Jean Case guided the marketing and branding effort of one of the first social media platforms. Denise Turner Roth, BA Government and Politics ’99, oversees the government’s supplier of goods, services, and property to all federal agencies. They will share their stories at winter graduation at EagleBank Arena on Dec. 19.
Case will speak at the 9 a.m. ceremony, addressing graduates of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences; College of Science; School of Policy, Government and International Affairs; School of Law; and School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution.
Roth will speak at the 1 p.m. ceremony, addressing graduates of the School of Business, College of Health and Human Services, College of Education and Human Development, Volgenau School of Engineering, and the College of Visual and Performing Arts.
Case and Roth both will receive honorary degrees.
Case helped establish AOL as a household utility. She and her husband, Steve Case, created the Case Foundation in 1997.
Named by Washington Business Journal in 2011 as Corporate Philanthropist of the Year, Case gears her investments toward the use of technology to drive social change and spur social good in foundations, nonprofits, and individuals.
In addition to her role as CEO of the Case Foundation, Case has served in two appointed roles leading strategic public-private efforts, including the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation, to which she was appointed chair in 2006 by President George W. Bush, and as co-chair of the U.S.-Palestinian Partnership.
Roth, who oversees the U.S. General Services Administration, is a true Mason success story.
Roth arrived at Mason as a first-generation college student attracted to the university’s capabilities in politics and policy. She served in Mason student government and began her management career while attending classes, working in the Capitol Hill office of Virginia Congressman James P. Moran.
After various posts, including government positions in her native Washington, D.C., and a stint as city manager of Greensboro, N.C., Roth in 2014 accepted the position as deputy administrator of the GSA and helped consolidate the agency’s IT, human resources, administration, and financial functions.
Roth was named GSA’s acting Administrator in February 2015. President Barack Obama later appointed her for the permanent position.