Vermont Business Magazine Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, one of the nation’s most accomplished diplomats and the Representative of the United States to the United Nations, has been named as the University of Vermont’s 2024 commencement speaker.
In addition to speaking to this year’s graduating students, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield will receive an honorary degree during the UVM’s Commencement Ceremony on Sunday, May 19.
“Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield’s life and career represent the remarkable possibilities our nation offers,” said UVM President Suresh Garimella. “Her personal journey is testimony to the importance of determination, integrity, and a worldview informed by pragmatism and compassion in the ongoing fight for human rights, social justice and the protection of democracy.”
Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield grew up in Baker, Louisiana, a small town located near Baton Rouge. As a teenager, she developed an interest in international affairs when the Peace Corps opened a training center in her town. She was the first in her family to graduate from high school and earned her B.A. at Louisiana State University. She later obtained a master of public administration degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Mentoring the next generation has been a focus of my entire career at the State Department,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “I cherish the opportunity to celebrate the contributions young people make to our society and encourage them to lead us into the future.”
Her diplomatic career has crossed continents and broken barriers. Before President Biden nominated Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield as U.S. Representative to the U.N. in 2021, she led the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs (2006-2008; 2013-2017), specializing in developing and managing U.S. policy toward sub-Saharan Africa. She has helped lead the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (2004-2006), served as U.S. Ambassador to Liberia (2008-2012), and held diplomatic postings in Switzerland, Pakistan, Kenya, The Gambia, Nigeria, and Jamaica. Lauded for her humanitarian work, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield is credited with helping to lead an effective international response to the 2014-2016 outbreak of Ebola in East Africa.
Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield joins a list of prominent public figures who have addressed graduates as UVM’s commencement speaker, including National Science Foundation Director Sethuraman Panchanathan, who spoke last year, and the 2022 speaker, adventurer Erik Weihenmayer, as well as journalist Nina Totenberg, congressman John Lewis, and a prior U.S. Representative to the U.N., Samantha Power.
Information about additional honorary degree recipients at UVM’s 2024 Commencement Ceremony can be found here.
About the University of Vermont
Since 1791, the University of Vermont has worked to move humankind forward. UVM’s strengths align with the most pressing needs of our time: the health of our societies and the health of our environment. Our size—large enough to offer a breadth of ideas, resources, and opportunities, yet intimate enough to enable close faculty-student mentorship across all levels of study—allows us to pursue these interconnected issues through cross-disciplinary research and collaboration. Providing an unparalleled educational experience for our students, and ensuring their success, are at the core of what we do. As one of the nation’s first land grant universities, UVM advances Vermont and the broader society through the discovery and application of new knowledge.
Source: 4.19.2024. BURLINGTON, VT -- UVM