Table Of ContentRoxBURY Community College
^
x//
Jo \^\
(2^^36th Annual
ommencement
/^^^
May
Friday, 20, 2011
One
O'clock P.M.
Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center
The National Anthem
Oh, say, can you see by the dawn's early Ught,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilousfight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proofthrough the night that ourflag was still there.
Oh say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land ofthefi^ee and the home ofthe brave?
Francis Scott Key
1779 - 1843
Every Voice and Sing
Lift
Lift every voice and sing, till earth and heaven ring.
Ring with the harmonies ofliberty;
Let our rejoicing rise, high as the list'ning skies.
Let is resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a songfull ofthefaith that the darkpast has taught us,
Sing a songfull ofthe hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun ofour new day begun.
Let us march on till victory is won.
James Weldon Johnson
1871 - 1938
rogram
Prelude
Processional
The audience is requested to remain seated during theprocessionalfor
students andfaculty.
Grafton Job Corps Color Guard willpost the colors.
National Anthem
Ms. Katani Sumner
Lift Every Voice and Sing
Led by Mr. Alonzo Harris
Students' Greetings from Around the World
Greetings From the President
Dr. TerrenceA. Gomes
ofMCCEO
Special Recognition to William (Bill) Hart, Executive Director
Greetings From the Commissioner ofthe Massachusetts Department
ofHigher Education
Dr. RichardM. Freeland, Commissioner ofMassachusetts Department of
Higher Education
Greetings From the Alumni
Ms. Mayra Welsh, President ofRCCAlumni
Musical Selection
Ms. Katani Sumner
Introduction of Community Service Recipient
Dr. Alane K. Shanks, Vice President ofAdministration and Finance
Community Service Award
Dr. Keith D. Crawford
Introduction ofthe Valedictorian
Dr. Brenda W. Mercomes, Vice President ofAcademicAffairs
Valedictorian
Ms. Brooke Tyree Lynch
Introduction ofthe Commencement Speaker
Dr. Stephanie C. Janey, Vice President ofEnrollmentManagement and
StudentAffairs
Commencement Address
Andrea J. Cabral, Esq., Suffolk County Sheriff
Musical Selection
Ms. Katani Sumner
Conferring ofDegrees and Certificates
Authorization ofthe Board ofTrustees
Ms. Michele Courton Brown, Chair, Board ofTrustees
Dr. TerrenceA. Gomes, President
Introduction of Degree and Certificate Candidates
Presided by Dr. Brenda W. Mercomes, Vice President ofAcademicAffairs
Dr. Nancy Teel, Dean, LiberalArts and Professional Studies introduces
CandidatesforAssociate ofArts Degree
&
Dr. Kyrsis R. Rodriguez, Interim Dean, Science, Technology, Engineering
Math introduces CandidatesforAssociate ofScience Degree
Dr. Gloria Cater, Dean ofHealth Sciences introduces Candidatesfor
Certificates with specification
Presentation ofDegrees and Certificates to the Students
Ms. Michele Courton Brown, Chair, Board ofTrustees
Dr. TerrenceA. Gomes, President
Presided by Dr. Brenda W. Mercomes, Vice President ofAcademicAffairs
President's Charge to the Graduating Class of 2011
Dr. TerrenceA. Gomes, President
Recessional
The audience is requested to remain seated during the recessional and is
invited immediately after the ceremony to a reception in the Reggie Lewis
Track andAthletic Center Gymnasium.
^3<^^ssage from the President
Gomes
Dr. Terrence A.
Today is a landmark in the chosen path foryourhves.
Beyond this landmark, or signpost, awaits a world
around you that is real and exciting. But this is not
just the end; think of today as the beginning of new
opportunities, experiences and growth.
I would like for you to remember today, notjust the
moment, but the years that have led to this moment.
Remember the days spent together in class, the hard
work and sacrifices endured, and the friendships that
have been built along the way.
Education offers opportunities for changing how we choose to live, how
we choose to educate, and how we choose to govern ourselves for future
generations to come. Please grasp the opportunities when they arise, for
therein, lies the key to your future and the future of all our communities.
I am very proud of you and your accomplishments. Your graduation will
help pave the way as you travel the road to greater success, both in college
and beyond. You will be the leaders of tomorrow and with the education
you nowhave and will seek further, you will reach new heights and achieve
your dreams.
My
heartiest congratulations to the Class of 2011. I wish each of you the
very best and much success in the future.
Sincerely,
Dr. Terrence A. Gomes
President
^jOTimencement Speaker
Suffolk County Sheriff, Andrea J. Cabral, Esq.
Andrea J. Cabral, Esq. was sworn in on November 29,
2002 as the 30th SheriffofSuffolk County, Massachusetts.
She is the first female sheriff in the Commonwealth's
history. Originally appointed by former Governor Jane
Swift, she was elected to a full term in 2004 and re-elected
in 2010. She brings an extensive legal background and a
commitment to public safety to her position.
SheriffCabral is responsible forthe operation ofthe House
of Correction, the Suffolk County Jail and the Civil Process Division. The
Suffolk County Sheriffs Department is the largest sheriffs department in the
Northeast andthe 30th largest in the United States. It has over 1000 employees,
including executive managers, corrections officers, investigators, educators,
health care providers, caseworkers and administrative staff, whose primary
responsibilityis to provide safe care, custody, control and rehabilitative support
for approximately 2,700 offenders, daily. The average operating budget for the
Department is $96 million.
SheriffCabral is a member ofthe Massachusetts Sheriffs' Association. Following
-
a two-year term as Vice President, she served as its President from 2008
2009.
