The News Service
38 Brown Street / Box R
Providence RI 02912

401 863-2476
Fax 863-9595

Distributed May 12, 2004
Contact Ricardo Howell

Kathryn S. Fuller, president and CEO of the World Wildlife Fund, will speak at the Brown Graduate School Commencement ceremonies Monday, May 31, 2004. Advanced degree graduates will also hear an address by Miguel Moniz, a member of the graduating class. The ceremonies will begin at 9:15 a.m. on Lincoln Field. (Texts of addresses by Fuller and Moniz are available online.)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Kathryn S. Fuller, president and CEO of the World Wildlife Fund, will deliver an address titled “A Few Thoughts on Bees, Fungi and the Importance of Perspective in a Code Orange World” at the Brown Graduate School Commencement, Monday, May 31, 2004. The two-hour convocation will begin at 9:15 a.m on Lincoln Field.

Advanced degree graduates, including doctorate and masters degree candidates, will also hear an address from Miguel Moniz, a member of the graduating class.

Since 1989, Fuller has served as president and chief executive officer of World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the largest organization working to save species and habitats worldwide. Fuller’s work at WWF has emphasized innovative conservation methods including debt-for-nature swaps and environmental trust funds, the inclusion of women in grassroots conservation programs, and the design of projects that provide both environmental and economic benefits.

Under Fuller’s direction, the WWF launched its Living Planet Campaign in 1997, an ambitious blueprint for global environmental triage. Central to the plan is the identification of some 200 key habitats, or eco-regions, which significantly contribute to the planet’s biodiversity.

Prior to assuming the presidency of WWF, Fuller served in various leadership roles at the organization, including executive vice president, general counsel and director of WWF’s public policy and wildlife trade monitoring programs. Before joining WWF in 1983, Fuller practiced law at the U.S. Justice Department, first in the Office of Legal Counsel, then in the Land and Natural Resources Division, where she headed the Wildlife and Marine Resources Section.

Fuller earned her undergraduate degree at Brown and a Doctor of Laws from the University of Texas. She pursued graduate studies in marine, estuarine and environmental science at the University of Maryland. Fuller is a fellow of the Brown Corporation.

Moniz’s talk is titled “The Life of the Mind.” Moniz’s research focuses on race, ethnicity and transnational migration. Among his activities, Moniz has worked as an immigrant-rights advocate in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts; lectured in the United States and abroad on immigration history and policy; and written for the Massachusetts-based Portuguese Times. Moniz, a member of the Azorean president’s commission on migration, is the author of The Azores, an annotated bibliography that includes reviews of nearly 800 books, journal articles, and theses covering the archipelago’s history, politics, literature, contemporary culture, natural features and migration patterns, published by Oxford Press’ World Bibliographic Series in 1999.

A former president of the Graduate Student Council at Brown, Moniz has served as graduate student representative on various planning and faculty search committees. A native of Falmouth, Mass., he received his undergraduate education in English and anthropology at Wesleyan University, and earned an A.M. in anthropology from Brown in 1997. In the fall, Moniz will pursue postgraduate research in Lisbon.

During academic year 2003-04, the Graduate School celebrated its centennial, marking the anniversary with several on-campus events. In October, Nobel laureate economist Gary Becker delivered an address on the economic value of a graduate education. This semester, the Graduate School presented the inaugural Horace Mann Award for Distinguished Graduate School Alumni to Joel Scheraga, national program director for global change research at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development. Sheraga earned his bachelor’s (1976), master’s (1979) and doctoral degrees (1981) at Brown. In December the Graduate School moved its offices to the newly refurbished Horace Mann building.

The Graduate School has seen a 40-percent increase in applications since 2001. As of May 1, 2004, there were 5,500 applications for graduate study at Brown in the 2004-05 academic year; 16 percent of these applicants have been admitted.

######

News Service Home  |  Top of File  |  Fuller Text  |  Moniz Text  |  Brown Home Page