NEWPORT — Dr. Carolyn Y. Woo, Distinguished President’s Fellow for Global Development at Purdue University and the retired president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services, will offer pre-recorded commencement remarks when Salve Regina University celebrates its 71st commencement, staged in three separate ceremonies on Sunday, May 9, beginning at 10 a.m. beneath the oceanside tent at McAuley Hall.
Dr. Kelli J. Armstrong, Salve Regina president, will personally award diplomas to members of the graduating Class of 2021, as each of the ceremonies will blend both in-person traditions with pre-packaged elements, all of which will be livestreamed. Woo will also be presented an honorary doctorate, along with two longtime local community advocates, Ruth Barge Thumbtzen and David Brodsky.
On Thursday, May 6, graduate commencement will be held beneath the tent at 3 p.m. Board-certified family nurse practitioner Olivia Krampen, a frontline urgent caregiver at The Perlman Clinic who also assists with COVID-19 vaccine administration and testing through Aya Healthcare for the University of California San Diego Crisis Response, will present the keynote. Krampen earned both her B.S. and M.S. degrees in nursing from Salve Regina and will receive her D.N.P. during Thursday’s ceremony.
And on May 16, members of the graduating Class of 2020 will be welcomed back to campus for an in-person ceremony beginning at 10 a.m. Their commencement was staged virtually last May as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Kathy Behrens, president of Social Responsibility and Player Programs for the National Basketball Association, will present a pre-recorded commencement address and be awarded an honorary degree, along with local philanthropist Donald Crist and Civil Rights Movement hero Dr. Bernard LaFayette Jr. Elements of the ceremony will be both pre-recorded and “live.”
“I’m so grateful that we can celebrate the accomplishments of our graduates in person this year,” Armstrong said. “Although there are limitations due to the pandemic, we will be able to see our students walk across campus in their caps and gowns and hand them their hard-won degrees. I’m also incredibly proud of how all members of this Mercy community – faculty, staff and students – worked so hard to keep one another safe throughout the year. These Commencement celebrations are a wonderful representation of all of those above-and-beyond efforts and demonstrate what makes a Salve Regina education so special.”
The Sunday, May 9 events will begin with a commencement and pinning ceremony for nursing recipients at 10 a.m., followed by commencement for B.A.S. and B.A. degree recipients at 1 p.m., and commencement for non-nursing B.S. degree recipients at 4 p.m.
