Also at commencement, Mark R. Luttenton, associate professor of biology, will receive the Outstanding Educator Award and Rosa L. Fraga will receive the Distinguished Alumna Award. Enriquez is the chairman and CEO of Biotechonomy LLC, a life sciences research and investment firm that he founded. He also serves as president and chief business officer for Synthetic Genomics, a company he co-founded last year.
He was the founding director of Harvard Business School's Life Sciences Project. While at Harvard, he wrote the best-selling As the Future Catches You, an analysis of the impact of genomics on business and society. His latest book, Untied States, explores why some countries disappear and others flourish as technology advances. He will also address the campus community on April 28 at a lecture in the Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences. For more information about that event, contact Bonnie Dawdy at (616) 331-2100 or [email protected]. A shuttle bus will be available from the DeVos Center.
Enriquez's commencement speech will be April 29, during the 10 a.m. ceremony at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids.
Enriquez, who has earned bachelor's and master's of business administration degrees from Harvard University, is part of a world discovery voyage led by the man who sequenced the human genome. The sailing voyage, which involves numerous institutions and scholars, will sample microbial genomes throughout the world's oceans. He had served as CEO of Mexico City's Urban Development Corporation, chief of staff and economic policy coordinator for Mexico's secretary of state and as a member of the Peace Commission that negotiated a cease-fire in Chiapas' Zapatista rebellion in 1994.
Luttenton, joined Grand Valley's faculty in 1989. Since that time, he has been actively involved in research projects at the Annis Water Resources Institute.
An expert in stream ecology and exotic species, Luttenton's current research focuses on the impact of zebra mussels on aquatic communities in the Muskegon River. He has conducted research projects in many states and abroad in Costa Rica, Belize, Bahamas and Trinidad.
Luttenton earned a bachelor's degree from Central Michigan University, a master's degree in aquatic biology from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and a doctorate from Bowling Green State University. For more than 30 years, Fraga has been an educator and a leader in developing community-based learning programs for disadvantaged and immigrant communities.
She retired last year from her most recent position, administrator at Adelante High School in Grand Rapids, an innovative alternative high school that targets Hispanic and other immigrant youth. She helped establish Adelante 10 years ago.
Fraga also directed the bilingual education department for Grand Rapids Public Schools, providing guidance to principals in curriculum, staffing, program design and assessment. As director of the Hispanic Institute for Community Education, she facilitated a comprehensive adult education center with emphases on English as a Second Language, and U.S. citizenship instruction that served about 500 students annually.
Fraga earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from Grand Valley in 1972 and a master's of education degree 10 years later.
