Dr. Nancy Stevens, Professor in the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine will be the 2018 Fall Commencement speaker.
Ohio University announced today that Nancy Stevens, PhD and Professor in the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, will serve as the University’s 2018 Fall Commencement speaker.
“Dr. Stevens has made exceptional contributions to the Ohio University community and to the world through her research and discoveries,” said President M. Duane Nellis. “We are pleased that she has agreed to share her wisdom and encouragement with OHIO graduates at Fall Commencement this December.”
Exploring interactions between organisms and their environments through time, Dr. Stevens has made several discoveries of species new to science. Her finds include a 25 million year old bobcat-sized carnivore from the East African Rift, the oldest fossil evidence of the split between Old World monkeys and apes, and the first dinosaur tracks from the Arabian Peninsula.
“We are honored that Dr. Stevens has agreed to serve as OHIO’s Fall Commencement’s speaker,” said Executive Vice President and Provost Dr. Chaden Djalali. “She exudes a great passion and excitement for her work, and her words will serve as inspiration for our newest class of graduates.”
Over the past couple decades, Stevens has conducted field research in over a dozen countries across Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, including several expeditions to the Rukwa Rift Basin of Tanzania. She recently coauthored a study linking fossils from mainland Africa with the origins of the lemurs of Madagascar. Dr. Stevens holds degrees from Michigan State University, University of Cambridge, and Stony Brook University. Over time, her work has expanded to explore extinction dynamics in the modern world. Students in her lab pursue diverse research projects in a number of biodiversity hotspots, including Madagascar, Uganda and Vietnam.
Ceremony Details
OHIO’s 2018 Fall Commencement ceremony will take place at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 15, in the Convocation Center on Ohio University’s Athens Campus. Students who have met graduation requirements during the 2018 summer or 2018 fall semesters may participate in the ceremony. This includes students earning doctoral, professional doctoral, masters, or undergraduate degrees through any of OHIO’s degree programs on all campuses or through eLearning programs.
The addition of a commencement ceremony at the conclusion of fall semester seeks to better accommodate students’ individuals needs and respective graduation timelines. This ceremony is in addition to Ohio University’s traditional spring ceremony. For more information, visit www.ohio.edu/commencement.