{"id":14923,"date":"2023-04-18T15:05:43","date_gmt":"2023-04-18T19:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/?page_id=14923"},"modified":"2025-01-22T11:40:05","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T16:40:05","slug":"speakers-and-honored-guests","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/y2023\/speakers-and-honored-guests\/","title":{"rendered":"Speakers and Honored Guests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2023 Honorary Degree Recipients<\/h2>\n\n\n<ul class=\"display-posts-listing\"><li class=\"listing-item\"><a class=\"image\" href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/shg2023\/terry-tempest-williams\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1303\/Terry-Tempest-Williams-200x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1303\/Terry-Tempest-Williams-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1303\/Terry-Tempest-Williams.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a> <a class=\"title\" href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/shg2023\/terry-tempest-williams\/\">Terry Tempest Williams<\/a> <span class=\"excerpt-dash\">-<\/span> <span class=\"excerpt\"><p><strong>Undergraduate Commencement Speaker<br \/><em>Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Terry Tempest Williams is a writer, naturalist, freedom-of-speech advocate, and award-winning author who has shown how environmental issues are social issues that become matters of justice. She has testified before Congress on women\u2019s health, been a guest at the White House, camped in the Utah and Alaska wildernesses, and worked as \u201ca barefoot artist\u201d in Rwanda. \n<a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/shg2023\/terry-tempest-williams\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p><\/span><\/li><li class=\"listing-item\"><a class=\"image\" href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/shg2023\/zaven-khachaturian\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1303\/Zaven-Khachaturian-200x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1303\/Zaven-Khachaturian-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1303\/Zaven-Khachaturian.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a> <a class=\"title\" href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/shg2023\/zaven-khachaturian\/\">Zaven Khachaturian<\/a> <span class=\"excerpt-dash\">-<\/span> <span class=\"excerpt\"><p><strong><em>Honorary Doctor of Pharmaceutical Sciences<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Zaven Khachaturian is widely recognized as the \u201cfather\u201d of modern Alzheimer\u2019s disease research. His scientific interest in brain mechanism of memory and his academic career in brain research began in the late 1950s at Yale University. In the span of subsequent decades, he has served in high-level positions in academia, private sector and government. \n<a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/shg2023\/zaven-khachaturian\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p><\/span><\/li><li class=\"listing-item\"><a class=\"image\" href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/shg2023\/wendy-schmidt\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1303\/Wendy-Schmidt-200x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1303\/Wendy-Schmidt-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1303\/Wendy-Schmidt.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a> <a class=\"title\" href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/shg2023\/wendy-schmidt\/\">Wendy Schmidt<\/a> <span class=\"excerpt-dash\">-<\/span> <span class=\"excerpt\"><p><strong><em>Honorary Doctor of Science<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Wendy Schmidt is a philanthropist and investor who has spent nearly two decades creating innovative non-profit organizations to work with communities around the world for clean, renewable energy, resilient food systems, healthy oceans and the protection of human rights. \n<a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/shg2023\/wendy-schmidt\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p><\/span><\/li><li class=\"listing-item\"><a class=\"image\" href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/shg2023\/clint-smith\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1303\/Clint-Smith-200x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1303\/Clint-Smith-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1303\/Clint-Smith.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a> <a class=\"title\" href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/shg2023\/clint-smith\/\">Clint Smith<\/a> <span class=\"excerpt-dash\">-<\/span> <span class=\"excerpt\"><p><strong><em>Honorary Doctor of Education<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Clint Smith is an interdisciplinary scholar and inspirational social justice educator, poet, author, and renowned speaker who holds a Ph.D. in education from Harvard University. Smith is a staff writer for The Atlantic and bestselling author, and continues to serve as an educator through his columns in The Atlantic, books, poetry, and YouTube series on Black American history.  <a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/shg2023\/clint-smith\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p><\/span><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Student Speakers<\/h2>\n\n\n<ul class=\"display-posts-listing\"><li class=\"listing-item\"><a class=\"image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2023\/05\/commencement-2023-from-a-small-city-in-brazil-to-the-graduate-commencement-stage-at-uri\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1303\/Tania-Silva-De-Oliveria-spkr-200x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1303\/Tania-Silva-De-Oliveria-spkr-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1303\/Tania-Silva-De-Oliveria-spkr.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a> <a class=\"title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2023\/05\/commencement-2023-from-a-small-city-in-brazil-to-the-graduate-commencement-stage-at-uri\/\">Tania Silva de Oliveira<\/a> <span class=\"excerpt-dash\">-<\/span> <span class=\"excerpt\"><p><strong>Graduate Student Speaker<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Tania Silva de Oliveira earned a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering in December 2022, and is now an analytical research scientist at a Boston-based global pharmaceutical company that develops drugs to treat some of the world\u2019s most serious conditions. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2023\/05\/commencement-2023-from-a-small-city-in-brazil-to-the-graduate-commencement-stage-at-uri\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p><\/span><\/li><li class=\"listing-item\"><a class=\"image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2023\/04\/commencement-2023-my-journey-really-began-at-uri-pharmacy-student-former-football-student-athlete-to-deliver-uri-commencement-student-address\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1303\/Mazen-Taman-200x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1303\/Mazen-Taman-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1303\/Mazen-Taman.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a> <a class=\"title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2023\/04\/commencement-2023-my-journey-really-began-at-uri-pharmacy-student-former-football-student-athlete-to-deliver-uri-commencement-student-address\/\">Mazen Taman<\/a> <span class=\"excerpt-dash\">-<\/span> <span class=\"excerpt\"><p><strong>Undergraduate Student Speaker<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mazen Taman, a former football student-athlete who was selected as this year's student speaker, has much to share from a journey that soon will include a URI Doctor of Pharmacy degree and entry to Brown University\u2019s Warren Alpert Medical School. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2023\/04\/commencement-2023-my-journey-really-began-at-uri-pharmacy-student-former-football-student-athlete-to-deliver-uri-commencement-student-address\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p><\/span><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2023 Honorary Degree Recipients Student Speakers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":581,"featured_media":0,"parent":14748,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-14923","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/581"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14923"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16029,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14923\/revisions\/16029"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}