2024 Commencement and Baccalaureate Speakers

by Betsy Chapman, Ph.D. ('92, MA '94)

Today we announced that one of the nation’s top health leaders, Director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Mandy K. Cohen, will deliver Wake Forest University’s commencement address on Monday, May 20. The ceremony will take place on Hearn Plaza and begins at 9 a.m.

Dr. Cohen led the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, where she focused on equity, data accountability and transparent communication as she helped lead the country during the COVID crisis. In 2023, she transformed the North Carolina Medicaid program through the state’s Medicaid expansion and her focus on “whole person health.”

In 2020, Dr. Cohen was awarded the Leadership in Public Health Practice Award from Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health for her outstanding leadership during the COVID pandemic. In 2019, Modern Healthcare named her one of the Top 25 Women Leaders in Healthcare.

 

The baccalaureate speaker will be Reverend Gary Dorrien, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary and Professor of Religion at Columbia University. The Baccalaureate service will take place on Sunday morning, May 19, at 11 a.m. 

The announcement was shared this afternoon on the Wake Forest News website. Please know how excited we are to have you join us on campus to celebrate the achievements of the Class of 2024 at Commencement.

The graduation ceremony and baccalaureate service are ticketed events reserved for graduates, their families and guests; ticket-ordering information will be shared with students soon (students order their Commencement tickets). Livestream webcasts of both events will be available on the University’s commencement website, and recordings will be posted after the events. 

Contact

To contact the Office of Family Engagement or Family Communications, please visit our contact page.

 

For mental health assistance: 336-758-CARE (2273) is a service that ensures someone will always be available (i.e., 24/7 M-F, weekends and university holidays) to provide caring and thoughtful consultation services for Wake Forest students in need of mental health assistance or support.