UMSL will hold three commencement ceremonies on Saturday as it recognizes nearly 900 summer and fall graduates. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

The University of Missouri–St. Louis will confer nearly 900 degrees as it celebrates summer and fall graduates during three commencement ceremonies on Saturday.

Commencement weekend kicks off at 9 a.m. with a ceremony for the Ed G. Smith College of Business Administration and the College of Nursing at the Mark Twain Athletic Center. UMSL alum Ken Cella, a principal and head of external affairs at Edward Jones, will deliver the commencement address.

Ken Cella

Cella earned his degree in marketing from UMSL in 1993 and later received an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis. He is also a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School’s Securities Industry Institute. He began his Edward Jones career in 1990 as a financial advisor and was named a principal in 2002. In 2012, he was asked to lead Branch Training, the area responsible for the professional development of financial advisors and branch office administrators, and in 2022, he took over sole responsibility for the Branch Development division. In his current role overseeing External Affairs, Cella is responsible for fostering strategic partnerships, expanding relationships with policymakers, industry leaders and other influencers to make a greater impact on society. He is a member of the firm’s Enterprise Leadership Team, which guides the firm strategy to grow its impact and create value for clients, colleagues and communities, today and in the future.

Graduates in the College of Arts and Sciences will be honored during a ceremony at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. UMSL alum Lúcia Lohmann, now the president of the Missouri Botanical Garden, will deliver the address.

Lúcia Lohmann

Lohmann, born in Brazil, earned her undergraduate degree in biology from the University of São Paulo, where she documented the biodiversity of the Amazon Basin. She later earned master’s and PhD degrees in ecology, evolution and systematics from UMSL, where she studied the biogeography and evolutionary history of the trumpet-creeper plant family. After receiving her PhD, Lohmann worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Garden’s Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development, where she used specimens from the Garden’s globally renowned Herbarium and geospatial tools to address evolutionary, ecological and conservation questions. She held a faculty position in the Department of Botany of the University of São Paulo, where she remains as an adjunct professor, and later joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, before returning to St. Louis to lead the Missouri Botanical Garden earlier this year. Her research focuses on neotropical biodiversity, with a special focus on the Amazon Basin. Lohmann is deeply involved in efforts to study and conserve biodiversity worldwide. She serves as executive director of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation and president of the International Association for Plant Taxonomy.

The final ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. to honor graduates of the College of Education, Joint Engineering Program and the School of Social Work. Cheryl Lynne Jones, the president and CEO of Girls Inc. of St. Louis, will give the address.

Cheryl Lynne Jones

Under Jones’ leadership, Girls Inc. serves more than 8,000 girls, ages 5-18, from across the region each year, inspiring them to be strong, smart and bold by providing them with educational, recreational and cultural programs in a safe environment to help them raise their aspirations and realize their potential. Jones received a Bachelor of Science from Howard University in Washington, D.C. She participated in the Executive Development Program at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University in Hanover, New Hampshire. She was selected as an American Express Aspen Institute Fellow in 2017 and a participant in the Washington University Business Management for Non-Profit Leaders Program. For 17 years, Jones was the president of Jones & Associates, Inc., which focused on providing individuals and organizations with strategies and solutions to bring out their best performance and effect positive change. Jones created the company to inspire others to become leaders who can transform corporate and business environments where employees of diverse backgrounds can experience extraordinary success. Her areas of expertise are leadership, culture, complex systems, change management and recruitment.

Fall 2025 commencement schedule

Saturday, Dec. 20
• 9 a.m. – Ed G. Smith College of Business and College of Nursing
• 1:30 p.m. – College of Arts and Sciences
• 6 p.m. – College of Education, Joint Undergraduate Engineering Program and School of Social Work