Andrew Natsios, distinguished professor in the practice of diplomacy at Georgetown University and the former administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, will deliver the commencement address at Marquette University's spring graduation May 18 at the Bradley Center.

More than 1,300 undergraduate students and nearly 600 graduate students receive their diplomas at the ceremony, which begins at 9:30 a.m.

Natsios joined the faculty of the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown in January 2006, following his tenure at USAID. An appointee of President George W. Bush, he served as USAID administrator from May 2001 to January 2006, managing the agency's reconstruction programs in Afghanistan, Iran and the Sudan. He also served as the U.S. special presidential envoy to the Sudan from September 2006 to December 2007. Natsios had previously been director of USAID's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and assistant administrator for the Bureau for Food and Humanitarian Assistance.

The author of "U.S. Foreign Policy and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" and "The Great North Korean Famine," Natsios has also written numerous articles on foreign policy and humanitarian emergencies. Most recently, he authored an article in Foreign Affairs (published by the Council on Foreign Relations) about the Sudan's survival as a state. A graduate of Georgetown and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where he earned a master's degree in public administration, Natsios will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree at Marquette's Commencement.

Five additional individuals receive honorary degrees, including Dr. Benjamin S. Carson, director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University, who is sought out around the world for his expertise in separating conjoined twins and conducting brain surgery to control seizures.

The other four receiving honorary degrees are: Andreas Delfs, music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra; Margaret Farrow, former lieutenant governor of Wisconsin and a Marquette alumna; Rev. John P. Foley, S.J., founding president of the Cristo Rey High School Network, a national association of Catholic, Jesuit college preparatory high schools; and Kate Huston, retired city librarian, City of Milwaukee.