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Sachs is director of The Earth Institute

World-renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs will be the keynote speaker at Commencement on May 23, 2010.

Sachs is director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development and professor of health policy and management at Columbia University. He is also special advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Sachs has been named among the world's 100 most influential leaders by Time magazine. He is highly regarded for his work at the forefront of the challenges of economic development, poverty alleviation, and enlightened globalization, promoting policies to help all parts of the world benefit from expanding economic opportunities and well-being. He is the author of numerous books, including New York Times bestsellers, "The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time " and "Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet ."

He also is one of the leading voices for combining economic development with environmental sustainability.

Sachs was nominated to be Commencement's keynote speaker by a campus committee that included students, faculty and staff. They agreed that in Sachs, the College community will have a tremendous speaker whose work exemplifies many of the principles shared by our students, including service to community, development and stewardship of the next generation of leaders and awareness of every person's responsibilities as a citizen.

"Our students benefit from a rigorous and comprehensive liberal arts education that reflects the most urgent and important issues of our time," President Higdon said in announcing the selection. "Jeffrey Sachs is widely considered to be the world's foremost economist, and I look forward to hearing his insights at what is a particularly meaningful time in our global economy, and in the lives of our graduating seniors."

-Barb Nagy



October 14, 2009