Brown University will bestow honorary degrees on a diverse group of business and community leaders, scholars and artists during its 251st Commencement ceremony.
At its 251st Commencement on Sunday, May 26, Brown University will confer honorary doctorates on seven candidates who have achieved great distinction in a variety of fields. Among those candidates are School of Engineering benefactors E. Paul Sorensen and Joan Wernig Sorensen.
A Doctor of Humane Letters will be conferred upon E. Paul Sorensen, business leader and philanthropist. Sorensen's career centered on ABAQUS, production-oriented software renowned for solving mechanical and structural engineering problems. The software was developed by Hibbitt, Karlsson & Sorensen (HKS), which Sorensen joined in 1979 after an early-career experience as a research engineer with General Motors.
His responsibilities at HKS ranged from programming to lecturing on the use of the software to growing the business in his role as vice president for ABAQUS sales and marketing worldwide. Sorensen stepped down from HKS upon the sale of the company to Dassault Systemes in 2005.
A parent of two Class of 2006 Brown graduates, Sorensen earned a bachelor's degree in economics and engineering in 1971 along with master's (1975) and Ph.D. (1977) degrees in engineering from Brown. He currently serves on the Engineering Advisory Council, the Engineering Development Committee, the Middle East Studies Advisory Council and the Brown University Sports Foundation. He is also a campaign co-chair for BrownTogether.
Sorensen previously served on the boards of Moses Brown School and Community Preparatory School in Providence. He has been chair of the board for international nonprofit organizations including Equitable Origin, a stakeholder-based voluntary certification system designed to promote higher social and environmental standards, greater transparency, and more accountability in energy development; GOALS Haiti, advancing youth leadership through soccer and education to create stronger, healthier communities in rural Haiti; and the Raiz Foundation, a U.S. based non-profit entity created to support work in Latin America associated with cost-effective, creative approaches to advance the common good.
A Doctor of Humane Letters will also be bestowed upon Joan Wernig Sorensen, fundraising consultant and philanthropist. In roles at Brown, Bryant University and Moses Brown School, Sorensen has devoted her career to development, alumni relations and higher education, serving also as a fundraising consultant to numerous nonprofit organizations.
A Class of 1972 Brown graduate, she has volunteered her expertise to the University for more than 45 years. A member of the Brown Corporation, she is also a co-chair for the BrownTogether campaign and was a regional vice chair for the previous Campaign for Academic Enrichment.
She was the first woman president of the Brown Club of Rhode Island, was co-chair of the Brown Annual Fund and has served on the Brown Alumni Association Board of Governors and the Library Advisory Council. She has received numerous awards for her efforts, including the Brown Bear Award, Elwood (Woody) Leonard Jr. '51 Distinguished Service Award and the H. Anthony Ittleson Award.
Sorensen has served on the board and continues to volunteer at Sophia Academy, an all-girls inner-city middle school in Providence, and she and her husband, E. Paul Sorensen, were instrumental in helping to bring Teach for America to Rhode Island. A former board member of both Lincoln School and the Providence Athenaeum, she is also a board member at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine and a founding boarding member of Opera House Arts in Stonington, Maine.
Sorensen earned a bachelor of arts in psychology from Brown and is the parent of two Class of 2006 graduates.
Other honorary degree candidates include:
- Sheryl Brissett Chapman — Advocate and nonprofit innovator
- Ken Burns — Documentary filmmaker
- John Krasinski — Actor, writer and director
- Jennifer Anne Richeson — Social scientist and thought leader
- David M. Rubenstein — Global business leader and patriotic philanthropist
Honorary degrees are awarded by the Board of Fellows of the Brown Corporation and are conferred by the University president — in English and in Latin — during Commencement exercises on the College Green. Recipients receive prominent recognition at the ceremony but do not serve as the Commencement speaker; since its earliest days, Brown has reserved that honor for members of the graduating class.
Acclaimed actor, writer and director John Krasinski, a Brown Class of 2001 graduate, will deliver the Baccalaureate address to the University's undergraduate Class of 2019 on Saturday afternoon in the Meeting House of the First Baptist Church in America. With that space reserved for members of the graduating class, the Baccalaureate address will be presented on video screens for family and friends on the College Green, in Sayles Hall and in the Salomon Center for Teaching.
Further details on Commencement forums and other events during the weekend will be posted in the coming weeks at www.brown.edu/about/commencement.