Swarthmore President to Deliver Commencement Address

Swarthmore College President Valerie Smith will deliver the address at National Cathedral School's 118th Commencement, to be held in the Washington National Cathedral on June 9, 2018.

 

Since becoming the college's 15th president in 2015, Dr. Smith has pursued several priorities, including attracting more low-income and first-generation students, providing an exceptional undergraduate experience, and curricular innovation.

 

Prior to joining Swarthmore, Dr. Smith was dean of the college at Princeton University, where she was also the Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature and Professor of English and African American Studies and served as founding director of the Center for African American Studies. She also taught at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she chaired the Interdepartmental Program in African American Studies.

 

A Brooklyn. N.Y., native, Dr. Smith holds degrees from the University of Virginia and Bates College, where she served as a board member and a co-chair of the search committee that identified Bates's current president. She is the author of three books and editor or co-editor of seven more.

 

The commencement ceremony will begin at 5:00 pm.