Fairfield Announces Commencement Speakers & Honorary Degree Recipients

Fairfield Announces Commencement Speakers & Honorary Degree Recipients

Fairfield University has announced that its 72nd Commencement ceremonies will take place on Saturday, May 21, for graduate students and Sunday, May 22, for undergraduate students.

Media Contact: Robby Piazzaroli, rpiazzaroli@fairfield.edu, 203-254-4000 x2597

Fairfield University has announced that its 72nd Commencement ceremonies will take place on Saturday, May 21, for graduate students and Sunday, May 22, for undergraduate students. Both ceremonies will be held on Bellarmine Lawn of the University campus. The total numbers of expected degrees to be awarded are: 1,082 bachelor’s, 499 master’s, 23 sixth-year certificates, and 39 doctorates.

This year's speaker at the undergraduate ceremony will be Robert D. Manfred Jr., attorney and business executive; and current commissioner of Major League Baseball (MLB). The graduate ceremony speaker will be Allison Joy Rivera, president of Saint Martin de Porres Academy in New Haven, a tuition-free independent Catholic middle school based on the Jesuit Nativity School model.

Honorary degrees will also be bestowed upon two recipients: Carl F. Bailey Jr. ’75 and Nicole Hockley

Bailey is the president and founder of Bailey & Beatty Financial Services and founder of Danbury Grassroots Academy, a free, year-round program focusing on education, character, tennis, and health. He has also been leading cleft palate surgical mission trips to Nicaragua and Bolivia over the past 14 years — performing more than 1,200 cleft reconstructive surgeries. 

Hockley is the co-founder and CEO of Sandy Hook Promise, which aims to educate and empower youth and adults to prevent violence in schools, homes, and communities. Sandy Hook Promise is a national nonprofit organization founded in honor of the 20 first-graders and six educators killed during in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting tragedy — including Hockley’s son, Dylan.

For more information about Fairfield University and the 72nd Commencement ceremonies, Visit Fairfield.edu/commencement.

Posted On: May 12, 2022

Volume: 53 Number: 88

Fairfield University is the modern Jesuit University, rooted in one of the world’s oldest intellectual and spiritual traditions. More than 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students from 36 states, 47 foreign countries, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are enrolled in the University’s five schools. In the spirit of rigorous and sympathetic inquiry into all dimensions of human experience, Fairfield welcomes students from diverse backgrounds to share ideas and engage in open conversations. The University is located in the heart of a region where the future takes shape, on a stunning campus on the Connecticut coast just an hour from New York City.