A governor, ‘Abbott Elementary’ star and Dateline News anchor are among commencement speakers at Philly-area colleges this spring

It’s commencement season again, when tens of thousands of undergraduates will turn their tassels and head off to celebrate their accomplishments, but not before they get some wisdom from a commencement speaker.

Area colleges have lined up television stars, doctors, clergy, academics, scientists, and politicians to address undergraduates at ceremonies beginning Friday and running to mid-June. The most popular date for commencement this year appears to be May 13 — when nine local colleges have scheduled their ceremonies.

Gov. Josh Shapiro will address graduates at Lincoln University on May 7 and Temple University on May 11, while Rutgers University-New Brunswick will hear from Sheryl Lee Ralph, who stars in Abbott Elementary, set in a fictional Philadelphia public school. The University of Delaware will hear from the first Black woman to fly in space, while Lehigh University will get an address from an NBA point guard.

Here’s a look at the lineup at four-year colleges in our region.

» READ MORE: Abbott Elementary’s Sheryl Lee Ralph will address Rutgers University graduates at commencement

Penn State Abington: State Sen. Art Haywood, a Democrat representing parts of Philadelphia and Montgomery Counties.

Rowan University: Lucy Rorke-Adams, a pediatric neuropathologist, who is an international expert on pediatric brain tumors and shaken baby syndrome. She was the first and only female president of the former Philadelphia General Hospital and had been president of the medical staff at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in the 1980s.

Eastern University: The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle, professor of church and society and director of the Desmond Tutu Center at General Theological Seminary in New York. He has served as chaplain to the late Archbishop Tutu, the Nobel Peace Prize winner from South Africa who fought against the country’s apartheid, and John Lewis, the late civil rights icon and congressman.

Pennsylvania State University: There is no one overall commencement ceremony, but rather ceremonies for individual colleges, each with their own speaker. Among the speakers are John R. Hoke III, chief design officer at Nike Inc.; pediatric surgeon Ala Stanford, founder of the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium and the Dr. Ala Stanford Center for Health Equity; and Tony B. Watlington Sr., superintendent of the Philadelphia School District.

Lincoln University: Gov. Josh Shapiro, whose hometown is Dresher, Montgomery County, and who formerly served as attorney general.

Widener University: There will be multiple ceremonies with no official speaker.

Manor College: NBC 10 news anchor Tracy Davidson

Temple University: Gov. Josh Shapiro

Thomas Jefferson University: For the undergraduate ceremony on the East Falls campus, Skylar Tibbits, an alumnus who is an artist and computational architect.

West Chester University: The university will have multiple ceremonies, each with a student speaker. Undergraduate student speakers include: Siani Williams, Jacob Henry, Hannah Karaman, Gillian Barrie, Kathleen Carter, Quinten Harrison, Ali Robinson, Nydia Heintz, Andrea Alessi, Mackenzie Soucheck, Steven Kendikian, Jocelyn Brown, Shawn Menden, and Hannah Sontag.

Stockton University: Christopher Paladino, president of the New Brunswick Development Corporation.

Bryn Mawr College: Marie A. Bernard, a 1972 alumna who is the National Institutes of Health’s chief officer for scientific workforce diversity.

Chestnut Hill College: Catherine Alicia Georges, professor and chair emerita of the nursing department at Lehman College and president of the National Black Nurses Foundation.

Delaware Valley University: Four students will speak: Rebekah Alstede, Kayla Leary, Anthony Rago, and Jocelyn Bala Lopez

Gwynedd Mercy University: Valerie Arkoosh, acting secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services. She was appointed to the post by Gov. Shapiro and previously chaired the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. An anesthesiologist and former professor of clinical anesthesiology and clinical obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, she led Montgomery County’s response in the early days of the pandemic.

Franklin and Marshall College: Alumnus Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist in NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at the space agency’s headquarters.

