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Tom Brokaw
Doris Ann Burke
Very Reverend D. Dominic Izzo, O.P.
Ruth J. Simmons
Robert E. White

Tom Brokaw

Tom Brokaw, Providence College is proud today to pay tribute to your outstanding achievements and reputation for excellence in broadcast journalism.

As a native of South Dakota, you earned your degree from the University of South Dakota where your broadcast career began. Your long tenure in television news began in 1962 at KMTV in Omaha, and later continued at stations in Atlanta and Los Angeles, before you joined NBC News in 1966. You anchored the "Today" program from 1976 to 1981 and then spent more than 20 years as the anchor and managing editor of the "NBC Nightly News" until your last broadcast on December 1st, 2004.

During your 38 years with NBC News, you covered every American presidential election from 1968 through 2004; you served as NBC White House correspondent during the Watergate controversy; moderated nine primary or general election debates; and obtained exclusive, historic interviews with foreign leaders, including Mikhail Gorbachev, Vladimir Putin, and the Dalai Lama.

For this generation, your calm demeanor and integrity in broadcasting carried us through the fall of the Berlin Wall, national tragedies of the Oklahoma City bombing and the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and reports from the front lines of conflict in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. As an author of four best-selling books, you brought your insights on courage in an earlier generation of conflicts, including the Contra rebels and heroes of World War II.

For these reasons, Father Chairman and Father President, the Corporation of Providence College presents Tom Brokaw as one deemed worthy to receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Public Service and requests you to confer upon him this degree together with all its rights and privileges.

Doris Ann Burke

As a true pioneer in sports broadcasting, Doris Burke, you have continued a tradition of firsts that began in high school.

You were high school Female Athlete of the Year in 1984 and First Team All-State in basketball and softball. During your athletic career at Providence College, you were a member of the BIG EAST's All-Rookie Team in 1985, and the conference's All-Tournament Team in 1986 and 1987. At the time of your graduation with a Health Services Administration and Social Work degree in 1987, you were ranked first in career and season assists and free throws at Providence College, ranked first in BIG EAST career assists, and ranked first in career and season assists in New England. In 1999, you were elected the fifth female athlete ever inducted into the Providence College Athletic Hall of Fame.

Now you are a basketball analyst/reporter for ESPN, ABC Sports, the Madison Square Garden Network, and regional networks. You have broadcast men's and women's college basketball and NBA and WNBA professional basketball games. You garnered other firsts when you were chosen to be the first woman to call a BIG EAST men's basketball game, to call a New York Knicks game on radio and television, and first to serve as a regular female commentator for college basketball.

For these reasons, Father Chairman and Father President, the Corporation of Providence College presents Doris Ann Burke as one deemed worthy to receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Humanities and requests you to confer upon her this degree together with all its rights and privileges.

Very Reverend D. Dominic Izzo, O.P.

Providence College is delighted to recognize your achievements, Very Reverend Dominic Izzo, O.P., as a son of Rhode Island who has dedicated his life to the Church and its ministry.

Born in Providence, educated through elementary and secondary schools in Cranston, and a 1988 graduate of Providence College, you were ordained in the Order of Preachers in 1994.  You were called to serve the preaching ministry of the Order throughout the world.  After an assignment at St. Gertrude Priory in Cincinnati, Ohio, you went to Nairobi, Kenya, where you served as Superior of the Dominican missionary and as Master of Students, Senior Lecturer, and Director of the Institute of Spirituality and Religious Formation at the Theological Center of Tangaza College.  In 2000, you became Vicar Provincial of Eastern Africa and two years later were elected Prior Provincial of the Province of St. Joseph.  You continue to serve the College as Chairman of the Providence College Corporation.  This August you will assume your new duties of President of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, having been elected to that post last year.

Almost 800 years ago, Pope Honorius III asked Dominicans to be "champions of the faith and true lights of the world."  By your life and your preaching, you constantly call upon Dominicans to believe in and listen to each other and those whom you serve.

For these reasons, Mr. Chairman and Father President, the Corporation of Providence College presents the Very Reverend D. Dominic Izzo, O.P., as one deemed worthy to receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity and requests you to confer upon him this degree together with all its rights and privileges.


Ruth J. Simmons

Ruth J. Simmons, you demonstrate by your words and actions the possibilities of human potential when one believes in herself and others believe in you.

The great granddaughter of slaves and the 12th child of Texas sharecroppers, your parents and teachers gave you the inspiration to graduate from Dillard University and go on to earn a Ph.D. at Harvard in Romance Languages.  As a scholar, you were primarily concerned with the francophone literature of Africa and the Caribbean; as an administrator, you have impressive accomplishments in advancing institutional diversity, collaborative research, and faculty support in important positions at the University of Southern California, Spelman College and Princeton University.  In 1995, you were appointed President of Smith College, becoming the first African-American woman to lead a top-ranked college or university.  In 2001, you came to Providence as President of Brown University.  Providence College is honoring you today because your deep appreciation for enduring human values, your commitment to inclusion, and your continuing quest for civility in society are central to our mission as a Catholic and Dominican college.

For these reasons, Father Chairman and Father President, the Corporation of Providence College presentsRuth J. Simmons as one deemed worthy to receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters and requests you to confer upon her this degree together with all its rights and privileges.

Robert E. White

In the words of Ralph Bunche, "Peace, to have meaning for many who have only known suffering in both peace and war, must be translated into bread or rice, shelter, health and education, as well as freedom and dignity."  Robert E. White, in a distinguished career you have promoted a U.S. foreign policy that seeks that kind of peace through cooperation, demilitarization, and respect for human rights.

After receiving your undergraduate degree at St. Michael's College in 1952, you were a Fulbright Scholar in England and earned your master's degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Medford, Mass., in 1954.  Your diplomatic career took you from the Office of International Trade through a variety of postings at U.S. embassies throughout the world, culminating in the Ambassadorship in Paraguay and later El Salvador.  In the nearly twenty-four years since leaving the U.S. Foreign Service, you have labored in the non-governmental and academic worlds.  Since 1981, you have served as a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Professor of International Relations at Simmons College in Boston, and President of the International Center for Development Policy.

In 1990, you became President of the Center for International Policy, a non-profit education and research organization which seeks to, in your own words, "articulate and promote peaceful, diplomatic alternatives to policies of militarism and war."

In both your civic career and in your personal life, your impeccable character is informed by a deep personal faith that represents, in the name of Truth, what we at Providence College mean by "Transform yourself.  Transform society."

For these reasons, Father Chairman and Father President, the Corporation of Providence College presents Robert E. White as one deemed worthy to receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Political Science and requests you to confer upon him this degree together with all its rights and privileges.

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