May 30, 2014

More than 5,000 students will graduate from Drexel University at its 127th Commencement on June 13 and 14 in five separate ceremonies. The ceremonies will be held at Drexel’s John A. Daskalakis Athletic Center (33rd and Market Streets) and will be webcast live at www.drexel.edu/commencement.

The Ceremony for the College of Nursing & Health Professions and School of Public Health will be held on Friday, June 13, 2014 at 2:30 PM.

The keynote speaker at this ceremony will be Jeffrey Sachs, who is widely considered the world’s leading expert on economic development and the fight against poverty. Sachs is the Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development and professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University and director of The Earth Institute.

He is a special advisor to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the Millennium Development Goals. Sachs is also one of the Secretary-General’s MDG Advocates, a Commissioner of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) /UNESCO Broadband Commission for Development, and a director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He is co-founder and chief strategist of Millennium Promise Alliance and is director of the Millennium Villages Project, which operates in more than a dozen African countries, and covers more than 500,000 people.

In addition, Drexel will award honorary degrees to:

Ann Baiada: is a director of BAYADA Home Health Care and a champion of the nursing profession. She created two training and mentoring programs at BAYADA: Project White Cap, a training program for new nurses, and Project White Shoes, an annual training for clinical leaders. A skilled clinical leader and registered nurse, she also founded BAYADAbility, the company’s rehabilitation nursing program. Her passion for nursing and her ability to empower and inspire led to the establishment of an award, the Ann Baiada Award for Excellence in Nursing Leadership and the development of the Ann Baiada Center for Clinical Excellence.

Mark Baiada: is founder and president of BAYADA Home Health Care. More than three decades after its founding, BAYADA has grown from its humble beginnings to become a national leader in home health care serving clients in 25 states from more than 250 offices. As an advocate for improving patient outcomes and advancing health care, Baiada is leading the way in providing clinical simulation training to home health care professionals and annually co-sponsors the Drexel University BAYADA Award for Technological Innovation in Nursing Education and Practice. The award recognizes nurses who innovatively use technology to advance their profession. At Drexel, he previously served as a trustee for the College of Medicine.

In all, Drexel will award 20 honorary degrees to prominent individuals distinguished in their fields. Other degree recipients include NBC News’ chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell, legendary architect Robert A.M. Stern and MIT professor Robert Langer—the most cited engineer in history.

Click here for the full list of recipients.