Penn State Greater Allegheny will host its fall commencement on Thursday, December 16, at 7:00 p.m. in Wunderley Gymnasium. Chancellor Curtiss E. Porter will preside as diplomas are conferred to 30 individuals receiving baccalaureate and associate degrees. Keynote speaker will be Daniel H. Simpson.
Simpson has been a daily editorial writer and weekly columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Toledo Blade since he retired from the United States Department of State in September 2001. His primary subject area is international affairs but he also writes on U.S. national politics, economics and other subjects.
He is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy, a small organization of distinguished retired American statesmen in the field of foreign affairs and national defense. He also teaches at various universities in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and is a Member of the Board of Directors of the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh.
As a career Foreign Service Officer for 35 years, Simpson lived and worked in Burundi, South Africa, Bulgaria, Zaire three times, Iceland, Lebanon and Bosnia-Herzegovina. He was U.S. Ambassador to the Central African Republic, Ambassador and U.S. Special Envoy to Somalia, and U.S. Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was Deputy Commandant of the U.S. Army War College and Vice President of the National Defense University. Prior to becoming a diplomat in 1966 he taught in a secondary school in Benin City, Nigeria and at the Libyan Army Military College in Benghazi, Libya.