White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Maryland Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller and an assistant coach for the Washington Wizards are among the keynote speakers chosen to inspire graduating Montgomery County Public Schools students at commencement ceremonies this spring, the district announced Wednesday.
Other commencement speakers include an array of authors, local elected officials and business executives as well as current and former MCPS administrators and educators.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is set to speak at the graduation ceremony for Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville, located at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. on May 31. Jean-Pierre began serving as the White House Press secretary in May 2022.
In 2011 she served as the deputy battleground states director for President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. She later served as the deputy campaign manager for the 2016 presidential campaign of former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.
Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller, a Montgomery County resident, is returning to MCPS commencement festivities, after speaking at last spring’s graduation ceremony for Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring. This year she will speak at the commencement for Northwest High School in Germantown on June 6 at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.
Earlier this month, Miller, the National Education Association and the National PTA surprised three Blair journalism teachers with $5,000 in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week. She told MoCo360 at the time that “young people’s voices are so critical because they are the future of our nation and the world.”
Montgomery Blair will hold the first ceremony of commencement season. David Vanterpool, an assistant coach with the Washington Wizards, will speak at Blair’s commencement Wednesday on the school’s Silver Spring campus.
Vanterpool is a Blair alum from the class of 1991, according to the school’s alumni association. He also played for the Wizards in the 2000-2001 season.
Commencement ceremonies are scheduled to take place in various locations from Wednesday to June 12, including at high school campuses; DAR Constitution Hall; Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg and the University of Maryland Baltimore County.
MCPS announced the names of several other speakers scheduled to speak at local commencements including:
- Monique Ashton, mayor of the City of Rockville, Richard Montgomery High;
- State Del. Vaughn Stewart III (D-Dist. 19), Rockville High;
- Danielle Williams Eke, a fashion designer, stylist and James H. Blake High School alum, Blake High;
- John Ross, executive director of Nourishing Bethesda, Bethesda-Chevy Chase High;
- Mike Sacks, comedy author and contributor to The New Yorker, Winston Churchill High;
- William Dunn, president and founder of the Dunn Foundation, Paint Branch High;
- Joe Daniels III, director of Zero Emission Fleet Strategy in the Energy Transformation Organization at Walmart, Springbrook High;
- Joyce Boone, clinical case manager at Clinical Solutions, Blair G. Ewing Center;
- Charlene Thomas, author and Gaithersburg High School alum, Gaithersburg High;
- Edward Owusu, former Clarksburg High School principal, Clarksburg High; and
- Henry Johnson, acting MCPS chief of staff and former Northwood High School principal, Northwood High.
More than 12,000 MCPS students are expected to receive their diplomas this spring, according to an MCPS press release. The graduation rate for all MCPS students in the 2022-2023 school year was 89.63%, a slight decrease from 90.34% for the 2022 graduating class.
A full list of graduation dates, times and locations can be found on the district’s website.