United States Senator Richard Burr will deliver Elon University School of Law's 2011 Commencement address, scheduled for Sunday, May 22, at the Carolina Theatre in downtown Greensboro.
Ninety-eight Elon Law students will receive the juris doctorate degree at the ceremonies, which will begin at 3 p.m. A reception will follow commencement at Center City Park one block east of the law school.
Burr was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004 and re-elected in 2010. He is the ranking member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee and serves on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee; the Energy and Natural Resources Committee; and the Intelligence Committee. He has written several pieces of legislation including the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, which became law in 2006 and enhanced the capacity of the federal government to respond to public health emergencies.
Prior to his election to the U.S. Senate, Burr served the 5th district of North Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2005. While a member of the House, he was the sponsor of the Food and Drug Administration Regulatory Modernization Act of 1997, which streamlined the Food and Drug Administration’s approval process for drugs and medical devices.
A resident of Winston-Salem, N.C., for most of his life, Burr earned a bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University and worked for Carswell Distributing, a wholesale commercial products company, for 17 years before election to public office.
In 2009, David Gergen, adviser to four U.S. presidents, director of the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and chair of the Elon University School of Law Advisory Board, delivered the Commencement address before the charter class of Elon Law.
In 2010, United States Senator Kay Hagan delivered the law school’s Commencement address.
Click here for more information about Elon University School of Law’s 2011Commencement exercises.