Haverford College: Joan Cannady Countryman, the first Black graduate of Germantown Friends School in 1958, taught math at the school for 23 years before becoming head of school at the Lincoln School in Rhode Island. She later helped create the Oprah Winfrey Leadership School for Girls in South Africa. Jon Kabat-Zinn, an internationally renowned guru of “mindfulness-based stress reduction,” also was scheduled to speak, but the college said on its website Wednesday that he is unable to attend the ceremony.

La Salle University: Sister Mary Scullion has spent her life advocating for homeless people in the Philadelphia region and has become a national expert on the topic. She is cofounder of Project HOME, a homelessness advocacy agency.

Moore College of Art and Design: Salamishah Tillet, a professor of creative writing and Africana Studies at Rutgers University-Newark. She won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in criticism for her work at the New York Times Magazine for columns on race, genre, and Black perspectives. She also founded New Arts Justice, which fosters feminist approaches to public art in Newark.

Neumann University: Kristin Prinn, founder and CEO of LUCY Outreach (Lifting Up Camden’s Youth), a nonprofit helping at-risk teens in Camden.

Ursinus College: Roosevelt Montás, a senior lecturer in American studies and English at Columbia University and director of its Freedom and Citizenship Program.

Bucknell University: Jay Wright, an alumnus who retired last as Villanova University’s winningest basketball coach in the school’s history.

Immaculata University: Nicole Lacoste Folks, an alumna who began her career as a commercial real estate lawyer, has been involved in service around the world, including a rural village in West Africa; the capital of South Africa; Vladivostok, Russia; Mexico City; and at home in Maryland.

Rutgers University, New Brunswick: Sheryl Lee Ralph stars as the unflappable veteran elementary teacher in the hit comedy Abbott Elementary.

Rutgers-Camden: Dana Redd, former mayor of Camden and a 1996 graduate of the Rutgers School of Business-Camden.

University of Pennsylvania: Tony Award-winning actress and singer/songwriter Idina Menzel of Frozen fame. Menzel sang “Let it Go,” in the Disney film Frozen, which won an Oscar for Best Original Song in 2014.

University of the Arts: Deborah Willis, an alumna and professor and chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.

Arcadia University: Sara M. Lomax, president and CEO of WURD Radio, 900 AM or 96.1 FM, Pennsylvania’s only African American-owned and operated talk radio station.

Villanova University: Lester Holt, NBC News and Dateline anchor.

Holy Family University: The Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities.

Lafayette College: Beth Mowins, a play-by-play announcer and sports journalist for ESPN, CBS Sports, and Marquee Sports Network, who in 2017 became the first woman to call a nationally televised NFL game.

Rosemont College: Sheila Hess, city representative for the city of Philadelphia. Her office leads marketing, public relations, and promotions for the city.

St. Joseph’s University: Alumna Marlene Sánchez Dooner, who most recently had been executive vice president of Comcast NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises.

Cabrini University: Lucy Bustamante, news anchor for NBC10 and breaking news anchor for Telemundo62.

Dickinson College: Deanne Criswell, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She is the first woman to lead FEMA.

Lehigh University: CJ McCollum, a 2013 alumnus, is a guard for the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans.

Muhlenberg College: Cecilia A. Conrad, the founder and CEO of Lever for Change, a Chicago-based nonprofit that matches donors with projects aimed at solving big problems, and a senior adviser at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Swarthmore College: The speakers, all alumni, include: architect Marianne McKenna, U.S. Department of Agriculture administrator Karama Neal, and wildlife conservationists Bill Weber and Amy Vedder.

University of Delaware: Mae Jemison, who became the first Black woman to fly in space when she was a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992. She currently leads 100 Year Starship, a nonprofit initiative aimed at fostering mankind’s travel beyond the solar system.

Princeton University: Princeton president Christopher Eisgruber. (The president traditionally is the commencement speaker.)

Drexel University: There will be multiple ceremonies. Speakers haven’t been announced yet.