Holly Brown-Borg, Birgit Hans and Mary Ann Sens named Chester Fritz Distinguished Professors

UND will award its highest honor for faculty—the Chester Fritz Distinguished Professorship—to Holly Brown-Borg, associate professor, Pharmacology, Phsysiology, and Therapeutics; Birgit Hans, professor and chair, Indian Studies; and Mary Ann Sens, professor and chair, Pathology, during the general commencement on Saturday, May 15, at 1:30 p.m. in the Alerus Center.

UND will also UND will confer an honorary Doctor of Letters on UND alum and Gwinner, N.D., native Howard Dahl, an internationally known businessman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Dahl will join the ranks of more than 200 recipients, including President John F. Kennedy, famed heart surgeon Michael DeBakey, philosopher Mortimer Adler, and basketball legend and UND alum Phil Jackson.

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano will give the main address. About 1,600 students, including law and medical candidates in separate events, are eligible to cross the stage when UND President Robert O. Kelley presides over his second spring commencement ceremonies. UND annually graduates a total of about 2,700 students in ceremonies in May, August, and December.