BLACKSBURG, Va., April 13, 2004 – Dr. Lawrence J. Korb will be the Northern Virginia Commencement keynote speaker.
The 24th Northern Virginia Commencement is at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 15, 2004 at the George Mason University Center for the Arts in Fairfax. The center will graduate 275 students, 245 with master's degrees and 30 with doctoral degrees.
Korb, of the Center for American Progress, has formerly served as dean of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, director at the Brookings Institution's Center for Public Policy Education and Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan Administration.
Lawrence J. Korb is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a senior adviser to the Center for Defense Information. Prior to joining the Center, he was a Senior Fellow and director of National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. From July 1998 to October 2002, he was Council vice president, director of Studies, and holder of the Maurice Greenberg Chair. Prior to joining the Council, Korb served as director of the Center for Public Policy Education and Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution, dean of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, and vice president of Corporate Operations at the Raytheon Company.
Korb served as assistant secretary of Defense (Manpower, Reserve Affairs, Installations and Logistics) from 1981 through 1985. In that position, he administered about 70 percent of the Defense budget. For his service in that position, he was awarded the Department of Defense's medal for Distinguished Public Service. Korb served on active duty for four years as naval flight officer, and retired from the Naval Reserve as a captain.
Korb has written 20 books and more than 100 articles on national security issues that include The Joint Chiefs of Staff: The First Twenty-five Years, and The Fall and Rise of the Pentagon. His articles have appeared in such journals as Foreign Affairs and The New York Times Sunday Magazine. During the past decade, Korb has made more than 1,000 appearances as a commentator on such shows as The Today Show, The Early Show, Good Morning America, Face the Nation, This Week with David Brinkley, MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour, News Hour with Jim Lehrer, Nightline, 60 Minutes, and Crossfire.
The Virginia Tech Northern Virginia Center has more than 80 years of history in the Northern Virginia areas of Alexandria, Falls Church, Leesburg, Manassas, and Middleburg. The Northern Virginia Center provides Metropolitan Washington residents with access to Virginia Tech's research, outreach, and graduate programs.
Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become the largest university in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech's eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top 30 research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 170 academic degree programs.