JoAnn Shaw, vice president and chief learning officer at BJC HealthCare, and Dave Hilliard, president and chief executive officer at the Wyman Center, will serve as the guest speakers at the summer commencement. Hilliard will also receive an honorary degree.
The two commencement speakers at the University of Missouri–St. Louis on Aug. 10 should fire up the nearly 300 students receiving their degrees. Both are passionate about what they do and very good at it.
Dave Hilliard, who speaks at the 10 a.m. ceremony and will receive an honorary degree, will tell anyone who listens that if young people are going to succeed, then the entire community needs to be better. The seemingly simple premise has driven him to devote nearly 40 years of his life to the Wyman Center.
As president and chief executive officer of Wyman, Hilliard has taken Wyman, the nonprofit, from a local summer camp and direct service program provider for St Louis-area youth to a network of 39 national partners in 28 states and Washington, D.C. By replicating Wyman’s evidence-based programs across the country, the organization now reaches tens of thousands of youths each year.
For JoAnn Shaw, the speaker at the 2 p.m. ceremony, adult learning is not a job, it is her passion.
In 2004, Shaw established BJC HealthCare’s Center for LifeLong Learning to provide education programs for all BJC employees. Today, she holds the title of vice president and chief learning officer focusing on creating a culture where learning and development is valued by and available to each BJC employee. The center offers more than 2,070 classes and has nine academic partners, including UMSL, to bring more than 22 certificate and degree programs to BJC. Employee enrollment for classes and degree programs exceeded 33,000 in 2012.
Both commencement ceremonies will be held in the Mark Twain Athletic & Fitness Center on North Campus at UMSL.
The 10 a.m. ceremony will includes graduates from the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Education, College of Fine Arts and Communication, School of Social Work and Master of Public Policy Administration.
The 2 p.m. ceremony will include graduates from the College of Business Administration, College of Nursing and the UMSL/Washington University Joint Undergraduate Engineering Program.
