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Office of News & 
Information Services 
Washington State University 
Pullman, WA 99164-1040  
Phone: 509/335-3581  
FAX: 509/335-2220  
E-mail: wsunis@wsu.edu  

PULLMAN, Wash. -- Speakers have been named for Washington State University’s Commencement on May 6.

According to WSU President Samuel H. Smith, they are state Attorney General Christine Gregoire, business leader and philanthropist Ken Alhadeff, and research executive and astronaut John Fabian. Alhadeff and Fabian are WSU graduates.

Gregoire will speak at the 8 a.m. college of liberal arts ceremony; Alhadeff at the 11:30 a.m. college of business and economics, college of education ceremony; and Fabian at the 3 p.m. colleges of engineering and architecture, pharmacy, agriculture and home economics, sciences, nursing and veterinary medicine ceremony. All ceremonies are in Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum.

For the first time in its 109-year history, the university will hold three ceremonies because of the growing number of WSU graduates, the popularity of WSU seniors and graduate students attending graduation, and availability of facilities.

Smith -- taking part in his last commencement before retiring after 15 years leading WSU -- as well as regents and university administrators will join other college leaders, graduates and their families at each ceremony.

Christine Gregoire
Gregoire is Washington’s 16th attorney general and the first woman elected to the position in state history. She has devoted her career to furthering the safety and well-being of children. The National Association of Attorneys General president, she received national attention in late 1998 when, as the lead negotiator for states, she announced the largest legal settlement in U.S. history between state attorneys general and the tobacco industry. Gregoire’s background includes serving from 1988-92 as the Washington Department of Ecology director. A University of Washington graduate, she earned her law degree from Gonzaga University. She began her legal career in the AG’s Spokane office as an assistant attorney general working on child abuse and neglect cases. In 1993, she was the WSU President’s Convocation speaker.

Ken Alhadeff
Alhadeff, a 1970 WSU general studies graduate and a member of the WSU Board of Regents since 1996, is chair of Elttaes Enterprises and president & CEO of MiKen Properties in Seattle, where he lives. Alhadeff has supported the WSU College of Education’s Future Teachers of Color recruitment and retention program since it began in 1994. In 1998, he pledged the largest individual gift for minority teacher education offered in the Pacific Northwest. His financial support provides scholarship money to students in the program and underwrites FTOC recruitment events. Alhadeff serves as the Northwest School for Hearing-Impaired Children president and serves or has served on the boards of the Seattle Public Schools’ Alliance for Education, the Big Brothers of King County, and the Bertschi School, as well as a trustee for Cornish College of the Arts. Alhadeff has also served on the Governor’s Transition Commission on Social Services, the American Jewish Committee, the Children’s Hospital Foundation, and the Seattle Symphony.

John Fabian
Fabian is a 1962 mechanical engineering graduate of WSU. A retired U.S. Air Force officer with air combat experience in Vietnam, he was a space shuttle astronaut with NASA from 1978-86. He flew on the Challenger in 1983 and on the Discovery in 1985. His background includes serving as director of space and deputy chief of staff for plans and operations at U.S. Air Force headquarters at the Pentagon. Fabian is a former U.S. Air Force Academy aeronautics faculty member. He served from 1991-98 as president and CEO of ANSER, a Virginia-based independent, not-for-profit public service research institution, providing research and analysis support on national and international issues. He received an aerospace engineering master’s degree from the Air Force Institute of Technology and an aeronautics and astronautics doctoral degree from the University of Washington. He grew up in Pullman and is a Pullman High School graduate. His father was a WSU faculty member. Fabian now lives in retirement in Port Ludlow. In 1983, he became the 19th recipient of the university’s highest honor, the Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Smith will speak during graduation ceremonies on May 5 in Spokane for WSU Spokane the WSU College of Nursing/Intercollegiate Center for Nursing Education, May 12 in Tri-Cities for WSU Tri-Cities and May 13 in Vancouver for WSU Vancouver.

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Christine Gregoire

Ken Alhadeff  

John Fabian

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