Commencement Speaker

Martin Short, a celebrated comedian and actor, has won fans and accolades in television, film and theater since his breakout season on Saturday Night Live almost 30 years ago and…

Mark Wahlberg earned both Academy Award® and Golden Globe® nominations for his standout work in the family boxing film, The Fighter, and Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed drama, The Departed. He has played diverse…

Academy Award-Winning Actor Matthew McConaughey's impressive career has spanned 40 feature films that have grossed over $1 billion dollars. A Texas native heralded for his constant career reinvention, McConaughey is…

Mellody Hobson has been the Co-CEO of Ariel Investments, LLC, an investment management firm, since 2019 and President and Director since 2000. She has also served as Chair of the…

Award-winning CBS journalist Maurice DuBois, a respected journalist who received the New York Association of Black Journalists’ Trailblazer Award, is an anchor at CBS-2. Over the course of an impressive…

Meryl Streep has portrayed an astonishing array of characters in a career that has cut its own unique path from the theater through film and television, for almost 40 years.…

Melissa Harris-Perry is the Maya Angelou Presidential Chair at Wake Forest University. There she is the Executive Director of the Pro Humanitate Institute and founding director of the Anna Julia…

Emmy winner and Super Bowl Champion Michael Strahan currently co-hosts ABC’s Good Morning America and serves as an analyst for Fox NFL Sunday. This summer, Strahan hosted the top-rated primetime…

Former Minnesota Congresswoman, Michele Bachmann became the first Republican woman elected to represent Minnesota in the U.S. House of Representatives. She was listed in Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People”…

Montel Williams earned his media celebrity status as an inspirational Emmy Award winning television personality whom Americans invited into their homes for more than 17 years. He is a decorated…

Award-Winning Journalist, Former First Lady of California, Best-Selling Author and leading Alzheimer’s Advocate. Born Maria Owings Shriver on November 6, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois.

Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell, A leader in education, the arts, and the public sector for nearly 40 years, Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D., began her tenure as the 10th president of…

In a distinguished professional career that has spanned 25 years, Marc Morial has served as one of the most accomplished servant-leaders in the nation. As an entrepreneur, Morial started several…

Mario Lopez is the host of Extra, the Emmy Award–winning entertainment news program.This is Lopez’s eighth consecutive season as the show’s host, after co-hosting Extra's weekend edition since January 2007.…

Dr. Mona Lake Jones, author, educator and community activist. Jones, who has served as Poet Curator and Poet Laureate for the City of Seattle and Martin Luther King County, travels…

Morgan Freeman earned his first Academy Award nomination for his chilling performance as a homicidal pimp in the drama Street Smart, which also brought him the LA, N.Y., and National…

Mike Espy is the former Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture, and a former U.S. Representative from the 2nd District of Mississippi. He currently works as a private…