May 9, 2003

Sean O'Keefe delivers commencement address May 17

NASA Administrator and 1977 Loyola graduate, Sean O'Keefe, will deliver remarks to the College of Arts and Sciences graduates at the 92^nd spring commencement ceremony, Saturday, May 17, at 9 a.m. in the Marquette Horseshoe. O'Keefe received a bachelor of arts in history from Loyola. For his 25 years of public service, University President Bernard P. Knoth, S.J., will present O'Keefe with an honorary doctor of humane letters.

O'Keefe was appointed the 10th administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on December 21, 2001, after being nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. O'Keefe leads the NASA team and manages its resources, as NASA seeks to advance exploration and discovery in aeronautics and space technologies.

The administrator was widely praised for his leadership in the aftermath of the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegration on February 1 and has been credited with restoring moral and sound management to NASA, which was nearly $5 billion over budget when he arrived.

O'Keefe joined the Bush administration on inauguration day and served as the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget and deputy assistant to the president until December 2001. Prior to this, he was the Louis A. Bantle Professor of Business and Government Policy, an endowed chair at the Syracuse University Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He also served as the director of National Security Studies, a partnership of Syracuse University and Johns Hopkins University, for delivery of executive education programs for senior military and civilian Department of Defense managers. In July 1992, President George Bush appointed him Secretary of the Navy after he had served as comptroller and chief financial officer of the Department of Defense for three years. O'Keefe also served on the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations staff for eight years and was staff director of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. His public service began in 1978 when he was selected as a presidential management intern.

O'Keefe is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and has served as chair of an academy panel on investigative practices. In 1993, President Bush and Secretary Dick Cheney presented him the Distinguished Public Service Award. He was also the recipient of the Department of the Navy's Public Service Award in December 2000. He was the 1999 faculty recipient of the Syracuse University Chancellor's Award for Public Service. He is the author of several journal articles, contributing author of "Keeping the Edge: Managing Defense for the Future," released in October 2000, and in 1998, co-authored "The Defense Industry in the Post-Cold War Era: Corporate Strategies and Public Policy Perspectives."

O'Keefe earned a master of public administration degree in 1978 from The Maxwell School. His wife Laura and children Lindsey, Jonathan, and Kevin reside in northern Virginia.

In addition to the College of Arts and Sciences commencement ceremony, Loyola also will hold its School of Law commencement Friday, May 16, at 7 p.m. in the Recreational Sports Complex. The College of Music, College of Business Administration, and City College will hold their commencement ceremony Saturday, May 17, at 7 p.m., in the Marquette Horseshoe.