Rhode Island's 2017 College Commencement Speakers

New England Tech

David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox Legend

Commencement Date: Sunday, April 30, 11 a.m. 

David Ortiz led the Red Sox to three World Series championships starting with the 2004 title that snapped Boston's 86 year drought. 

Boston would win again in 2007 and in 2013, with Ortiz being named MVP. 

Ortiz, who retired after the 2016 season, finished his career with 541 home runs, which ranks 17th on the MLB all-time home run list, 1,768 RBIs and a .286 batting average.

Among designated hitters, he is the all-time leader in MLB history for home runs (485), runs batted in (1,569), and hits (2,192). 

The Red Sox will retire his number 34 on June 23 at Fenway Park. 

Roger Williams

Patrice Wood, News Anchor at NBC 10

Commencement Date: Saturday, May 20  

Patrice Wood has been at NBC 10 for over 37 years, joining the station in 1980. 

Wood studied journalism in college, receiving a bachelor’s degree from Bowling Green State University.

She then worked as a news anchor/reporter for WDHO-TV in Toledo, Ohio, and held several news positions with WBGU-TV in Bowling Green, Ohio before coming to NBC 10. 

She has received multiple volunteer and professional awards, including the Silver Circle award from the New England Association of Television Arts and Sciences and the Congressional Angels in Adoption Award.

Roger Williams Law

Professor David B. Wilkins, Former clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall

Commencement Date: Friday, May 19. 

After graduating from Harvard, Wilkins clerked for Wilfred Feinberg, a United States Circuit Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

In the 1981-1982 term, he clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall at the United States Supreme Court.

He is currently the Lester Kissel Professor of Law, and Faculty Director of the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School

Brown Honorary Degree

NOTE: Brown does not invite Commencement speakers for the College Ceremony.

Daveed Diggs will deliver the Baccalaureate address to the Class of 2017 on Saturday afternoon, May 27 in the Meeting House of the First Baptist Church in America.

Commencement Date: Sunday, May 28 

Daveed Diggs, Actor and Rapper

Diggs rose to fame on the New York theatre scene following Tony-winning performance in the roles of Thomas Jefferson and Marquis de Lafayette in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway sensation “Hamilton.” For these roles, Diggs also earned a Lucille Lortel Award for best supporting actor. 

He is currently guest starring on ABC’s “Blackish” and will appear in HBO’s mockumentary “Tour de Pharmacy” alongside Andy Samberg and Will Forte.

Currently, he is producing a comedy pilot for ABC. Diggs earned a bachelor’s degree from Brown in 2004 with a theatre arts concentration.

Brown Honorary Degree

Commencement Date: Sunday, May 28 

Robert De Niro, Actor  

De Niro won his first Academy Award for best supporting actor for “The Godfather: Part II” in 1974. Six years later, he received the Oscar for best actor for his performance in “Raging Bull.” 

In 2009, De Niro received the Kennedy Center Honors and the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film. In 2011, he served as jury president of the Cannes Film Festival and was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globe Awards. 

He is co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival and Tribeca Enterprises, a diversified global media company based in New York City. 

Other Honorary Degrees 

• Donald Hood, Visual Science Expert
• Indra Nooyi, Businesswoman
• Richard Parsons, business executive 
• Rosemarie Waldrop

URI

Vladimir Duthiers, CBS News Correspondent 

Commencement Date:  Sunday, May 21, 12:30 p.m. 

Duthiers, a 1991 URI Political Science graduate, is a CBS News Correspondent  and news anchor. 

He has reported on everything from the Ferguson, Missouri shootings  to the police-shooter manhunt in Pennsylvania. 

Duthiers started his broadcast career in 2009 on the CNN news program “Amanpour” before becoming associate producer for Anderson Cooper 360

URI Graduate School

Thomas Farragher, Boston Globe Associate Editor 

Commencement Date:  Saturday, May 20, 9 a.m. 

Farragher is a columnist and associate editor at The Boston Globe.

He has spent almost 40 years using his instinct, talent and dogged determination to find, research and share genuine stories.

Farragher was part of the Globe’s Spotlight Team whose courageous research and sustained determination revealed a decades-long cover-up of the sexual abuse of children by priests within the Archdiocese of Boston. Its series exposed and catalogued the mistakes, sins and crimes that were at the core of what became a national crisis.

The team received a Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2003.

Salve Regina

Jon Batiste, Musician

Commencement Date: Sunday, May 21 

Batiste has teamed with many well known musicians in various genres of music, released recordings of his own, performed in over 40 countries and has appeared as an actor in both film and television.

He has recorded or performed with artists including The Soul Rebels, Prince, Lenny Kravitz, Jimmy Buffett, and Questlove among others. 

Since September 2015, Batiste has been the music director and bandleader for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and its band Stay Human.

Bryant

Jeffrey R. Immelt, Chief Executive Officer for GE

Commencement Date: Sunday, May 20.

