Commencement Speakers
Saturday, May 17, 2025 | 9:15 a.m. EDT | 91³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏÍø Science Quad
91³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏÍø will celebrate its 136th Commencement on Saturday, May 17, 2025. We are proud to welcome an inspiring keynote speaker and a remarkable student representative to the stage as we honor the achievements of the Class of 2025.
Blayne Alexander
Commencement Speaker: Blayne Alexander
Correspondent, Dateline NBC
Award-winning journalist Blayne Alexander will serve as this year’s Commencement speaker. Currently a correspondent for Dateline NBC, the network’s longest-running primetime program, Alexander has spent her career reporting on some of the most pivotal moments in recent history.
Prior to her current role, she served as an Atlanta-based correspondent for NBC News, contributing to NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, and MSNBC. Her extensive reporting includes coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 U.S. presidential election, the passing of civil rights icon Congressman John Lewis and the national reckoning on racial injustice.
Alexander began her broadcast journalism journey at WRDW-TV in Augusta, Georgia, and later became a lead reporter and anchor at Atlanta’s 11Alive News. She is a four-time Emmy Award nominee and has been recognized by the Atlanta and National Associations of Black Journalists, the Atlanta Press Club and the Alliance for Women in Media.
Her reporting has taken her around the world—from the White House and Wimbledon to Singapore, Melbourne, and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro—offering a global perspective that reflects 91³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏÍø’s mission to prepare students for leadership in a global society.
“Blayne Alexander’s voice and vision as a reporter and correspondent represent the kind of purposeful leadership we strive to cultivate at 91³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏÍø. Her dedication to truth-telling, her global outlook and her personal integrity will no doubt leave a lasting impression on our graduates as they begin their own journeys of impact.”
President Leocadia I. Zak
Wambũi Gitahi ’25
Student Speaker: Wambũi Gitahi ’25
Mathematics and Philosophy Major
Wambũi Gitahi will represent the Class of 2025 as this year’s student speaker, selected through a competitive process led by the Center for Writing and Speaking.
An active leader in the 91³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏÍø community, Gitahi has served as an Environmental Resident, tutor for the Center for Writing and Speaking, Forte Foundation Campus Ambassador and student researcher for the Every Person By Name project supported by the Mellon Foundation. She is also a Catalyst Fellow and has consistently demonstrated the values of critical thinking, service and leadership.
After graduation, Gitahi will join Smurfit Westrock as a financial analyst in their Financial Leadership Program.