Commencement 2026 - Speakers Archive

Roosevelt University’s Commencement has welcomed a remarkable range of leading voices—from renowned scholars and civic leaders like Walter W. Heller and St. Clair Drake to global icons and changemakers such as Coretta Scott King, Oprah Winfrey, Gwendolyn Brooks and Lonnie G. Bunch III. This distinguished group also includes notable public servants and alumni trailblazers, including Harold Washington, Bobby L. Rush, Carla Hayden and Mayor Brandon Johnson, reflecting the University’s enduring connection to service and leadership.

COMMENCEMENT SPEAKERS AND HONORARY DEGREE RECIPIENTS

Frank W. McCulloch
Director, James Mullenbach Industrial Institute

Preston Bradley
Pastor, The Peoples Church

Vera Micheles Dean
Research Director, Foreign Policy
Association

Herman Finer
Professor of Political Science, University
of Chicago

Oscar Ross Ewing
Administrator, Federal Security Agency

Bartley C. Crum
Publisher, New York Star

Marshall Field III
Owner, Marshall Field’s Department
Store

Robert E. Merriam
Alderman, Fifth Ward, City of Chicago

Jacob E. Weinstein
Rabbi, K.A.M. Temple

Vijaya Lakshimi Pandit
Ambassador from India

Leo A. Lerner
Editor and Publisher, Chicago North
Side Newspaper; Chairman of the
Board, Roosevelt College

Eric L. Kohler
Business Consultant; Vice Chairman of
the Board, Roosevelt College

Guy E. Reed
Executive Vice President and Director,
Harris Trust and Savings Bank;
President, Chicago Association of
Commerce and Industry

Dr. Carl Rogers
Professor of Psychology, University of
Chicago

Robert J. Blakely
Manager, Central Region Office, The
Fund for Adult Education

Charles A. Bane
Partner, Isham, Lincoln and Beale

Archibald J. Carey, Jr.
Alderman, Third Ward, City of Chicago;
First Alternate Delegate, United Nations

Fred K. Hoeler
Executive Director, Citizens of Greater
Chicago

Hugh L. Keenleyside
Director General, Technical Assistance
Administration, United Nations

Francis S. Chase
Chairman, Department of Education,
University of Chicago

Percy L. Julian
President, Julian Laboratories; Member,
Board of Trustees, Roosevelt University

Henry Steele Commager
Professor of History, Columbia
University

Charles K. Brightbill
Professor of Recreation, University of
Illinois

Paul A. Wagner
President, Film Council of America

Lurray D. Lincoln
President, Nationwide Insurance

John Ford Golay
Dean of Faculties, Roosevelt University

Frayn Utley
Midwest Director, Institute of
International Education

James P. Warburg
Author

William H. Comog
Superintendent, New Trier Township
High School

Niels Bohr
Director, Institute for Theoretical
Physics, Copenhagen, Denmark

H. Jerry Voorhis
Executive Director, Cooperative League
of U.S.A.

Leon M. Despres
Attorney-at-Law

Philip M. Klutznick
Member, Board of Trustees, Roosevelt
University; Chairman of the Board,
American Community Builders;
Alternate Delegate, United Nations;
National President, B’nai B’rith

Harlan Cleveland
Dean, Maxwell Graduate School of
Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse
University

Bland Blanshard
Professor of Philosophy, Yale University

Edwin S. Burdell
President, Cooper Union for the
Advancement of Science and Art

The Honorable William Averell Harriman
Secretary of Commerce, United States

Russell W. Ballard
Director, Hull House Association

Jonathan Pugh
Executive Vice President, Talman
Federal Savings and Loan Association

Louis Gottschalk
Professor of Modern History, University
of Chicago

The Honorable Eugenie Anderson
Former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark

Walter P. Reuther
President, United Automobile, Aircraft
and Agricultural Implement Workers

David Dubinsky
President, International Ladies Garment
Workers Union

Jacob Petofsky
President, Amalgamated Clothing
Workers of America

The Honorable W. Willard Wirtz
Secretary of Labor, United States

The Honorable Henry S. Reuss
U.S. Representative, Wisconsin

The Honorable William O. Douglas
Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court

David D. Henry
President, University of Illinois

Fred Harvey Harrington
President, University of Wisconsin–
Madison

Basil O’Connor
President, The National Foundation

Joseph L. Block
Chairman of the Board and Chief
Executive Officer, Inland Steel Company

Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr.
Director, Peace Corps; Director, Office of
Economic Opportunity, United States

Milburn P. Akers
Executive Director, Independent Illinois
Colleges and Universities

Ralph W. Tyler
Director, Center for Advanced Study in
the Behavioral Sciences

Philip M. Hauser
Professor of Sociology, University of
Chicago

Virgil Thomson
Musical Composer

Philip M. Klutznick
Chairman and CEO, Urban Investment
and Development Company

Howard Wesley Johnson (BA, ’43)
President, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology

Whitney M. Young, Jr.
Executive Director, National Urban
League

Dana Farnsworth, MD
Director, University Health Services,
Harvard University

Sol M. Linowitz
Lawyer and Diplomat

George Wells Beadle
Former President, University of Chicago;
Scientist; Nobel Laureate

Coretta Scott King
Widow, Martin Luther King, Jr.; Civil
Rights Activist

The Honorable U. Thant
Secretary-General, United Nations

The Honorable Adlai Stevenson III
U.S. Senator, Illinois

Emmett Dedmon
Author, Historian and Journalist

John A. Roosevelt
Member, Board of Trustees, Roosevelt
University

Clayton Kirkpatrick
Editor, Chicago Tribune

Lloyd C. Elam, MD (BS, ’50)
President, Meharry Medical College

Milton Friedman
Professor of Economics, University of
Chicago; Nobel Laureate

Frank B. Freidel
Professor of History, Harvard University;
Biographer of Franklin Roosevelt

Walter W. Heller
Professor of Economics, University of
Minnesota

St. Clair Drake
Former Faculty Member, Roosevelt
University; Author; Sociologist

Cyril O. Houle
Educator and Author

Landrum R. Bolling
President, Lilly Endowment; Former
President, Earlham College

The Honorable Wilbur J. Cohen
Secretary of Health, Education and
Welfare, United States

John Hope Franklin
Professor of History, University of
Chicago

Norman Alexander Ross
Radio and Television Commentator;
Banker

The Honorable James R. Thompson
Governor, State of Illinois

R. Buckminster Fuller
Architect, Professor and Inventor of the
Geodesic Dome

Hanna Holbom Gray
President, University of Chicago

Charles Marshall
President and Chief Executive Officer,
Illinois Bell Telephone Company

The Honorable Philip M. Klutznick
Secretary of Commerce, United States

Robert J. Havighurst
Professor Emeritus of Education and
Behavioral Sciences, University of
Chicago

Dan Rather
Anchorman, CBS

The Honorable Cardiss Collins
U.S. Representative, Illinois

Jerome H. Stone
Chairman of the Board, Roosevelt
University; Chairman of the Board,
Stone Container Corporation

The Honorable
Harold Washington (BA, ’49)
Mayor, City of Chicago

James M. Furman
Executive Vice President, John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

James T. O’Connor
Chairman of the Board, President and
CEO, Commonwealth Edison Company

Maria W. Piers
Distinguished Service Professor, Erikson
Institute

Donald P. Jacobs (BA, ’49)
Dean, J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of
Management, Northwestern University

The Honorable Paul Simon
U.S. Senator, Illinois

Harry Mark Petrakis
Novelist

Richard Howard Hunt
Sculptor

Martin E. Marty
Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service
Professor, University of Chicago

Rolf A. Weil
President, Roosevelt University

Alonzo A. Crim (BA, ’50)
Benjamin W. Olays Professor of Urban
Education Leadership, Georgia State
University

John H. Johnson
Chief Executive Officer, Johnson
Publishing Company

The Honorable Abraham
Lincoln Marovitz
Justice, Illinois Supreme Court

Ardis Krainik
Director, Lyric Opera of Chicago

Sir Georg Solti
Music Director, Chicago Symphony
Orchestra

Gwendolyn Brooks
Poet Laureate of Illinois

Sam Wanamaker
Actor and Director

The Honorable Jewel
Stradford Lafontant
U.S. Ambassador at Large

Ann Landers
Syndicated Advice Columnist

Warren H. Bacon, Sr. (BA, ’48)
Roosevelt University Benefactor

Richard R. Morrow
Former CEO, Amoco

Elie Wiesel
Professor, Author, Humanitarian and
Nobel Laureate

Danny Newman
Public Relations Counsel, Lyric Opera of
Chicago

Cyrus Colter
Author

The Honorable
Han-Yul Yoo (BA, ’69)
Congressional Leader, South Korea

Alan B. Anixter
Chairman of the Board, Roosevelt
University

Robert W. Galvin
Chairman, Executive Committee,
Motorola, Inc.

