Nearly 4,000 students will graduate from Wayne State University during two commencement ceremonies on Thursday, May 5, 2016. The ceremonies, which conclude the university's 148th academic year, will take place at Detroit’s Ford Field.
Honorary degrees will be bestowed upon Suzanne Bellinger Feetham, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, a nationally and internationally recognized leader who has affected policy change through her positions in academia, health systems and the federal government; Thomas J. Sugrue, professor of social and cultural analysis and history at New York University; and Gretchen Carhartt Valade, chair of the Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation and past chair of Carhartt Inc.
Feetham will receive the honorary doctor of laws during the 4 p.m. ceremony. Through her research on National Institutes of Health family research grants and her seminal scholarship, she influenced a paradigm change in family science from a focus on family deficits to family strengths and shaped sustained system change. The Feetham Family Functioning Survey, developed in 1977 at Wayne State University, assesses the strengths of families and is used today in research across disciplines with translations in eight languages.
While working with the Spina Bifida Association of Michigan in the 1970s, Feetham identified the significance of family responses as a result of their learning genetic information, resulting in advocacy for families nationally and internationally. She has authored landmark publications in research of urban families, genetics and genomics to inform policy to advance the health of the public. In 2011, she was designated a Living Legend by the American Academy of Nursing.
Sugrue, a Detroit native, will receive the honorary doctor of humane letters during the 10 a.m. ceremony. His research interests include the history of the United States in the 20th century, urban politics, civil rights, and race and ethnicity. His first book, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit, received several awards, including the prestigious Bancroft Prize in History. Princeton University Press named it one of the 100 most influential books of the 20th century.
Sugrue has appeared frequently as a commentator on radio and television; has contributed to the New York Times, Washington Post, London Review of Books, The Nation, Le Monde and several other publications; and has served as an expert in several civil rights cases.
Valade, who has been a key contributor to the arts, culture and business landscape of Detroit for many years, will receive the honorary doctor of laws during the 10 a.m. ceremony. Valade, granddaughter of Hamilton Carhartt, the founder of Carhartt Inc., has received several awards for her accomplishments as a businesswoman and philanthropist.
With a strong passion for jazz, Valade founded Mack Avenue Records in 1998. Today, it’s an accomplished jazz label that is home to several outstanding artists. In 2006, Valade established the Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation. In 2015, she gifted $7.5 million dollars to Wayne State University to create a jazz performance center, as well as two endowed funds to support jazz education.
May 2016 commencement ceremony schedule
Thursday, May 5
10 a.m.
College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
School of Library and Information Science
School of Medicine (Ph.D./Master's candidates)
Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
4 p.m.
Mike Ilitch School of Business
College of Education
College of Engineering
College of Nursing
School of Social Work
*Media planning to attend the ceremonies should RSVP by emailing Tom Reynolds at treynolds@wayne.edu.
Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution offering more than 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to more than 27,000 students.