Commencement Speakers Announced
Acting President John R. Broderick announced Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker will be the speakers for Old Dominion University's 109th commencement exercises Saturday, Dec. 13.
Gov. Kaine will speak at the 9 a.m. ceremony for graduates of the colleges of Arts and Letters, Business and Public Administration and Health Sciences. Parker will speak to graduates of the Batten College of Engineering and Technology, Darden College of Education and the College of Sciences at the 2 p.m. ceremony.
Kaine became the 70th governor of Virginia on Jan. 14, 2006. He was the first Virginia governor to be inaugurated at the Colonial Capitol in Williamsburg since Thomas Jefferson.
During his tenure, Virginia has been recognized as the most business-friendly state in America, the top-performing state government in America and the state where "a child is most likely to have a successful life." He also led efforts in 2008 to secure a $1.6 billion bond package to expand college access for Virginians and thereby accelerate economic growth.
Conservative columnist Parker, whose twice-weekly column is syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group, is the most widely distributed female columnist - and second overall - in the United States. She writes extensively on politics, gender and culture in America and is a popular radio and TV guest. She is a regular on news and opinion television shows, including "The Chris Matthews Show," and also has appeared on "The Colbert Report," "Larry King Live," the "Today" show, "The O'Reilly Factor," "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren," C-SPAN with Brian Lamb and "The Laura Ingraham Show."
The first woman to win the coveted H.L. Mencken Writing Award, Parker has taught Spanish at Florida State University, where she received her master's degree in Spanish literature. She also has taught journalism and writing at the University of South Carolina, and is writer-in-residence at The Buckley School of Public Speaking in Camden, S.C.
More information about commencement is available online at Commencement Central .