Rhode Island’s 2018 College Commencement Speakers
GoLocalProv Lifestyle Team
Rhode Island’s 2018 College Commencement Speakers
This year's list of Rhode Island commencement speakers includes both national and local authors and business executives, Star Trek icon William Shatner and more.
These speakers are charged with a heady task -- giving new graduates valuable advice and life lessons through inspirational stories, involvement in or interpretation of world-altering events, or personal accounts of overcoming odds.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTSo who is coming to town to celebrate commencement?
See the commencement speakers in the slideshow below
Editor's Note: Bryant University has yet to announce their commencement speakers.
2018 RI Commencement Speakers
Commencement Ceremony: Sunday, May 6 at 11 a.m.
Commencement Speaker: William Shatner
About Shatner
Shatner is best known for his roles on Star Trek, Boston Legal and his new show Better Late Than Never.
He became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T. Kirk, captain of the USS Enterprise, in the Star Trek franchise.
Shatner also played the eponymous veteran police sergeant in T.J. Hooker and hosted the reality-based television series Rescue 911, which won a People's Choice Award for the Favorite New TV Dramatic Series.
As of December 2017, he is in his second season of the NBC real-life travelogue with other male companions "of a certain age" in Better Late Than Never.
Commencement Ceremony: Saturday, May 12 at 9 a.m.
Commencement Speaker: Jeff Kirwan
About Kirwan
Kirwan is the former president and CEO of Gap Global.
Prior to that, from 2011-2014, he was president of Gap Greater China.
Previous to his China assignment, Kirwan was senior vice president of stores and operations for Gap’s largest brand, Old Navy, from 2008-2011; senior vice president and general manager of Old Navy Canada from 2007-2008; and zone vice president of Old Navy from 2004-2006.
In addition to earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from Rhode Island College in 1993, Kirwan attained a Master of Science degree from the University of Maryland in 2005.
Rhode Island College Graduate School
Graduate Ceremony: Saturday, May 12 at 2 p.m.
Commencement Speaker: Anna Cano Morales
About Cano Morales
Cano Morales is the Associate Vice President of Community, Equity, and Diversity at RIC.
Cano Morales has served on several state and nonprofit boards, including the University of Rhode Island Foundation, the Rhode Island Latino Political Action Committee, the International Charter School and the Rhode Island Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education.
Currently, she is chair of the board of trustees for Central Falls School and a seminar fellow for the Institute for Nonprofit Practice, which is affiliated with the John M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University.
Cano Morales earned a B.S. in human development, counseling and family studies from the University of Rhode Island and an M.S.W. from Rhode Island College.
Johnson & Wales University Graduate School
Graduate Ceremony: Friday, May 18 at 11 a.m.
Commencement Speaker: Laura Freid
About Freid
Fried is the President of the Maine College of Art.
As CEO and Executive Director of Silkroad for the past decade, Freid initiated the organization's ongoing multi-year affiliation with Harvard University, a five-year partnership with the Rhode Island School of Design, and created the first joint venture with the Harvard Business School.
She also served as executive producer of the internationally acclaimed feature documentary The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble.
She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis and holds an M.B.A. from Boston University as well as an Ed.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.
She will receive an honorary Doctor of Business Administration degree from JWU.
Commencement Ceremony: Friday, May 18
Commencement Speaker: Marielena Hincapié
About Hincapié
Hincapié is the executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, where she has been since 2008.
She began her tenure at NILC in 2000 as a staff attorney, leading its labor and employment program.
Before joining NILC, she worked for the Legal Aid Society of San Francisco’s Employment Law Center, where she founded the Center’s Immigrant Workers’ Rights Project.
She will receive an honorary degree from RWU.
Undergraduate Ceremony: Saturday, May 19 at 8:45 a.m.
Commencement Speaker: John Taylor Jr.
About Taylor Jr.
John Taylor Jr. is the chairman of Twin River Worldwide Holdings Inc.
Prior to that, Taylor served as CEO of GameLogic Inc., a company focused on developing online gambling and marketing strategies for regulated gambling entities. The company was sold to Scientific Games Corporation
Taylor serves on the board of directors for the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Johnson & Wales University Corporation.
He currently serves on the board of PILCO, the IP Affiliate of Acres 4.0 and is a founding director of the International Social Games Association, the worldwide representative body of the social games industry based in London.
He will receive an honorary Doctor of Business Administration degree from JWU.
Undergraduate Ceremony 2: Saturday, May 19 at 1:45 a.m.
Commencement Speaker: Maribeth Bisienere
About Bisienere
Bisienere currently serves as the senior vice president of Walt Disney World.
Prior to that, she served as the Vice President of Food and Beverage and Merchandise Line Business at Disney until 2014.
She served as the Vice President of Business Development until 2010 and the Vice President of Alliance Development and Operating participants prior to that.
Bisienere graduated from Cedar Crest College before starting at Disney in 1997.
She will receive an honorary Doctor of Business Administration from JWU.
Commencement Date: Saturday, May 19, 2018
Commencement Speaker: Frank R. Rainieri
About Rainieri
Rainieri is the president and CEO of the Grupo Puntacana resort, and his son, Frank Elias Rainieri, a 1999 RWU graduate and current member of the RWU Board of Trustees, each will receive an honorary doctorate in humanities during the ceremony.
