Here's Every Columbia 2022 Class Day Speaker We Know (So Far)
With commencement, class days, and general graduation festivities around the corner, here's who we expect to speak to our graduates in celebration of their accomplishments.
Columbia Commencement is right around the corner in May and with it comes the special school-specific celebrations known as Class Days. #RoarLions2022! During this year's Commencement ceremony, we'll hear from President Lee C. Bollinger on Wednesday, May 18 at 10:30 a.m. during an in-person ceremony that will also be broadcast live for those unable to make it to campus.
Schools across Columbia will also host ceremonies and speakers of their own. We're keeping track of those Class Day speakers, as they are announced, in the running list below. The list will be updated as we hear more!
Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation
Weiping Wu
Weiping Wu, Interim Dean, Professor, and Director of the Urban Planning programs at Columbia GSAPP, will speak at the GSAPP ceremony on Saturday, May 14, 2022 at 12:00 p.m. on the South Lawn.
Laurie Anderson
Laurie Anderson, groundbreaking artist and composer, will speak at the School of the Arts in-person convocation, hosted on Wednesday, May 18, 2022 at 4 p.m. in Lerner Hall.
Margot Lee Shetterly
Writer, researcher, and entrepreneur Margot Lee Shetterly is the author of Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, and will give the keynote address at Barnard College's Commencement on Wednesday, May 18 at 4 p.m. at Radio City Musical Hall.
Peggy Shephard
Environmental justice advocate Peggy Shepard will deliver the keynote address at Columbia Climate School’s inaugural Class Day ceremony, which will take place in person on Friday, May 13, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. on Morningside campus.
Columbia College
Tom Kitt
Tom Kitt (CC’96), a Pulitzer Prize-, Tony-, Emmy- and Grammy Award-winning composer, arranger, orchestrator and music supervisor for stage, film and television, will deliver the keynote speech for Columbia College’s Class Day on Tuesday, May 17 at 8 a.m. on Morningside campus.
Sunita Williams
American Astronaut Sunita Williams will be this year’s featured speaker at Columbia Engineering Class Day on Monday, May 16 at 12:15 p.m. on the Morningside campus.
Deo Niyizonkiza
Deogratias “Deo” Niyizonkiza, founder and CEO of Village Health Works, a leading advocate for some of the world’s most impoverished and vulnerable people, will be the Class Day speaker for the School of General Studies on Monday, May 16 at 7:45 a.m. on Morningside campus.
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
PhD Convocation
David Scott
David Scott, Ruth and William Lubic Professor and chair of the Columbia Department of Anthropology, will be the speaker at the PhD convocation for GSAS on Sunday, May 15, 2022 at 12:00 p.m. on the South Lawn.
MA Convocation
Adam Tooze
Adam Tooze, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History at Columbia University, will be the MA convocation speaker for GSAS on Sunday, May 15, 2022 at 2:45 p.m. on the South Lawn.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield
Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Representative of the United States to the United Nations, will speak at the SIPA ceremony on Sunday, May 15, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. on the South Lawn.
Kathy Gannon
Kathy Gannon, the Associated Press news director for Pakistan and Afghanistan, will receive the Columbia Journalism Award and address graduates via video link at the school's graduation ceremony on Wednesday, May 18 at 2 p.m. at Ancell Plaza, Amsterdam Avenue.
In other graduation-related festivities, journalist Ari Berman will address graduates as the Pringle Lecturer on Journalism Day, Tuesday, May 17, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Miller Theater.
Andrew Yang (LAW'99)
Andrew Yang (LAW'99), a businessman, attorney, and politician known best as a candidate in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries and the 2021 New York City Democratic mayoral primary, will speak at the Law School's ceremony on Monday, May 16, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. on the South Lawn.
Gina McCarthy
Gina McCarthy, the first White House National Climate Advisor and previous Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, will speak at the Mailman School of Public Health ceremony on Tuesday, May 17 at 4:00 p.m. at the Armory Arena.
Len Elmore and Robert Klitzman
On May 13, SPS is hosting two ceremonies at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Morningside campus and two distinguished faculty members will deliver two separate faculty addresses: Len Elmore, Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of Sports Management; and Dr. Robert Klitzman, Bioethics Program Director and Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
Wanda M. Holland Greene
Wanda M. Holland Grene, Head of School at The Hamlin School in San Francisco and Vice Chair of Columbia University’s Board of Trustees, will be the School of Social Work's commencement speaker on Saturday, May 14 at 4 p.m. on the South Lawn.
Anthony Fauci, Rosemarie Truglio, Torian Easterling, and Kathryn Garcia
White House chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci, Senior Vice President of Curriculum & Content for Sesame Workshop Rosemarie Truglio, First Deputy Commissioner & Chief Equity Officer at the NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene Torian Easterling, and Director of New York State Operations Kathryn Garcia will receive Distinguished Service Medals from Teachers College and will address students on Teachers College's Convocation exercises for Masters I, Masters II, and Doctoral candidates on Monday, May 23, 2022 at the Louis Armstrong Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
Mary Bassett
Mary Bassett, the 17th Health Commissioner of the New York State Department of Health, will speak at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons ceremony on Wednesday, May 18, 2022 at 10:30 a.m. at the Armory Arena.