May 4, 2004

Wasserman-Rubin, Brinkley To Speak To NSU Graduates This Saturday At Commencement Ceremonies

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL- Broward County's first Mayor Diana Wasserman-Rubin, and Dr. Douglas Brinkley, author Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War, will be the commencement speakers, as Nova Southeastern University (NSU) holds its first two commencement ceremonies of the graduation season at the Office Depot Center this Saturday, May 8.

Wasserman-Rubin will speak in front of approximately 250 students graduating from the Shepard Broad Law Center at 11a.m., including the first class of the Barcelona Dual-Degree Program, which allows NSU students to earn a JD degree from NSU, in addition to a law degree from Barcelona. The graduates can then practice law in the United States, as well as in the European Union.

Brinkley, who is also the Director of the Eisenhower Center for America Studies and a professor of history at the University of New Orleans, will address the 500 undergraduates from NSU's Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences' at 4 p.m.

A role model and innovator, Wasserman-Rubin is currently the Commissioner for District 8 in Broward County. Among her many accomplishments, she was the first Hispanic-American elected to the Broward County Board of Commissioners and went on to become the first Hispanic-American elected by the nine-member Commission to serve as Vice-Chair. In 1998, she was the first Hispanic female elected to the Broward County School Board. She was also the first Hispanic-American to serve on the South Broward Hospital District Board of Commissioners and the first female to serve as Chair. Between 1994 and 2000 she was a member of the President's Advisory Committee on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans.

Brinkley has earned renown not only as an award-winning historian and author, but also through his regular appearances on radio and television as a political and historical commentator. He served as consultant/commentator for a five-hour documentary on the Mississippi River for A&E/The History Channel, and as commentator for "November Warriors," a four-hour documentary on presidential politics broadcast by National Public Radio. He appears regularly on CNN, C-SPAN, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and FOX NEWS.

The Office Depot Center is located at 2555 Panther Parkway in Sunrise. For more information on NSU's graduations, visit http://www.nova.edu/cwis/registrar/commencement.html .