 University Distinguished Teaching Scholars, the recipient of the National Career Development Association’s Eminent Career Award and developer of www.stemcareer.com. As an international consultant, author and presenter, Feller has shared his expertise on six continents and in 40 states. He serves as the president of the National Career Development Association, the leading career development association in the world. He became an advisor to AARP’s Life-Reimagined program and Chief Scientist at YouScience in 2012. The annual Rich Feller Leadership Award was created by the Colorado Career Development Association for his contributions in 2007.

Kevin Lear, a professor in the College of Engineering, will speak at the College of Engineering commencement ceremony at 11:30 a.m. May 17 at Moby Arena. After Ph.D. studies as an Office of Naval Research Fellow at Stanford University, Lear joined Sandia National Laboratories as a senior member of the technical staff where he developed high performance laser diode technology. He left Sandia to commercialize the technology as the chief scientific officer and head of development for MicroOptical Devices. His research in vertical cavity surface emitting lasers has led to performance benchmarks for efficiency and speed, a number of related patents and recognition with an IEEE LEOS Distinguished Lecturer Award. Since moving to Colorado State University, his research has focused on photonic biosensors as well as components and systems for high speed optical communication. He serves as a consultant and advisory board member for a number of high technology companies.

Jonathan Kedrowski, a mountaineer, scholar and author, will speak at the College of Natural Sciences commencement ceremony at 3 p.m. May 18 at Moby Arena. Kedrowski was born and raised in Vail, Colo. He graduated from the University of South Florida in 2006 with a Master of Arts in Environmental Geography and a Secondary Education Social Science Education Teaching Degree. Kedrowski wrapped up his Ph.D. in Environmental Geography at Texas State University in 2010 and is a former assistant professor and current research associate in the Department of Geography at Central Washington University.

Kedrowski’s research involves human and environmental impacts, mountain geography, climate change, route assessment, outdoor wilderness experience and protected area management and sustainability. Kedrowski’s passion, however, is mountain climbing. He has summited Mount Rainier 14 times, and is the first person to camp and spend the night on the top all of Colorado’s 55 official 14,000-foot peaks in only 95 days. In 2012, Kedrowski successfully climbed Mt. Everest. Fulfilling his lifelong goal, however, was not without incident, as he witnessed and survived one of the worst climbing tragedies on Everest.

Noreen Walsh, regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, will speak at the Warner College of Natural Resources commencement ceremony at 12:30 p.m. May 18 at the Campus Recreation Center. In her capacity as regional director, Walsh oversees service activities for all eight states in the Mountain-Prairie Region — one of the largest geographic jurisdictions in the service. She leads more than a thousand employees across the region, from the regional office in Lakewood, Colo., to the Bozeman Fish Technology Center in Montana and the Flint Hills National Wildlife Refuge in Kansas. Walsh also oversees the protection and conservation of some of the last intact habitat for native species in the region, such as grizzly bears, wolves, sage grouse, black-footed ferrets and millions of migratory birds who journey through and breed in the region’s Prairie Pothole landscape every year.

As deputy regional director, Walsh served as the chief operating officer for the Mountain-Prairie Region, working to conserve fish, wildlife and habitat for the continuing benefit of the American people. Prior to that, Walsh served as a biologist at the service’s headquarters in Washington D.C., worked in the Oklahoma Ecological Services Field Office during the late 1990s, and spent the first five years of her service career as a research biologist working out of Fairbanks, Alaska, investigating biological issues on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Following is a list of starting times and locations for each CSU commencement ceremony.

May 16

– Professional Veterinary Medicine, 5:30 p.m., Moby Arena

May 17

– Air Force ROTC Commissioning, 8 a.m., Lory Student Center East Ballroom
– Army ROTC Commissioning, 9:30 a.m., Lory Student Center Theatre
– College of Engineering, 11:30 a.m., Moby Arena
– Graduate School, 3 p.m., Moby Arena
– College of Applied Human Sciences (recently renamed the College of Health & Human Sciences), 7:30 p.m., Moby Arena

May 18

– College of Business, 8 a.m., Moby Arena
– College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, 9 a.m., Campus Recreation Center
– College of Agricultural Sciences, Noon, Moby Arena
– Warner College of Natural Resources, 12:30 p.m., Campus Recreation Center
– College of Natural Sciences, 3 p.m., Moby Arena
– College of Liberal Arts I (Art and Music, Theatre, and Dance), 4 p.m., Campus Recreation Center
– College of Liberal Arts II (Humanities and Social Sciences), 6:30 p.m., Moby Arena

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