Sheriff Cabral's career in public service spans 24 years. She began her legal
career in 1986 as a staff attorney in the Suffolk County Sheriffs Department
at the Charles Street Jail, preparing and arguing motions for bail reduction in
the Suffolk Superior Court. Subsequently, she served as an assistant district
attorney in both the District and Superior Courts in the Middlesex County
District Attorney's Office from 1987-1991.
From 1991-1993, Sheriff Cabral was an Assistant Attorney General, where she
worked in the Torts Division of the Government Bureau and the Civil Rights
Division of the Public Protection Bureau. Sheriff Cabral then began work at
the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office in 1993 under District Attorney,
Ralph C. Martin III. From 1993-1994, she was director ofthe Roxbury District
Court Family Violence Project. As director, she prosecuted domestic violence
cases (including the county's first stalking case) and helped to establish new
administrative policies and procedures for the processing of such cases in the
Roxbury District Court. In March 1994, Sheriff Cabral became Chief of the
DomesticViolence Unit where she supervised and trained district and superior
court staffin the preparation and prosecution ofmajor domesticviolence felony
cases. She also indicted and prosecuted major domesticviolence felony cases in
Suffolk Superior Court. In 1998, SheriffCabralwas promotedto ChiefofDistrict
Courts and Community Prosecutions. In this position, she developed district
court policies, staffsupervision and evaluation tools, training curricula and case
management practices in Suffolk County's eight district courts and the Boston
Municipal Court. Sheriff Cabral also oversaw the staffing and supervision of
all district court community prosecutions programs, which included the Safe
Neighborhood Initiatives and Prosecutor in Police Stations (PIPS) Programs.
SheriffCabral's publishedworks include: Obtaining, Enforcing andDefending
Ch.209ARestraining Orders inMassachusetts and co-authorship ofthe article.
Same GenderDomestic Violence: Strategiesfor Change in Creating Courtroom
Accessibility.
In addition to receiving numerous awards and honors throughout the years, in
2007, SheriffCabralwas named an Eisenhower Fellow andtraveledtoAustralia
for a month-long study oftheir criminaljustice system. She is on the Board of
the Mass Mentoring Partnership and serves on the National Re-entry Resource
Center's Advisory Committee.
In 2010, SheriffCabral was one of 18 experts appointed to the Office ofJustice
Programs' ScienceAdvisoryBoard (SAB) bythe United States AttorneyGeneral,
Eric Holder. The SAB was created to bridge the gap between research and
practice in the criminaljustice fields. It provides an extra-agency reviewofand
recommendations for Office ofJustice Programs' research, statistics, and grant
programs, and ensures that programs and activities are scientificallysound and
pertinent to policymakers and practitioners.
Sheriff Cabral is a graduate of Boston College and Suffolk University Law
School.
^^mmunity Award
Service Recipient
Keith Dwain Crawford, Ph.D., M.D.
Dr. Keith Dwain Crawford is a graduate of Prairie
A&M
View University, a Historically Black University in
MD
Texas. He received his from the University of Texas
(Houston) and Ph.D. from Harvard University. After
the completion of his post-doctoral training, he joined
the staff of Brigham and Women's Hospital to pursue a
research program in Osteoimmunology and Regenerative
Medicine. In 2007, Dr. Crawford's laboratory discovered
a new adult stem cell, the "early lineage adult" stem cell
or ELA cells, which has the ability to differentiate into a wide variety oftissues.
His latest research focuses on improving our understanding ofosteoarthritis in
the elderly, stress fractures in female athletes, and the development ofELA cell-
based therapeutics for the acceleration offracture healing. He is the director of
the Department of Molecular Orthopedics at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
His laboratory discovered a novel newstem cell which is capable ofregenerating
injured tissue. His team is actively researching the properties of these cells.
Recently, a regenerative therapeutic procedure was created to enhance bone
healing and is presently being used to treat patients.
In addition to his research career. Dr. Crawford spends time mentoring large
numbers ofstudents. To increase the number ofunderrepresented students in
the Life Sciences, he serves as the Director of the STARS program at Brigham
and Women's Hospital and scientific advisor to the VRIP and SCRIP Summer
Programs at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Crawford's volunteer work focuses on providing the underserved and
underprivileged with opportunities that they may not otherwise have, including
education, employment and social networking. The development of the Life
Sciences Institute (LSI) at Roxbury Community College is where he is currently
centering his attention while simultaneously providing internships for Roxbury
Community College students in his research lab at Brigham and Women's
Hospital.
^_>^^isical Selection
Katani Sumner
Katani Sumner did what was expected of a
young, bright and gifted Brown University graduate;
she became an executive in a large well-known
corporation. In fact, she became the first African
American New England Unit Manager in the history
of this corporation. Despite her successes, deep
down inside, Katani felt that her most precious gift
was the gift of song. Everyone who hears Katani
experiences her undeniable talents, vitality, confidence
and intelligence. Even with a Master's degree from
Harvard, she still yields to the call within to spread the good news.
Katani's talents and experiences in singing are far reaching, including Gospel,
Jazz, R&B, and theatrical productions. She has been a featured performer as
well as a producer, director and vocal arranger. Katani is perhaps best known
as the "Inspirational MC" for ten years at the Original House of Blues' Sunday
Gospel Brunch in Harvard Square, where she was also a featured performer.
Katani was most recently seen as the host ofthe Sunday Gospel Brunch at the
new House ofBlues in the Fenway, as the lead femalevocalist forthe Manhattan
Touch band, singing The National Anthem at a Celtic's game and as featured
vocalist at Symphony Hall for Gospel Night at the Pops.
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