Immelt has held multiple global leadership positions since joining GE in 1982, including roles in GE's Plastics, Appliances, and Healthcare businesses.

In 1989 he became an officer of GE and joined the GE Capital Board in 1997.

He was named president and chief executive officer in 2000.

Immelt earned a B.A. degree in applied mathematics from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from Harvard University. 

Bryant Graduate School

Gary Furtado, President & Chief Executive Officer of Navigant Credit Union

Commencement Date: Thursday, May 18 

Furtado has worked at Navigant for 37 years and spent 27 of them as its leader.

He also serves as a leader, volunteer, and advisor to community organizations including the Credit Union Association of Rhode Island, the Pawtucket Foundation, Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor, Pawtucket Boys & Girls Club, Little Sisters of the Poor, Narragansett Council, Boy Scouts of America, Advisory Council; Pawtucket Rotary Club; Providence Performing Arts Center, Special Olympics.

Furtado has also served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island Board of Trustees and is currently on the Care New England Investment Committee.

He earned a bachelor’s degree and masters of business administration from Bryant University.

Johnson & Wales Graduate Ceremony 

Neil Steinberg, president and CEO, Rhode Island Foundation

Commencement Date:  Friday, May 19 at 11 a.m. 

Steinberg joined RI Foundation in 2008 from Brown University, his alma mater, where he served for four years as vice president of development and director of the most successful fundraising campaign in Brown’s history.

Prior to that, Steinberg worked for FleetBoston Financial, where he rose to the position of chairman and chief executive officer of Fleet Bank Rhode Island

Johnson & Wales Undergrad Morning Ceremony 

David L. Warren, PhD, president, National Association of Independent Colleges and University (NAICU)

Commencement Date: Saturday, May 20, 8:45 a.m. 

Warren was named president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) in 1993, after nearly a decade as president of Ohio Wesleyan University.

Prior to becoming president of Ohio Wesleyan, Warren was the Chief Administrative Officer of the City of New Haven, from 1982 to 1984.

From 1978 to 1982, he held a variety of positions at Antioch University in Yellow Springs, Ohio, including senior vice president and university provost.

From 1968 to 1976, he held administrative and faculty positions at Yale University, including Assistant Secretary for State and Community Relations, and Executive Director of Dwight Hall.

Warren earned his bachelor's degree in English from Washington State University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his master's degrees from Yale University, and a doctorate in higher education administration from the University of Michigan. 

Johnson & Wales Undergrad Afternoon Ceremony 

Charles M. Royce, chairman and portfolio manager, Royce & Associates, LP

Commencement Date: Saturday, May 20, 1:45 p.m.

The afternoon ceremony will take place at 1:45 p.m. on Saturday, May 20.

Royce has been the portfolio manager for Royce Pennsylvania Mutual Fund since 1972.

Before that, he served as the Director of Research at Scheinman, Hochstin, Trotta and as a security analyst at Blair & Co.

He holds a bachelor's degree from Brown University and a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University.

RIC

Dr. Sonia Nieto, Advocate for Social Justice

Commencement Date: Saturday, May 13  

Well known author and researcher Dr. Sonia Nieto will serve as the undergraduate commencement speaker at RIC’s 163rd commencement ceremony.

Dr. Nieto has devoted her professional life to finding answers to questions of diversity, equity, and social justice in education.

Her research focuses on multicultural education, teacher education, and the education of students of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Nieto has written or edited 11 books and dozens of book chapters and journal articles, as well as a memoir titled Brooklyn Dreams: My Life in Public Education.

RIC Graduate School

Dr. Brenda Dann-Messier, Acting Commissioner of Postsecondary Education 

Commencement Date: Saturday, May 13, 2:30 p.m.

RIC alum and Rhode Island’s acting commissioner of postsecondary education Dr. Brenda Dann-Messier ’73 will serve as the commencement speaker at the advanced degree ceremony.

In her career, Dr. Dann-Messier has focused on promoting student success and developing the workforce at all levels.

Under President Obama, she served as Assistant Secretary of Education of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, where she led the Department of Education’s efforts in adult education and career and technical education and helped shape the administration’s policies on community colleges and correctional education.

Providence College

Dr. Roy Peter Clark, Author 

Commencement Date: Sunday, May 21, 11 a.m. 

Dr. Clark is the author or editor of 18 books and has taught writing for almost 40 years as senior scholar at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies St. Petersburg, Florida. 

Books that he has written include Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer, which ranks as one of the top books about writing sold in the United States. 

A graduate of Providence College, Clark studied English as a member of the Liberal Arts Honors Program and graduated summa cum laude. He presented the class oration at commencement.

He earned a Ph.D. in medieval literature from Stony Brook University in 1974 and was an assistant professor of English at Auburn University before becoming writing coach at the St. Petersburg Times in 1977.