Rainieri and Theodore W. Kheel, a New York attorney and labor mediator, launched the Punta Cana Club on the Dominican Republic’s eastern shore in 1971, when the complex had 10 small cabins.
Today, Puntacana Resort & Club has since grown to encompass more than 26 square miles and includes a variety of hotels, resorts, a full-service marina, a shopping village, golf courses and the world’s first privately owned international airport.
Rainieri is also president of the Grupo Puntacana Foundation, a nonprofit that protects and preserves the natural resources of the Punta Cana region while contributing to sustainable tourism.
He started working toward a bachelor’s degree in business administration at St. Joseph’s University, in Philadelphia, before completing the degree at APEC University, in Santo Domingo.
University of Rhode Island Graduate School
Graduate Ceremony: Saturday, May 19 at 9 a.m.
Commencement Speaker: Maureen Moakley
About Moakley
Moakley serves as a professor of political science at the University of Rhode Island.
Moakley teaches American government, state politics, and political theory. Her current research examines the question of statehood for Puerto Rico. In addition, she and colleague Richard McIntyre, professor of economics, created a semester-long study abroad program in Cuba.
The program was established at an important time in history: In 2014, President Barack Obama restored ties with the Communist nation after more than a half-century of diplomatic isolation.
She holds a Ph.D. in political science from Rutgers University and is the author of several books, including “The Political Life of the American States,” “Party Alignment and State Politics” and “Rhode Island Politics and Government” (with Elmer Cornwell).
Commencement Ceremony: Sunday, May 20 at 11 a.m.
Commencement Speaker: David McCullough
About McCullough
McCullough has been acclaimed as a “master of the art of narrative history.” He is the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, two National Book Awards, and has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. His book, The Wright Brothers, was a #1 New York Times bestseller, and remained on the list for more than a year. Other works include The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, 1776, and John Adams. McCullough’s other books include The Johnstown Flood, the Great Bridge, The Path Between the Seas, Mornings on Horseback, Brave Companions, and Truman. His books have been published in nineteen languages, and none of them has ever been out of print.
McCullough is twice the winner of the Francis Parkman Prize, and for his work overall, he has been honored with the National Book Foundation Distinguished Contribution to American Letters Award, the National Humanities Medal, and the Gold Medal for Biography given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and has received 55 honorary degrees.
Born and educated in Pittsburgh and at Yale University, his hometown recently renamed its landmark 16th Street Bridge as the David McCullough Bridge.
In 2014, he was named an Officer of the Legion of Honor by decree of the President of the Republic of France.
Commencement Ceremony: Sunday, May 20 at 12:30 p.m.
Commencement Speaker: Gina McCarthy
About McCarthy
McCarthy is a leading advocate for the protection of public health and the environment.
She is considered an authoritative voice on environmental issues and their implications for society.
McCarthy helped shape environmental and transportation policies in Massachusetts and Connecticut before joining the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2009.
President Barack Obama named her administrator of the agency in 2013.
She will receive an honorary doctor of science degree
Commencement Ceremony: Sunday, May 20
Commencement Speaker: Sister Helen Prejean
About Prejean
Prejean is the author of the best-selling book “Dead Man Walking,” which helped kick-off a national conversation about the death penalty.
“Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States” was on the New York Times best-seller list for 31 weeks. It was adapted into a 1995 movie of the same name, starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn.
It has also been adapted as an opera, first produced in 2000 by the San Francisco Opera, and as a play for schools and colleges.
Prejean spent her first years with the Congregation of St. Joseph teaching religion to junior high school students. She then moved into the St. Thomas Housing Project in New Orleans and worked at Hope House from 1981-1984.
Sister Helen founded the advocacy group Survive to help families of victims of murder and related crimes. She served as the national chairperson of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty from 1993-1995 and helped establish the Moratorium Campaign that seeks an end to executions and conducts education on the death penalty.
Commencement Ceremony: Sunday, May 27
Baccalaureate Address: Beverly E. Ledbetter
NOTE: Brown does not invite Commencement speakers for the College Ceremony.
The Baccalaureate address to the Class of 2018 will take place on the afternoon of Saturday, May 26, at the Meeting House of the First Baptist Church in America.
About Ledbetter
Ledbetter serves as Brown University’s chief legal officer and Vice President and general counsel.
A graduate of Howard University and the University of Colorado Law School, Ledbetter spent her early career at the University of Oklahoma working as legal counsel and teaching. In 1978, she became Brown’s first general counsel, a position from which she retires this year.
Ledbetter has long dedicated herself to communities beyond campus, as well. A former Providence Housing Court judge, she helped to launch the Black Philanthropy Fund at the Rhode Island Foundation and has devoted time and expertise to organizations as diverse as the National Association of College and University Attorneys, the Thurgood Marshall Law Society, the Girl Scouts of Rhode Island and the Urban League.
Commencement Ceremony: Sunday, May 27
Honorary Degrees
- Lonnie G. Bunch III — Educator, historian and museum director
- J. Michael Kosterlitz — Physicist, educator and Nobel Prize winner
- Beverly E. Ledbetter — Chief legal officer and community leader
- Nancy Northup — Attorney and global reproductive rights leader
- Giuseppe Penone — Visual artist
- Sting — Singer-songwriter, author, and activist
- Trudie Styler — Actress, activist and UNICEF U.K. ambassador
