Two esteemed and interesting professionals have been selected as this year’s speakers at the undergraduate and graduate commencements.
Marie Harf, current FOX News commentator and former key member of Secretary John Kerry’s team during his tenure leading the State Department, will deliver the keynote at the undergraduate ceremony at Chryst Field at Biemesderfer Stadium on May 13 at 10 a.m.
Harf is a national security expert and communications strategist who has held a variety of roles across the foreign policy landscape since arriving in Washington D.C. over a decade ago. Since January 2017, she has served as a Fox News contributor focused on national security and political analysis. Prior to taking that position, she served as Secretary Kerry’s Senior Advisor for Strategic Communications where she ran his overall public strategy, legacy and media planning beginning in 2015. From 2013 to 2015, she served as the State Department’s Deputy Spokesperson where she was responsible for conducting the on-camera Daily Press Briefings, representing the Department and the Administration in media appearances and traveling overseas with Secretary Kerry and other senior officials to over 30 countries on five continents.
Dr. Dennis Downey, respected member of the Millersville University faculty since 1981, will serve as keynote speaker for the graduate ceremony at Pucillo Gymnasium on May 12 at 6:30 p.m.
Downey is a professor of history and will close out his tenure as Director of the University Honors College this summer. He is the recipient of three awards for historical scholarship and the author of five books, two book-length web histories, more than 50 articles, essays, chapters and op-ed pieces. Downey has long been an advocate for disability rights and was crucial in the creation of a series of disability policy conferences hosted at MU. He was a consultant and commentator for the acclaimed WITF disabilities documentary, I Go Home, and has also consulted on several other documentaries about race in America. He is currently working on a new book, “Between History and Hope: Pennhurst and the Struggle for Disability Rights.”
For more information about the spring commencement ceremony, visit http://www.millersville.edu/commencement/.