Howard University's Graduate School Dean Orlando L. Taylor will deliver the keynote address at Virginia Tech's Graduate Commencement exercises at 3 p.m. Friday, May 14, in Cassell Coliseum.

Taylor has been dean and vice provost for research of Howard's Graduate School since 1993. He is a national leader in graduate education and has served on numerous national boards, including chair of the Board of Directors of the Council of Graduate Schools and chair of the Jacob K. Javits Fellows Program Fellowship Board. He heads Howard's efforts, along with those of 13 other research universities, to make doctoral education more responsive to societal needs and students' interests. Howard University is the nation's largest on-campus producer of African-American Ph.D. recipients.

In addition, Harold L. Martin Sr., chancellor of Winston-Salem State College in North Carolina, will be honored during the Graduate Commencement ceremony with the Graduate Alumni Achievement Award developed by Virginia Tech's Graduate School and the Virginia Tech Alumni Association.

Martin received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Virginia Tech in 1980. Although an accomplished computer engineer, Martin has spent his career as a university administrator and has worked to improve the quality of minority higher education in North Carolina. The Greensboro Business Journal dubbed him "The Chancellor of Change" for his successful efforts at Winston-Salem State, which included adding the college's first graduate programs.

The Graduate Commencement ceremony will be broadcast locally on campus and on Adelphia Cable in Blacksburg.

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