Previous Commencements

2023 - John Lowe
2022 - Bryan Stevenson
2021 - Deanna Reed, Mayor of Harrisonburg
2020 - Dr. Susan Schultz Huxman, EMU president
2019 - Dr. Judy Mullet, psychology professor
2018 - Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee MA ’07.
2017- Speaker Dr. Howard Zehr, distinguished professor of restorative justice
2016 – Former EMU president, Dr. Loren Swartzentruber
2015 – Author and Washington Post columnist EJ Dionne urges EMU’s Class of 2015 to ‘never stop learning’
2014 – Speaker Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Peace Laureate
2013 – Speaker Mark Shriver, senior vice president for strategic initiatives and senior advisor to the chief executive officer of Save the Children U.S. Programs
2012 – Speaker Abigail Disney, award-winning filmmaker and philanthropist
2011 – Speaker Mike Berenstain, writer and illustrator of the Berenstain Bears
2010 – Speaker Joseph B. Martin, former dean of the faculty of medicine at Harvard University and EMU alumnus
2009 – Speaker Joyce Bontrager Lehman, microfinance officer of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s “Financial Services for the Poor” initiative and EMU alumnus
2008 – Speaker Beryl H. Brubaker, EMU provost and professor
2007 – Speaker Lee F. Snyder, president emeritus of Bluffton (Ohio) University
2006 – Speaker Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches of the U.S.
2005 – Speaker John L. McCullough, executive director and CEO of Church World Service