Commencement + Convocation Speakers

Whether you are booking a speaker for your commencement or convocation, these speakers inspire students and the wider college community alike, offering advice and words of encouragement.

Dr. Mona Hanna

Physician, scientist and activist who exposed the Flint water crisis

Cheryl Strayed

Author of the #1 New York Times-bestselling memoir Wild and "Dear Sugar" columnist

Colson Whitehead

Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys

Javier Zamora

Memoirist, poet, and author of Solito, and a winner of the 2023 American Book Award.

More Commencement + Convocation Speakers

Jay Ellis

NAACP Image Award-winning actor, director, producer, and author of Did Everyone Have an Imaginary Friend (or Just Me)?

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi

National Book Award-winning historian and #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist

Conor Knighton

Emmy-winning correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning and New York Times-bestselling author

Jenny Odell

New York Times-bestselling author of How to Do Nothing and Saving Time

Chris Smalls

Labor organizer and president and co-founder of the Amazon Labor Union

Isabel Wilkerson

Pulitzer Prize winner and author of the critically-acclaimed bestsellers The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste

Ed Yong

Pulitzer Prize-winner and bestselling author of An Immense World
Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau