A USC Announces Commencement Speakers for Baccalaureate and Satellite Ceremonies
Oracle Corporation founder Larry Ellison will deliver main commencement speech; among honorary degree recipients
Contact: Emily Gersema at (213) 740-0252 or gersema@usc.edu
More than 60,000 members of the Trojan Family will unite on the University Park Campus for USC’s 133rd commencement ceremony on Friday, May 13.
Larry Ellison, the founder, executive chairman and chief technology officer of Oracle Corporation, will deliver the commencement address.
Approximately 16,800 degrees will be conferred during USC’s commencement this year, including more than 880 graduate doctoral degrees, either at the main ceremony in Alumni Park or at one of the satellite ceremonies across campus.
Degree candidates, Half Century Trojans, faculty and distinguished guests will form a processional leaving Bovard Auditorium at 8:30 a.m. USC President C. L. Max Nikias will preside over the main ceremony at 9 a.m. in Alumni Park.
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Spiritual author and lecturer Marianne Williamson to deliver baccalaureate keynote address; Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll; Tinder founder and CEO Sean Rad; Judy A. Smith, the communication expert who inspired the TV show “Scandal” and director, producer and writer Paul Feig are among the satellite commencement speakers.
On Saturday May 14, the Keck School of Medicine of USC will hold its satellite ceremony for M.S., Ph.D. and M.P.H. graduates. The speaker will be Barbara Wold of the Beckman Institute at the California Institute of Technology.
The speaker at the Keck School’s satellite ceremony for M.D. graduates, also on May 14, will be Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners in Health, Harvard Medical School professor, and a special adviser to the U.N. Office of the Secretary-General on Community-based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti.
The baccalaureate ceremony for USC degree candidates and their families will be held at 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 12, at Bovard Auditorium. Spiritual speaker and author Marianne Williamson will deliver the keynote address at the nondenominational, interfaith celebration. The baccalaureate dinner will follow at 6:30 p.m. on Pardee Way.
On Friday, May 13, diplomas will be presented at satellite ceremonies for individual schools and will feature the following speakers:
USC School of Architecture
James Corner, founding partner of James Corner Field Operations; professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design
USC Roski School of Art and Design
Naima J. Keith, deputy director, California African American Museum
USC Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy
Sharon L. Dunn, president, American Physical Therapy Association
USC Marshall School of Business, Leventhal School of Accounting
Catherine Engelbert, CEO, Deloitte & Touche
USC Marshall School of Business (Graduate)
Pete Carroll, head coach and executive vice president, Seattle Seahawks
USC Marshall (Undergraduate)
Sean Rad, Founder & CEO, Tinder
USC School of Cinematic Arts
Paul Feig, director, producer, writer
USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, School of Communication
Judy A. Smith, president, Smith & Company
USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, School of Journalism
Kim Moses, principal and executive producer, Sander/Moses Productions
Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC
Carol Gomez Summerhays, president, American Dental Association
USC School of Dramatic Arts (Undergraduate)
Michael Chiklis, actor
USC School of Dramatic Arts (Graduate)
Tony Taccone, artistic director of Berkeley Repertory Theatre
USC Davis School of Gerontology
Richard K. Matros, chairman and CEO, Sabra Healthcare REIT Inc.
USC Rossier School of Education
Michelle L. King, superintendent, Los Angeles Unified School District
USC Viterbi School of Engineering (Graduate)
Kenneth Koo, chairman and CEO, Tai Chong Cheang Steamship Co. (H.K.) Ltd.
Premkumar Natarajan, USC Information Sciences Institute
USC Viterbi (Undergraduate)
Kenneth Simril, president and CEO, Fleischmann’s Ingredients
USC Gould School of Law
Paulette Brown, president of the American Bar Association
USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences (Group 1)
Peter Mancall, vice dean for the humanities
USC Dornsife (Group 2)
Dani Byrd, interim dean
USC Dornsife (Group 3)
Steven Lamy, vice dean for academic programs
USC Dornsife (Group 4)
Sarah Pratt, vice provost for graduate programs
Keck School of Medicine, Health Promotion and Global Health Programs
Jonathan M. Samet, distinguished professor and director, USC Institute for Global Health
Elahe Nezami, associate dean for undergraduate, masters and professional programs
Keck School of Medicine, Physician Assistant Program
Raymond Waliany, medical director, Physician Assistant Program at Keck School
USC Thornton School of Music
Bear McCreary, composer for film, television and games
USC Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy
Fariborz Maseeh, founder and managing principal, Picoco LLC; founder, Kids Institute for Development and Advancement
USC School of Pharmacy
Dana Goldman, distinguished professor and director, USC Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics; USC School of Pharmacy and USC Sol Price School of Public Policy
USC Price School of Public Policy
Austin Beutner, founder and chairman, Vision To Learn
ROTC Commissioning Ceremony: Air Force, Army, Naval
Lt. Gen. Steven L. Kwast, commander and president, Air University, United States Air Force
USC School of Social Work
Stacy Kratz, senior lecturer
Samuel Mistrano, clinical associate professor
Other satellite ceremony speakers to be announced will be posted on individual schools’ websites.
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Larry Ellison to deliver main commencement speech
Ellison is the founder of the technology giant, Oracle Corporation. In 2014, he stepped aside as CEO to become the executive chairman and chief technology officer of the company.
Ellison is an avid athlete who races sailboats, flies planes, plays tennis and runs one of the world’s largest tennis tournaments. He sails with Oracle Team USA and won the America’s Cup in 2010 and 2013. In the tennis world, Ellison acquired the BNP Paribas Open, the largest combined Association of Tennis Professionals’ World Tour and Women’s Tennis Association’s tour event in the world.
A philanthropist, Ellison founded The Lawrence Ellison Foundation whose mission includes supporting basic biomedical research on age-related diseases and disabilities. In 2014, Ellison teamed up with animal-welfare advocates to create a wildlife refuge, rehabilitation and education center in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
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Honorary Degree recipients include an award-winning filmmaker; the Los Angeles County District Attorney; a managing partner of a family investment firm; a commercial real estate broker; the founder of a leading renewable energy company; and the founder of a global technology company.
Six honorary degree recipients, including Ellison, will be recognized for their contributions as civic, academic and arts leaders in the community:
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, an Academy Award-winning Mexican filmmaker, recently won his second consecutive Academy Award for Best Director for the epic story of revenge and survival, “The Revenant,” making him one of only three directors to ever win consecutive Oscars and the first to do so in 65 years. Last year, Iñárritu won three Academy Awards for directing, co-writing and co-producing the dark comedy, “Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance),” about an aging cinema superhero launching a Broadway show. Iñárritu also is known for the films “Amores Perros,” “21 Grams,” and “Babel,” which earned seven Academy Award nominations and the Best Director Award at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Iñárritu is the first Mexican filmmaker to have been nominated for Best Director and Best Producer in the history of the Academy Awards.
Jackie Lacey was elected Los Angeles County District Attorney in 2012 as the first woman and first African American to the office since its establishment in 1850. Lacey created the office’s Conviction Review Unit and the Elder Financial Abuse Outreach Campaign, and formed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Environmental Crimes Rollout Team. A member of the USC Gould School of Law Board of Councilors and 1982 alumna of the school, Lacey’s awards and honors include the Trailblazer Award from the National Black Prosecutors Association; the Benito Juarez Attorney of the Year Award from the Mexican American Bar Association; and the Ernestine Stahlhut Award from the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles. Lacey is also credited with leading the effort to divert people with a mental illness out of jail and into treatment.
Mark Stevens, who has served on the USC Board of Trustees since 2001, is the managing partner of his family investment office, S-Cubed Capital, and is a special limited partner and former managing partner of Sequoia Capital, a leading venture capital firm that has backed Silicon Valley icons such as Apple, Cisco Systems, Electronic Arts, Nvidia, Yahoo!, and Google. Mark is also a director of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Foundation (USOPF) and an owner and executive board member of the Golden State Warriors basketball team. Since 2011, Mark has served as a trustee at Menlo School and is the co-chair of its capital campaign. Mark holds a B.S. in electrical engineering and a B.A. in economics (both magna cum laude, 1981), and an M.S. in computer engineering (1984) — all from USC. He earned an M.B.A. from Harvard University in 1989.
Mary Stevens worked for 13 years in the commercial real estate brokerage business, lastly as a vice president at Cornish & Carey Commercial in Santa Clara. Currently, she serves as a co-chair of the Sacred Heart Prep (Atherton) Spring Auction and is on the Alzheimer’s Association’s Part The Cloud Committee that serves to advance research and understanding of Alzheimer’s disease. She has been a member of the Santa Clara University Board of Trustees since 2012. She received a B.S. in finance from Santa Clara University in 1984, and she is a former member of the Santa Clara University Board of Fellows.
Mary and Mark Stevens have a a long history of support for research and innovation at USC. Last year, they endowed the USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute to accelerate greater understanding of the human brain. In 2004, they established the USC Stevens Center for Innovation to empower faculty and students to commercialize their ideas. The couple also supported creation of the Stevens Student-Athlete Academic Services floor in the new John McKay Center sports facility, and they made a significant gift to the USC Caruso Catholic Center.
Selim Zilkha, a member of the Keck Board of Overseers for the Keck School of Medicine of USC, is the co-owner of Zilkha Biomass Energy whose wood pellets replace coal in coal plants. He also owns Laetitia Vineyard and Winery. Born in Baghdad, Zilkha grew up in Lebanon and Egypt until his family moved in 1941 to the United States. After graduating from Williams College in New York, Zilkha served in the U.S. Army until the end of World War II. Zilkha then worked for his father in international finance and in 1960 founded Mothercare, a chain of stores focused on helping mothers with their babies. He sold the chain 22 years later and launched an oil and gas exploration company, Zilkha Energy Company. In 1998, Zilkha sold that and started Zilkha Renewable Energy, a top wind power developer in the United States until its sale in 2007. Zilkha has said that while he has lived a successful and varied life, his legacy is Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute at the Keck School of Medicine at USC, dedicated to researching Alzheimer’s disease and named in his honor.
For more information, visit commencement.usc.edu.
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