Willard L. Boyd
President, Field Museum of Natural
History

Alyce DeCosta
Philanthropist

The Honorable William J. Bauer
Justice, U.S. Appellate Court

Dorothy Donegan
Pianist

John F. Sandner
Chairman, Chicago Mercantile
Exchange

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
Concert Artist

Bill Kurtis
News Anchorman, WBBM-TV

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
Historian and Author

Newton Minow
Former Chairman, Federal
Communication Commission and the
Public Broadcasting Service

Patrick O’Malley
Chairman Emeritus, Canteen
Corporation; Member, Board of Trustees,
Roosevelt University

Marian Wright Edelman
President, Children’s Defense Fund

Irving Harris
Chairman, The Irving Harris Foundation

Albert A. Robin
Founder, Robin Companies; Member,
Board of Trustees, Roosevelt University

Adele Smith Simmons
President, John D. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation

Kenneth Smith
President, Chicago Theological
Seminary

David Ferguson
Chairman of the Board, Roosevelt
University

Manfred Steinfeld (BC, ’48)
Founder, Shelby Williams Industries

Barbara Bowman
President, Erikson Institute

Henry Fogel
President, Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Association

William Mason (BM, ’66)
General Director, Lyric Opera of Chicago

Zarin Mehta
President and Chief Operating Officer,
Ravinia Festival

William Vanden Heuvel
Ambassador, FDR Institute

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt
Executive Director, Brain Research
Foundation

Charles Hamilton (BA, ’51)
Professor Emeritus, Columbia
University

Paul Vallas
CEO, Chicago Public Schools

Stanley O. Ikenberry
President, American Council on
Education

Oprah Winfrey
Talk Show Host, Actress and
Entrepreneur

Leon Lederman
Physicist, Illinois Institute of Technology

The Honorable Danny K. Davis
U.S. Representative, Illinois

Scott Simon
Journalist, National Public Radio

The Honorable Blanche Manning
(MA, ’72)
Judge, U.S. District Court

Theodore L. Gross
President, Roosevelt University

Stanley N. Katz
Professor, Woodrow Wilson School
of Public and International Affairs,
Princeton University

Freeman A. Hrabowski III
President, University of Maryland,
Baltimore County

Sandra Dixon Jiles (BB, ’71; MB, ’77)
Co-founder, UBM, Inc.

Paul H. Silverman (BB, ’50)
Distinguished Scientist and
University Administrator

The Honorable Emil Jones, Jr.
President, Illinois State Senate

Christopher R. Reed (BA, ’63; MA, ’68)
Professor of History, Roosevelt
University

Sylvia Flanagan (MS, ’86)
Senior Editor, Jet Magazine

Al Golin (BC, ’50)
Chairman, GolinHarris

Jacques Paul Klein (BA, ’63; MA, ’71)
Visiting Lecturer in International Affairs,
Princeton University

The Honorable Richard J. Durbin
U.S. Senator, Illinois

Allida M. Black
Research Professor of History
and International Affairs, George
Washington University

Matthew Holden, Jr. (BA, ’52)
Professor Emeritus of Politics, University
of Virginia

Herman Buff
Consul General of Switzerland, Chicago

The Honorable
Bobby L. Rush (BGS, ’74)
U.S. Representative, Illinois

Dempsey J. Travis (BA, ’49)
President, Travis Realty Co.

