Investiture Speakers
Dr. Mark Becker
Mark Becker is president of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities,
a research, policy, and advocacy organization dedicated to strengthening and advancing
the work of public research universities. The association's membership consists of
more than 250 public research universities, land-grant institutions, state university
systems and affiliated organizations. He had previously served as a member of APLU’s
Board of Directors and as chair of the Board for the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities,
which has a permanent partnership with APLU.
His academic career has included serving as a post-doctoral fellow, professor, dean,
provost, and president at flagships, land-grants and urban serving institutions. From
January 2009 to August 2021, Becker was the seventh president of Georgia State University.
Becker led the transformation of Georgia State from a formerly little-known “commuter
school” into one of the nation’s premier urban research universities. He served as
executive vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of South
Carolina from 2004 to 2008.
Becker attended Harford Community College in Maryland and earned his bachelor’s degree
in mathematics from Towson State University and a doctoral degree in statistics from
the Pennsylvania State University. Becker has received numerous awards and recognitions,
including being named one of America’s 10 most innovative university presidents by
Washington Monthly.
Dr. Robert J. Jones
Robert Jones is chancellor of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and vice
president, University of Illinois System. He previously served as president of the
University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY). A Georgia native born in
1951, Jones earned a bachelor’s degree in agronomy from Fort Valley State College,
a master’s degree in crop physiology from the University of Georgia, and a doctorate
in crop physiology from the University of Missouri, Columbia. He began his academic
career as a faculty member at Minnesota in 1978. An experienced and accomplished scientist
and research-university leader, he is also recognized as an internationally respected
authority on plant physiology.
Under his leadership, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has achieved major
milestones, such as hiring its inaugural vice chancellor for diversity, equity, and
inclusion, completing the largest philanthropic campaign in the institution’s history,
and launching the Illinois Commitment program to make college education affordable
and accessible to Illinois students from low-income families.
Throughout his career, Jones has worked to make education available to promising young
scholars around the world. He is an accomplished vocalist and serves on the boards
of multiple national and international organizations.
His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros (Lambriniadis) of America
His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, Most Honorable Exarch of the Atlantic
and Pacific Oceans, is the eighth Archbishop of America elected since the establishment
of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in 1922.
He was born in 1967 in Bakirköy, Istanbul. He graduated from Aristotle University
of Thessaloniki — School of Pastoral and Social Theology in 1991 and finished postgraduate
studies at the University of Bonn, Germany. He was ordained a deacon in 1994 and in
1995 was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Holy and Sacred Synod. In 2001, he earned
a doctorate of theology with highest distinction at the Theological School of the
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. In 2005, he was promoted by the Holy and Sacred
Synod to Chief Secretary and ordained to the priesthood.
He has served on the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between
the Orthodox Church and the Lutheran World Federation and as a member of the Patriarchal
delegations to the General Assemblies of the Conference of European Churches and the
World Council of Churches. He was Secretary of the Pan-Orthodox Synods in Sofia, Istanbul,
Geneva, and Istanbul.
In 2019, he was elected Archbishop of America by the Holy and Sacred Synod of the
Ecumenical Patriarchate and enthroned at the Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity
in New York City.
|
