2008 Political Science Commencement
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Dr. Gloria Duffy
President and CEO of the Commonwealth Club
"The Use of Political
Science"
Gloria Duffy is President and CEO of The Commonwealth Club
of California, the nation's largest and oldest public affairs forum, founded
in 1903 and headquartered in San Francisco. Each year, the Club presents
over 400 speeches, panel discussions and debates on a broad range of public
policy issues. With 18,700 members, the Club publishes The Commonwealth
magazine and broadcasts its programs weekly on public radio, XM satellite
radio and commercial stations around the U.S. It is the nation's longest
running radio broadcast, begun in 1924. The Club also sponsors public
policy projects, currently including Voices of Reform, which works to
improve state governance in California.
Dr. Duffy served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and Special
Coordinator for Cooperative Threat Reduction during the first term of
the Clinton Administration. She negotiated the denuclearization and dismantlement
of weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet countries of Russia,
Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, and provided $1.5 billion in US assistance
to those countries.
Dr. Duffy holds Ph.D., M. Phil. and M.A. degrees from Columbia University
and an A.B. magna cum laude from Occidental College. She has founded and
headed two international affairs organizations, Global Outlook and the
World Forum of Silicon Valley. She has served in positions at the Rand
Corporation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Ploughshares
Fund, the Arms Control Association, the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace and Stanford University.
She is the author/editor of two books, International Arms Control Issues
and Agreements (Stanford University Press, 1983) and Compliance and the
Future of Arms Control (Ballinger, 1987). Her column, "InSight," appears
monthly in The Commonwealth. Dr. Duffy has served on or chaired the boards
of two-dozen national and community organizations. She is currently Chair
of the Board of the US Civilian Research and Development Foundation. Created
by Congress through the National Science Foundation, CRDF provides $35
million annually, from US government and private foundation sources, to
employ former weapons scientists on civilian research projects with American
colleagues. CRDF combats the spread of critical scientific knowledge about
weapons of mass destruction, as well as contributes to economic development
and international scientific cooperation. The Foundation works in the
former Soviet countries, Libya, Iraq and other countries of proliferation
concern.
Dr. Duffy serves on the Boards of Trustees of Dominican University of
California and Occidental College, and the Advisory Board of the Freeman-Spogli
Institute of International Studies at Stanford University. She is also
a board member of Ploughshares Fund, and several other non-profit organizations.
She is the co-owner of an independent bookstore and art gallery, The McCloud
Book Gallery, in McCloud, California (Siskiyou County) and a board member
of the McCloud Land and Building Preservation Association.
Dr. Duffy is the recipient of awards including the Secretary of Defense
Medal for Outstanding Public Service (1995) and the Janet Gray Hayes Award
(2002), as the San Jose woman contributing most to the local and global
communities.