Donald P. Jacobs (BA, ’49)
Dean Emeritus and Professor, Kellogg
School of Management, Northwestern
University

The Honorable Melissa Bean (BA, ’02)
U.S. Representative, Illinois

Kenny Leon
Founding Artistic Director, True Colors
Theatre Company; Tony Award Winning
Director

Jim Skinner
Vice Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer, McDonald’s Corporation

Ira Berkow
Sports Journalist, Author and Roosevelt
University Alumnus

Chris Matthews
Television News Anchorman and
Journalist

Thomas J. Burrell (BA, ’62)
Former Chairman and CEO, Burrell
Communications Group

Samuel J. Meisels
President, Erikson Institute

Marshall Bennett
President, Marshall Bennett Enterprises

Charles A. Dinarello, MD
Professor of Medicine and Immunology,
University of Colorado School of
Medicine

Martin R. Castro
Chair, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

Van Vlahakis (BS, ’58)
Owner and Chief Executive Officer,
Earth Friendly Products

Robert Mednick (BS, ’62)
Senior Vice Chair and Retired Managing
Partner, Andersen Worldwide

Susan M. Reverby
Marion Butler McLean Professor,
Professor of Women’s and Gender
Studies, Wellesley College

Ruth M. Rothstein
CEO, Cook County Health & Hospitals
System

Deborah F. Rutter
President, Chicago Symphony
Orchestra Association

Joe Segal
Founder, Jazz Showcase

Danielle E. Smith (BA, ’13)
Special Education

Alexa Canady, MD
Pediatric neurosurgeon

Brenden Paradies (BA, ’14)
Integrated Marketing Communications

Ebrahim Rasool
South Africa’s Ambassador to
the United States

Joanna Rivera (BAE, ’14)
Elementary Education

Al Golin
CEO, Golin

Goldie Wolfe Miller (BSBA, ’67)
President, Millbrook Corporate
Real Estate Services

The Honorable
Michael Quigley (BA, ’81)
U.S. Representative, Illinois

Amelia Enberg (BA, ’15)
Integrated Marketing Communications

Lukas Coker (BA, ’15)
Criminal Justice

Robert L. Johnson
Former Vice President
Sears Roebuck and Company

Guadelupe Cotto (MS, ’15)
Business Administration

Patricia Harris (BGS, ’80)
Former Global Chief Diversity
Officer and Vice President of Global
Community Engagement,
McDonald’s Corporation

Najova Aliovalla (BS, ’16)
Biology

Desire Bernard (BPS, ’16)
Psychology

Rabbi Abie Ingber
Director of the Center for Interfaith
Community Engagement,
Xavier University

Laura Miller-Hill (BS, ’16)
Sustainability Studies

Gloria Castillo
President and CEO, Chicago United

Yasmeen Lipprand (BA, ’17)
Integrated Marketing Communications

Denise Plotzker (BPS, ’17)
Criminal Justice

Lonnie G. Bunch III
Director, Smithsonian’s National Museum
of African American History and Culture

Samuel Adam Grzelak (BS, ’17)
Biology

Carla Hayden (BA, ’73)
14th Librarian of Congress

Grant Ladniak (MA, ’18)
Organization Development

Michelle Henton (MA, ’18)
Clinical Psychology – Counseling
Practice

Christopher G. Kennedy
Founder and Chairman, Top Box Foods

Katia Martinez (BA, ’18)
Sociology

Samantha Martinez (BA, ’18)
Sociology

Dr. Robert H. Jordan Jr. (BGS, ’77)
WGN News Anchor, Journalist, Producer

Abelardo Rodriguez III (BSBA, ’19)
Marketing

Alex Fruin (BMA, ’19)
Performing Arts Administration

Melissa Conyears-Ervin (MBA, ’03)
Treasurer of the City of Chicago

Dalal El-Barbarawi (BS, ’19)
Biochemistry

Sylvia Puente
President and CEO of the Latino Policy
Forum

Anthony M. Rodriguez (BA, ’21)
Special Education

Mohammad Samra (BA, ’21)
Journalism and Media Studies

Yajaira L. Gallegos (BA, ’22)
Elementary Education

Ellie Kurt (BA, ’22)
History

Hermene Hartmann
Founder of N’DIGO magazine

Lieutenant Colonel Henri L. Bailey III
(BA, ’62)
United States Air Force

Charles D. Butler (BM, ’22)
Vocal Performance

Mariya Roman (BSBA, ’23)
Business Administration

Mayor Brandon Johnson
57th Mayor of Chicago

Phyllis Hampton (MA, ’24)
College Counseling and Student Affairs

Paulina Czupryna (BA, ’24)
Journalism and Media Studies

Theresa (“Tracy”) Roosevelt
Great-granddaughter of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt
Public service, law and national security leader

Sara Sosa (BS, ’25)
Radiography

Joabe Bayer Barbosa (MA, ’25)
Psychology