The Plymouth State University administration has finally released Linda Tarr-Whelan as the commencement speaker for this spring’s graduation.
Tarr-Whelan, the author of the soon to be released Want a Better Future? Bet on Women!, will be the guest speaker at Plymouth State’s 57 undergraduate commencement, which will be held on Saturday, May 19.
After graduating from John Hopkins, she rose to the head of the department for the school of nursing at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington D.C. She also earned her master’s degree from the University of Maryland. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau, the nursing honors society and Phi Kappa Phi, the academic honors society.
Tarr-Whelan has had a highly regarded career in government, business and various non-profit organizations for more than 45 years. In 1990, she was named one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Washington by The Ladies Journal, as well as managed to collect various accolades and awards. She has received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Distinguished Government Service from John Hopkins University, the Prominent Women in Internal Law Award from the American Society for Internal Law and an honorary PhD. from Chatham University.
As well as serving on the Virginia State Education Assistance Authority, the New York State Health Commission and the New York Public Management Internship Commission, she spent four years as the U.S. ambassador and representative to the U.N. Commission on the State of Women. She also served on served on the Presidential Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiation, as well as serving six years as the director of government served on the Presidential Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiation, as well as serving six years as the director of government relations for the National Education Association.
From 1986 to 1999, Tarr-Whelan held the position of President and CEO of the Center for Policy alternatives, a role in which she cultivated bipartisan networks with the state public officials and leaders from business, labor and non-profit organizations. She has helped develop policy models that have now become state and national law.
After eight years as the nurse consultant and director of public policy for the Americen Federation for State and County Muncipal Employees (AFSCME), she left D.C. to live in upstate N.Y. as the position of administrative director for the New York State Department of Labor, where she was appointed by Governor Hugh Carey to oversee an agency of 10,000 employees and 250 local offices. Two years later she returned to D.C. where she served as deputy assistant to President Jimmy Carter. In that position, she acted as Carter’s senior advisor and speech-writer for domestic policy related to women. She planned five women’s economic summits for government, business and non-profit leaders, in which President Clinton and Hilary Clinton both attended.
At the commencement ceremony, Linda Tarr-Whelan will also be awarded with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.